Something missing - I liked it but didn't like it enough to go through the pain of highlighting or encapsulating the stanzas in my heart. However, as it progresses, there is some brilliant writing that completely won me over but with the really good came the really bad as well - something that made me wonder why the piece was included in the collection at all? Perhaps change a person's mind to give the book one less star.

I can't say though that this is my absolute opinion regarding this book since I only read half of it.

I was hesitant to pick up a book about experimental poetry particularly after reading the author's biography in the back of the book, but it wasn't as bad as I feared. There were a handful of hits and quite a few misses, but what prevented me from enjoying this collection was the monotony of the poems' shapes.

Send is a collection of poetry that focuses on the many different forms of communication that we have in our world today. With the plethora ways we have to access each other these days, I felt like this would be very interesting and topical book of poems. But, though there were a few poems that did stand out to me, overall, I did not end up enjoying this particular collection. Every poet has their own style, and there is so much room for creativity in this form of writing. Because of this, not every style is going to click with every reader, and Capilongo’s style was just not for me.

Each poem in this collection is relatively short, which I found to be a good reflection of our condensed communications with one another over text, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. Many are written using stream of consciousness, which is yet another hallmark of communication these days.

Capilongo touches on the jumble of thoughts we throw out into cyberspace, sometimes in a rather narcissistic way, and how technology can completely take over every action, every moment of our lives. He tells a relatable story in a very abstract format. And while all of this was quite entertaining, the majority of this collection just fell a bit flat for me. Personally, I found that a large portion of this poetry felt more like a random jumble of words, rather than a meaningful message. These poems did not click with me—they felt far too disjointed and at times unintelligible.

I didn't like this book, but I don't feel like that is the fault of the book. I do like prose poetry, but I did find this one particularly difficult to understand.
However, I don't think this will put me off of reading a book by the same author in the future. I think there was a miscommunication somewhere in the writing to the reader, but I did enjoy the fluidity and beauty in the words.

3.5 stars

These poems are focused on the quickly changing modes of communication, between the generations, between people, how even cursive may soon cease to have a shared meaning. The poems are short and often contain only one complete thought, some play with language and form.

My favorites:

city
"...church of exhalations..."
"this city is a molasses of whispers...."

answer
"when I first wrote this sentence he was an-
swering his telephone and now his cellular
phone his cellphone his flip phone and now
his smart phone his text message his text his
twitter feed face book and now his facetime
his skype his snapchat and now his watch
and now"

curses

send
"...can you hear this over the static of the
moon? this satellite of caresses. move the antennae
of this love affair to pick up a new channel, a missed
call...."

phone call
"...and still your
whispered silence
the way you end sentences
I can see you
still"

touchscreen skin
"our fingers become tongues...."

All styles and forms of direct and round about communication is the theme of “Send”—an engaging and highly entertaining collection of story verse and alternative poetry. Domenico Capilongo’s award winning writing and poetry has been featured in several notable Canadian publications, he teaches creative writing in high school, and lives in Toronto.

The introductory poem, “book” lets the reader imagine what it would be like to find a book left by an anonymous person in a public park—as a surprise, or RAK (random act of kindness). The red rotary phone on the cover of the book is a hint of fun poetry that highlights our ways of talking to each other whether in the past by snail mail, “payphone” – “the last smoke signal” – “drum message” – “middle age morse code” – “two cans on a string” of play time in childhood. In modern society means of connection and communication via computer, internet, and cellphones. Online dating is covered briefly, with the introductions to new friends and lovers: “twitter love” – “telesexgram” – “email dating spam” – “love long distance” of different online personality traits. The unusual words, wording, or things said, things not said or just plain gibberish: “la di da” or (a message for my computer).

Another theme not discussed or often avoided is found in “my curse tablet”. According to National Geographic News avenging spells were placed on those who committed “misdeeds” usually related to theft of money, other personal property including animals. Proper etiquette is highlighted in “57 ways to sign off an email according to forbes” and The Gentleman’s Book of Etiquette 1860 advises to “guard against vulgar language”. Capilongo has a very interesting perspective and writes more about ordinary life in a fun and amusing way in this well done poetry collection. ~ Special thanks to Guernica Editions via NetGalley for the direct digital copy for the purpose of review.

I'm not sure if it was just my version, or if it was how the book is meant to be, but the set out of this book was so hard to read and in all, made the book a lot harder to understand. The poetry in this book is already abstract so I feel as though the book would have benifited if the set out was easy to decipher.

This book had a lot of potential. The first half of the book was hard to understand and I think with a bit more editing it could have exceeded expectations. Sadly that was not the case. The second half of the book was, in my opinion, just a bunch of words and I feel like it didn't serve any purpose or add any meaning to the book. In fact, if the second half of the book wasn't in there, it would improve the sharpness and the intensity of the book.

This was an okay collection. There was a lot that was either in a different language or in morse code or text message format. I didn't particularly enjoy any of the poems as much as I have liked other collections. This is very abstract so this may not be the best place to start if you are just starting to read poetry

Wi-fi binary coded pheromones of skyped striptease.
~online dating

Send by Domenico Capilongo is the writer’s second collection of poetry. Capilongo lives with his family in Toronto, where he teaches alternative education and karate. He has had work published in Descant, The New Quarterly, Dreamcatcher, and Geist. His first book of poetry, I thought elvis was italian, came out in 2008 from Wolsak & Wynn.

Send is an interesting mix of stream of conscious commentary on the new electronic age filled with alliteration and chaos. We live our modern lives surrounded by “veins web and connect a turning century of marketplaces to the smooth epidermis of suburban front lawns.” Capilongo brings insight to the reader from what we see or experience daily from the man talking on his phone in the public restroom to how to get to Sesame Street (GPS, of course). Language is paid tribute from smoke signals, cans connected by a string, proper email closings, curious words, and dead languages. “After rob ford” written in English, translated into Latin, and translated back into English as an experiment in language or simply playing with Google translate which on a good day can help one communicate with a foreign writer in something resembling childlike grammar.

A good but very narrow collection