A Year Alone Inside of Woodland Pattern

Author: Peter Burzyński Publisher: Adjunct Press (2022) "This book is the fulfillment of a long promise. About twenty years ago, Peter Burzyński began giving readings at Woodland Pattern. We eagerly looked forward to his participation in the annual marathon, a mounting recollection of years. He used the store in a way that only a select few used it, as a reading means of education, to develop his vision and writing. When he finally came to work at Woodland Pattern he was fired with a generous enthusiasm (‘it’s like an organized mess / of retired trees’) and an imagination vividly displayed in this book which comes after a pandemic year of isolation in the store. A consequential year! And excruciating, costly. Yet Burzyński’s eye is light, and nearly jovial, recording things as various as proposed (and ironic) pick up lines, homages and such lines as these: ‘The pandemic’s cruel spittle / is unleashed / and the bookstore closes / for browsing.’ ‘Well, I’m not always alone. / Sometime