rev. of No Planets Strike by Josh Bell

No Planets Strike, poems by Josh Bell (Zoo): The network of motifs in Josh Bell’s debut volume, No Planets Strike, create as intricate a system as the roads, tunnels, and bridges that comprise the transportation systems of major metropolitan cities, allowing the reader to traverse the speaker’s psyche at dizzying, gratifying speeds. This is not a book for the agoraphobic, the acrophobic, or the erotophobic: Bell’s fierceness of wit, his deft lyricism, his ability to swing adroitly between dictions high and low, combine to create a world that is savage and irreverent, yet fraught with longings spiritual and corporeal. One senses the engaged presence of the poet throughout this book, as the consequences of love gone bad accumulate like the wreckage of a freeway pile-up during rush hour.