Four Nose Jobs a Day: Poems

"Banhart approaches somber themes with whimsy... his work expounds on a crucial tenet of queerness: liberation in lightness and in unabashed optimism. Funny and enduringly weird. " —PITCHFORKLike Devendra Banhart’s music and visual art, his poetry appears at the convergence of humor and sorrow, tragedy and joy. With Four Nose Jobs A Day, Banhart’s second collection, the poet explores matters of the heart and soul through an absurdist lens both sly and compassionate. As the opening lines of the collection alert us, Banhart loves “a Love Poem/One that reads/Like Blackberries/On a wooden cup”. With iconoclastic verve, Banhart builds small, often silly paths of poetic language that lead to meaningful conclusions: “Poetry is when/the dead end/Starts to go somewhere” Like professional musicians constantly on tour, Banhart reminds us that we, the readers, have countless places to visit both in the world around us, and inside ourselves—whether these places resonate and register is up to us, not the places. The poems of Four Nose Jobs A Day break the surface of reality, small bubbles of insight. Sometimes there is laughter in the face of absurdity; consolation for grief or despair; and sometimes there is simply gratitude. “What an Honor,” the poet reminds us, “To have emotions/Any of them.” Read more