Notebook 19

New York Times best-selling author Greg Palast on Notebook 19Bernstein’s diagnosis:we are ALL infected.The six feet of anti-social distancing, the masks that take away faces, virtual work which is just a kind of prison labor. Bernstein captures in his eye-camera the images of an epidemic of cruel aloneness, the suspicious faces standing in line at the cash machine, a mother who could be her child’s assassin. This is life inside a glove: There is a kiss but no lips. …Touch has no say in this.And, as the poet slyly hints throughout: the villain isn’t always Covid.Praise for Dennis J. Bernstein’s earlier poetryFIVE OCEANS IN A TEASPOONFive Oceans in a Teaspoon is an engaging masterwork of poetic visualization that has only a handful of precedents in literary and design history.Johanna DruckerLos Angeles Review of BooksFive Oceans in a Teaspoon re-envisions a poetry memoir via a textual kaleidoscope. Bernstein and Lehrer are the Rodgers and Hart of Visual Poetry.Bob HolmanPoet, poetry activist and chronicler, founder: Bowery Poetry ClubThe gutsiness and raw emotion of the writing, revelatory appeal of the visual compositions, and brevity of the form creates an intensely moving, experiential journey.Steven HellerDesign and visual culture historian, columnist, author of over 180 booksSPECIAL ED: VOICES FROM A HIDDEN CLASSROOMDennis J. Bernstein is a hero to me because of his dedicated, unflinching reporting of real news... But his fearless pursuit of the truth about what is happening in our rapidly transforming world did not prepare me for the beauty, depth, not-one-word-mislaid perception of this amazing book. Each word, each line, each thought has a weight, a texture, a surprise all its own.Alice WalkerPulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple Read more