Among the Newly Fallen

AMONG THE NEWLY FALLEN is a forty-six page open-field poem by San Antonio poet BILL SHUTE, composed in Oklahoma in the Summer of 2018. Shute's work is rooted in the post-Projective Verse poetics of Blackburn, Berrigan, and Eigner, but completely his own. The title of one of his spoken-word poetry albums sums up his approach: Junk Sculpture From The New Gilded Age. The poetry echoes his work with such avant-garde musician-composers as Derek Rogers, Marcus Rubio (aka More Eaze) and Alfred 23 Harth, while being steeped in the culture and particulars of Cleveland County, Oklahoma, where the poems were composed. The book's epigraphs come from composer Morton Feldman, "silence is my substitute for counterpoint," and from poet Ed Dorn, whose work the title of this poem references.