Bill Yarrow

In his latest collection, accelerant, Bill Yarrow bears witness to nature's and mankind's fierce wiles. But Yarrow never forgets to be poetic, nor does he skimp on his trademark zaniness. While most poets opt for serenity, Yarrow opines that "the only chance for happiness / is to excommunicate all calm." By eschewing tameness for his unique brand of mayhem, Yarrow does exactly what poets should do: speaks his mind and throws caution to the wind.-- Cindy Hochman, author of Habeas Corpus

"One person fills eternity," writes Bill Yarrow in his new book Against Prompts. By turns hilarious, argumentative, ekphrastic, surreal, and sublime, the volume itself seems to fill eternity, deploying all the protean rhetorical resources of poetry as an art-which would make Yarrow himself a kind of wisecracking Proteus, as nimble and variable as the god himself. Like Georges Perec or Borges before him, Yarrow invites his readers to ask the big questions about poetry, indeed creativity, in general: what is it? and how can it achieve the fullness of freedom? In the provocative essay that names and closes the book, Yarrow offers his answer, vigorously defending the autonomy of the imagination against prompts, "the cancer of creativity." Agree or disagree, Yarrow's work multiplies the possibilities of the art, radically so: like Elizabeth Bishop's sandpiper, one contemplates eternity in this book. -Toby Altman, author of Arcadia, Indiana With Against Prompts, Bill Yarrow presents all the reasons this fiction writer starts her mornings with poetry. Nowhere else can one absorb such unabashed lust for language, passion for playfulness, and a yen for experimentation than in these meaty and irresistible pages. In his signature style that juxtaposes the accessible and erudite, Yarrow showcases his extensive range with poems formal and form defiant, found and discovered, nostalgic and provocative, urgent and cool. Prepare to play Boggle with Robert Lowell's mind, laugh out loud at "Free Blurbs," get drunk on "Poets Who Thrum," love the living heck out of "Liking in The Scarlet Letter," then fire up your inner bard by repurposing his lines into a cut-up of your own-or better yet, a madcap Mad-libs villanelle. -Sara Lippmann, author of Doll Palace: Stories I don't like blurbs. Piled on the back of a book, they cut the designer's space in half and make me feel like I'm trapped on a Missouri interstate wishing I could tear the damn billboards down and enjoy the scenery. I accepted Bill's prompt to blurb Against Prompts as a public service, plotting to occupy space that might otherwise be filled with generic praise from someone who hadn't read the book. I have. You should. Start with the manifesto, ignore the trigger warning, and play it backwards like heavy metal on vinyl. If you weren't wasting time here, you could be halfway through the book's eightfold path, contemplating the Renaissance face of Edith Sitwell and closing in on the title page. You might have already discovered the hidden message. It's not too late. Go. Now. Let a hundred flowers bloom. -Steven Schroeder, Virtual Artists Ccollective Bill Yarrow is a proponent-and practitioner-of curiosity, creativity and originality in all he does. His poems are powerful testaments to his belief that every person's experience is valuable and unique, that every person's life song should be heard. Against Prompts is a master class in verse. This is the only text a creative writing student needs. -Micha Lev, author of Yordim

"from Smoke" is a 2015 poetry and prose collection book from Scars Publications (http: //scars.tv) of the July through December 2015 issues of cc&d magazine (http: //scars.tv/ccd). Writers and artists included in this book are Janet Kuypers, Aaron Wilder (with art), Andrew J. Hogan, Andy Roberts, Bill Yarrow, Bob Rashkow, Bob Strother, Brian Forrest (with art), Brian Looney, Bruce Costello, CEE, Charles Hayes, Chen Okafor, Cheryl Townsend (with art), Chris Roe, Christopher Davis, David Hernandez, David J. Thompson (with art), David Michael Jackson (with art), David Russell (with art), Dean Jones, Dennis Delrow, DG Mago, Donald Gaither, Doug Draime, Dr. (Ms.) Michael S. Whitt, Dr. Shmooz (with art), Drew Marshall, Edward Michael O'Durr Supranowicz (story and art), Edward Michael O'Durr Supranowicz (with art), Elizabeth Harper, Eric Allen Yankee, Eric Bonholtzer (with art), Eric Burbridge, Frank C. Praeger, Fritz Hamilton, G. A. Scheinoha, I. B. Rad, Jackie Wolk, Jay Frankston, Jenene Ravesloot, Jesse Williams, John Amendall, John Grey, Keith Kelly, Kyle Hemmings (with art), L. Payne, Liam Spencer, Linda Griffin, Linda M. Crate, Lisa Gray, Luis Cuauht moc Berriozabal, Luis Martinez, Margaret Karmazin & Janet Amalia Weinberg, Maria Carroll, Maura Gage Cavell, MCD, Micah White, Michael Ceraolo, Michael Lee Johnson, Mike Ducak, Natasha Cabot, Nora McDonald, Oz Hardwick, Patrick Fealey, Peter LaBerge (with art), Phil Temples, Preston R. P., R. N. Taber, Richard King Perkins II, Ronald Charles Epstein, Sarah Szabo, Sheryl L. Nelms, Spencer Pearman, Steve Slavin, the HA Man of South Africa (with art), Traci Lavois Thiebaud, Uzeyir Lokman CAYCI (with art), William Jablonsky, and Xanadu.

Bill Yarrow is the author of Pointed Sentences (BlazeVOX, 2012) and Incompetent Translations and Inept Haiku (Červen Barva Press, 2013). His poems have appeared in many print and online magazines including Treehouse, Contrary, RHINO, PANK, and DIAGRAM.