LIST FULL heralds a new appreciation for the neglected & belittled list as literature. The book documents many aspects of my life from the personal to the organizational, from the demographic to found lists rescued from waste baskets of people close to me. From the humorous to the throw-away to the tragic.
The Lists in LLIST FULL are short, framed mini-memoirs, a portal into obsession and the need to make lists in a world that seems to overwhelm us. I call them Household Haikus of Necessary Orderliness in a world of hyper-exposed data, over-purposed texts, hyperbolic narratives & vulnerable people. We all make lists. Lists go way back — The 10 Commandments, ferchrissake! – & are currently all the rage. On internet, Trendy Top Tens, Top 3 Fails/Snogs/Apps/Cats – any & every subject. But they serve less as insight into our zeitgeist than as clickbait to monetize obsession. Top 5 lists float across your screen daily, mainly as entertainment distractives. Other lists like to-do, grocery, bucket or birthday offer comfort by framing our increasingly difficult-to-control reality, helping to focus one’s activities so that one is not a headless chicken scurrying through the ominous over-amped day.
LIST FULL: to-do, grocery, found, demographic, personal, appointments, Corona, places lived, candies my mom desired, Near Death Experiences, electrical appliances, household annoyances, summer things to do, attic treasure, Man’s Adventure story titles, track meet results, fave albums 1980, cars owned, Gang of 4 Setlist, Yoko Ono references in my writing, books read 1984, self-improvement, reminders, absurd statements by Morgan Stanley employees, beach party prep, Daily News Headlines, sweatshirt haiku, interesting recipes, beer drinking songs, Yodelers with weird nicknames, drugs my mother took, found list of a female artist, anti-war songs, names of boats that passed by my window, weird last meals of death row inmates, gun violence videos ...
What poet hasn't written or stolen a list for a poem? What human being hasn't made a list? Plantenga turns this fundamentally human impulse into a kind of autobiography, creating a real tour-de-force of ways to use the list form to create meaning. It is an autobiography incorporating ideas, ideology, guides to beliefs, and personal psychology. The lists reveal personality, include social commentary and beefs; there are lists of deep importance and lists of the trivia of daily life. Some of them seem to have been written, often with excruciating detail, just for the arbitrary thrill of listing something, while others seem to be found lists by anonymous others. The variety of formal devices used in these lists is extraordinary. One of my favorites is List from a Lost Surrealist, which includes the instruction to “fondle naked manikin on street”. In short, LIST FULL is an essential book for anyone even thinking about writing a list poem, or even just a list of groceries.
• John M. Bennett is a poet, artist, editor, publisher, and founder of Luna Bisonte Prods.
