‘ Monster’ is one of the most emotionally engaging pieces which sees Francisco confront rapists and their mindsets. Controversial in nature but overall harmless. One of the strongest poems in the book was ‘ How to Look Like a Stalker’, which presents a parody of how one might go about stalking someone. However, looking past these, this collection is a solid entry into the world of poetry. Whilst the latter may have been a use of “artistic license”, it was done to no benefit. There were numerous spelling mistakes in the pieces that took away from the magic Francisco weaves and, in some cases, entire words were missing. Something that let down the publication as a whole was the lack of professionalism.
This is best done when he tells his brain: ‘You’re such a good listener/but you give terrible relationship advice’ – a concept I’m sure many readers can relate to. Each of these is either an apology or a warning written to make himself a better man. The fourth poem, ‘ The Body’, sees Francisco write individual, personalised letters to different parts of himself.
Through this piece you are introduced to a commentary on “macho” men: ‘I believe masculinity is a wet fish that most men are just/trying to hold onto’. One of the first entries, ‘ A Few Things I Believe’, was an interesting insight into Francisco’s mind. Featuring sixteen poems, some of which I’d heard read aloud, I was excited to get into this very short but intriguing collection. I was surprised that he only has one, Getting Stitches, published in January of last year. Having spent over a year mesmerised by this poet’s command of the English language I decided to try and find out if he had any published works. Rudy Francisco is someone that can bring the art of poetry slam into the public eye and gain the recognition it deserves through sites like Youtube. Poetry is no different in this sense with the rise in popularity of the spoken word. In a world where physical books are becoming less and less popular we have turned towards technology to read and explore the limits of our language. Alex Webb guides us through Getting Stitches, the first published collection from super talented San Diego-born slam poet/spoken word artist, Rudy Francisco…
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