I’ve been enjoying Jon Paul Fiorentino since his release of Transcona Fragments, a great collection about his youth in the suburban community of Transcona - a small railway town that has been stitched to the city of Winnipeg

His most recent work “is a book of synaptic syntax entitled Hello Serotonin (Coach House Books, 2004). The metaphors contained herein purportedly reenact the nature of neural activity. Indeed, there are flashes of synaptic brilliance.

On the advice of Jon Paul Fiorentino, Poety MD, I took the recommended dosage of one copy of Hello Serotonin and further medicated myself with 3/5’s of scotch.

The problem with over the counter serotonin taken orally is that it does not pass into the pathways of the brain. This is due to the blood-brain barrier preventing serotonin in the blood stream from affecting serotonin levels in the brain.

However, these poems, in my non-clinical trials, solve this problem; they are capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier.

While the efficacy of these poems on depression may be called into question — the mode of action of these flashes of lyrical brilliance on their direct target is nonetheless powerful

This selection from Hello Serotonin also appears in the Muse Apprentice Guild’s Second Anniversary Issue, August, 2004:

p r a i r i e LIT

Piles of hometrips.
Strips of mallkids.
Dreams of sleeptext.
Miles of phonesleet.
Steads of fencedhope.
Drips of graindrain.
Sheets of inkstrain.
Streets of wheatlash.
Sinks of draindrought.
Drafts of litwaste.
Fits of lispdraft.
Tastes of christdust.
Weeks of seedspite.
Maps of frostnode.
Wisps of glasstrips.
Trips of streetdrift.
Homes of angstsong.

Fiorentino’s currently working on Post-Prairie - a collaborative effort with Robert Kroetsch (Talonbooks, 2005). I wholeheartedly recommend Fiorentino’s prescription, and remind the reader that a nice 12 year old scotch won’t heart, either.

Check out Fiorentino’s website. Complete with ordering information.