Fish Singing Foxes

Fish Singing Foxes is two books in one. Half of the book is an exploration of Gacelas, a series of poems that Federico Garcia Lorca wrote with a then modern take on Ghazals. Dancing Bear advances the form with ghazel-like leaps of imagery and recurring themes. He uses the form to navigate a modern world of consumerism, social apathy and over-hype. The rhythms and repetitions draw the reader to join and lend their voice to the work. The other half of the book, experiments with form by creating a new series of poems that use a single line from a contemporary poet’s poem to create a new poem. Once again, Dancing Bear displays a mastery of words to which he can grow images using a single grafted branch while also paying homage to the original poem and author, while maintaining a level of gravitas coupled with whimsy. Throughout Fish Singing Foxes, Dancing Bear injects a sharp sense of humor that knows both the borders of playfulness and gallows’ humor. He presents two very different forms that reveal his revelry of language and image.