Agostino Scafidi's Fancy Pants Poetry

The title of Agostino Scafidi's collection of poems reminds me highly of a personal favorite Sam Raimi horror-comedy film---Army of Darkness (Evil Dead 3) where Ash Williams mocks Duke Henry the Red  as "Mr. Fancypants." This is the reason why (additional to the author's kind request for this review) I gave this collection a shot. It's a short book to begin with and given the free time, I was looking for a hidden gem inside this Fancy Pants Poetry and luckily, I have found more than one.   

I like the in-your-face simplicity of "Roger, Yankee, Foxtrot" and the visuals of "A Place To Go." I like the mystery of "Secrets" and the cliched darkness of "Master of the Abyss," the realism of "Survival And Looks" and "Do It." The inevitability that sacrifice is liberating is indeed true. In "Let's Be Irrational," the author laments about the perils of honesty. But if honesty is hated, so does lying but his disdain of honesty's repercussions is at least, genuine. Everybody feels it especially if you're living in this 21st Century. "Drive Away Fast" is very common theme popularized by Jack Kerouac. These things I mentioned are gems with sure value.

The best kind of poetry is less like something that is operated and dissected inside the "writing lab" of an English Lit Major. Real poetry is more on something that is being experienced by a common person, crossing cultures and boundaries. This one is a good experience. By reading the short passages, you can conjure a world of your own, a story not far from what the author is trying to say no matter what the literary technique is being used.

We have been told many times that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As a piece of expression and a work of art, that remains the magic of poetry. The author may write a short collection of verses, but a world of meaning can be created depending on the one who reads it. If that created world has no meaning, the author simply failed. This one though, is the author's success representative of 21st Century poetry. But it's just my opinion.

"Well, hello Mr Fancypants..."

Genre: Poetry
Rating: Three and a half sharks among whales

For more of the author's works, check here: http://agostinoscafidi.bigcartel.com/