Ian Ganassi: Mean Numbers

Ian Ganassi

Mean Numbers

Publisher: China Grove Press / IsoLibris Publishing

Publication date: 2016

Format: Paperback

Dimensions: 9 x 6 x .32 inches

Pages: 128

Language: English

Signed First Edition

ISBN-13: 9781944106089

The dominant techniques in the works of poet Ian Ganassi are collage and improvisation. The main source of collage material is lines from abandoned poems; other lines are taken from overheard conversation, his own reading, and some simply come to him. Improvisation weaves them together. Collage and improvisation are also central to the ongoing collaborative collage/assemblage project "The Corpses” (named for the Surrealist parlor game Exquisite Corpse) that Ian has long worked on with painter Laura Bell. The cover images of both of Ian's collections, Mean Numbers and True for the Moment, are works from the series. Ian’s poems are written in a wide variety of forms—from free verse to traditional forms to odd stanza forms and refrain patterns he has invented. None of these elements, however, fully characterize the variety of his work - he has engineered his own labyrinth. (Selections from "The Corpses" can be found under "Collages & Combines.")