The Museum of Capitalism by Norman Fischer

(Talisman 2021)

Norman Fischer’s The Museum of Capitalism is a series of thinking-meditations, poems strung out in short and long run-on lines. The tangibles—striking images or love itself—punctuate the thought-stream and we stand still for a moment with awe and appreciation, but then as fast as the image appears, it begins to dissolve, the ideas splitting apart, the words pushing us toward what feels like finality.  But then we find ourselves still here, with Norman, “out flapping in a field in a field like a flag / in the wind—” In the field of the poem, in the field of the poets, over time and space, Fischer connects with and continues the poetic projects of Whalen, Wllliams, Berssenbrugge  and others.  Sometimes he’s funny, often philosophical and even at times biblical, but to enter the field of these poems is over and over again to come to an appreciation of our lives and to take a deep breath and simply be here now.