{"product_id":"9781732609808","title":"Gawdzilla","description":"A poetry collection called Gawdzilla has 50+ poems that look at race, marriage, family, abortion, and other social changes that have occurred in the time frame of the Godzilla horror movie series. The first poem occurs in 1954 when the movie and the Supreme Court decision on school integration, Brown v. Bd. of Ed, Topeka, Ks., occur simultaneously. The author uses free verse, haiku, tercets, soliloquies, dramatic monologues, found poems, and prose poems to view racism, oppression, sexism, homelessness, body dismorphia, immigration, and capitalism as events often disguised or thought dead or dying. However, like the movie monster that resurrects in movie after movie, sometimes twice in a decade, systemic societal evils all too often merely change form or appear dormant while continuing to enormously impact daily lives. The poet utilizes public figures, including Lizzo, Richard Nixon, the Kardashians, Huey Newton, Rick James, Dave Chappelle, and Trayvon Martin, to show the contradictions and conflicts in society. A central theme is the questioning of an insensitive God, especially to those in distress, including a bedraggled, homeless Jesus. Throughout the book, the spelling moves from the capitalization of the deity to a lower case deity to the title's changed spelling. Somber and anguished tones are interspersed with humor, sarcasm, ridicule, and surprise as the poems expose Godzilla\/Gawdzilla in the least expected places. Poems have titles like \"swimming towards godzilla, swimming from godzilla\" (fleeing refugees), \"lizzo fights godzilla\" (body\/weight), \"when godzilla booted nixon out of the oval office\" (the 1970s), \"Barney, the gawdzilla-training toy,\" \"gawdzilla births female orangutans\"(Kardashians), \"a prayer to godzilla,\" and \"return of godzilla.\" The poems play with language while they use a variety of narrative voices. An aborted baby wails \"I coulda been a contender, a half-baby quarter-baby...\"). The images show classism in society and mirror the contradictions that have come to define cities like San Francisco: \"scruffy agrarian in beat up van\/ubers drop off the flush big tippers\/in polo ralph lauren.\"The poems, altogether, tell of the monstrosities created by a society driven by the profit motive.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e• \u003cb\u003eAuthor: \u003c\/b\u003eJudy Juanita\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e• \u003cb\u003ePublisher: \u003c\/b\u003eEquidistance Press\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e• \u003cb\u003ePublication Date: \u003c\/b\u003eNov 19, 2022\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e• \u003cb\u003eNumber of Pages: \u003c\/b\u003e90 pages\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e• \u003cb\u003eLanguage: \u003c\/b\u003eEnglish\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e• \u003cb\u003eBinding: \u003c\/b\u003ePaperback\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e• \u003cb\u003eISBN-10: \u003c\/b\u003e1732609802\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e• \u003cb\u003eISBN-13: \u003c\/b\u003e9781732609808\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Equidistance Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50320324264241,"sku":"9781732609808","price":12.45,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0798\/8215\/8385\/files\/9781732609808__98474.jpg?v=1731978758","url":"https:\/\/www.recomparo.com\/products\/9781732609808","provider":"ReComparo.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}