Review - No One Can Do Anything Worse To You Than You Can by Sam Pink

No One Can Do Anything Worse to You Than You Can

The author offer this synopsis:

Why is it that we're always afraid of our ankles getting grabbed by a hand coming out of the gutter? And why will our lives be completely fulfilled when we look down one day and notice we're wearing underwear made out of a brown paper bag?
Thankfully, you don't have to think about any of that because in his second collection of poetry, Sam Pink has done the work for you.
You will see a crowd of people in your head and the crowd will point at you and say, "Ewww." You will hang yourself from the ceiling with a hook though your bottom jaw. You will feel at home eating your own heart off a commemorative plate featuring a picture of your corpse.
You won't learn anything except that, "No one can do anything to you that's worse than what you're already thought to yourself. No one can do anything worse to you than the things you've already done. No one can do anything worse to you than you can."


This is a collection of four long poems: The Midwest, You Hear Ambulance Sounds and Think They Are For You, Human Beings Are Toys and A Shield Made of Napkins.

I see them as incredible pieces of literature or a turned out bag of mess. For me it's really hard to distinguish. There are some moments in the four pieces I can ease back and emphatically pump my fist in agreement and congratulations of Sam Pink's genius. Then there are moments where I wonder if I had just happened upon a public release of Pink's bizarre and wickedly filthy stream of consciousness. Some of this stuff is out there, man. It's as if Pink has forsaken his quest to convey any meaning or structure. I am assuming that is Pink's goal in the first place. He might be laughing at us all for praising him for his works and all along he knows it is a pile of sick.

But that alone is what attracts me to the bizarro literary world where Sam Pink is a resident. It challenges the rules of society and its norms, morals and even its prejudices. It's an interesting and challenging book of poetry. 

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