Marcus Colasurdo is the author of eleven books, including the underground classic novel, Angel City Taxi. Over the years, he has worked as a bartender, boom microphone operator, waiter, taxicab driver, factory worker, Job Corps counselor, farmworker, journalist, laborer, teacher and more. His explorations have taken him across the length and breadth of the U.S., a significant part of it achieved through the lost art of hitchhiking. As a writer for the page and stage, Mr. Colasurdo is the founder of Gimme Shelter Productions, a nonprofit organization of artists whose performances benefit homeless shelters, feeding programs, and other worthy causes. More recently, Mr. Colasurdo helped found Soul Kitchens in Baltimore, MD, and Hazelton, PA, which provide free meals to those who need them with the goal of culinary panache and deep-rooted nourishment for all. He hails from the anthracite coal country of Pennsylvania.
Heart X-rays: A Modern Epic Poem
SKU: 9781629635132
Author: G.H. Mosson and Marcus Colasurdo
Publisher: PM Press
ISBN: 9781629635132
Published: 05/2018 and 01/2019 (second printing)
Format: Pamphlet, ePub, PDF, mobi
Size: 5.5 x 8.5
Page count: 32
Subjects: Poetry/Political Activism
Praise
“I think more highly of Heart X-rays now in my eighty-fourth year than I thought of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl
when I heard him read it in 1956. Colasurdo and Mosson, in a
demonstration of democratic commitment making no distinction as to who
wrote which poem, reveal to us the cutting edge, the real news of our
society as opposed to the white noise of our society which we call news
in our surrender to corporate myth-making.”
—Djelloul Marbrook, JMWW Journal
“Banksy?
Pussy Riot? They are somewhat maverick artists, outside the official
approved culture by the oligarchies. They go or have gone incognito
throughout the streets of the world. The authorities don’t like wry
comments on public buildings, or guitar slashes with revolutionary
rhetoric, and especially not by women. This book of poetry is certainly
kin to those artists. It has a bit of Whitman in its best.”
—Dan Cuddy, the Loch Raven Review
“Marcus Colasurdo has been both an artist and an activist worth
following for years. It is with absolute excitement that I look to see
nature and humanity in its raw and wildly beautiful aspect in his new
work. Marcus is a modern-day spiritual humanist Walt Whitman with a
beatnik’s eye for the beauty in darkness.”
—Carla Christopher, poet laureate emeritus of York, PA
“G.H. Mosson is a unique nature poet as well as antiwar beacon and poetry activist.”
—Antler, author of Factory and poet laureate emeritus of Milwaukee, WI
“One way we understand poetry is by what is left with us—an aftermath—I cannot get these poems out of my mind.”
—Grace Cavalieri, host of The Poet and the Poem on Questions of Fire by G.H. Mosson
“Marcus Colasurdo’s organization of socially conscious artists is
well known for their collective benefit performances, raising funds and
awareness for organizations that work with poor, needy, incarcerated,
and homeless folks. The energy that Marcus inspires through his singular
vision of art and community service is unlike anything I’ve witnessed
before or since.”
—Betty Schulz, Health Care for the Homeless
“The effect is that the anthology ends as a kind of manifesto, a call
to arms for its readers and for societies the world over, to remember
history, know not to retrace its tumultuous, bloody path, and create a
better present and future.”
—Lines & Stars Journal on Poems Against War by G.H. Mosson
Book Events
october, 2024
No Events
Reviews
- Heart X-rays: A Modern Epic Poem— A Midwest Book Review
- Heart X-rays: A Modern Epic Poem— A Barrelhouse Review
- Heart X-rays: A Modern Epic Poem— A Loch Raven Review
- Heart X-rays: A Modern Epic Poem: A Review
- A Review of Heart X-Rays: A Modern Epic Poem
Interviews
- Marcus Colasurdo on WVIA Public Media
- Midnight with Marcus Colasurdo: On Poetry and Activism—An Interview