The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

The poems in "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters" were written in the poet's youth at the beginning of his experiments and poetic explorations. With sheer lyrical madness, poets such as Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, T S Eliot, Ezra Pound, WB Yeats, Samuel Beckett, Dylan Thomas, Anthony Burgess, Thomas Merton, Eugenio Montale and Leonard Cohen haunt the poet's inner life in "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters". They are often approximations of earlier works, translations or transliterations of dead poets. At other times, in daring homage or tribute, the poems interrogate each other, or interact and strive to get at their hidden truths. Some of the pieces, in different forms, have appeared in various magazines and collections. The entire work is a kind of "poet's notebook," with the whimsical play of "condemned poems," from which many new poems were derived, worked on, and developed over the years. Anthony Labriola's work has appeared in The Canadian Forum, PRISM international, Vallum: Contemporary Poetry, Stone Voices, Still Point Arts Quarterly, Passion: Poetry, and The Colours of Saying. His poetry collections include The Rigged Universe (Shanti Arts Publishing), Sun Dogs (Battered Suitcase Press), Invisible Mending (Anaphora Literary Press), and The Blessing of the Bikes & Other Life Cycles (Anaphora Literary Press). His published prose works include Devouring the Artist (Anaphora Literary Press), The Pros & Cons of Dragon-Slaying (Anaphora Literary Press) and Poor Love & Other Stories (Anaphora Literary Press). The Japanese Waltzing Mouse & Other Tales (Cranberry Tree Press) appeared in August 2016. He lives in Toronto with his family. He studied at the University of Toronto and received a B. A. in English and French, a B. Ed. in English and Dramatic Arts, and an M. A. from the Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama. He taught English, Drama and Performing Arts for 32 years. Then went on to teach Life Writing at Seneca College in Toronto, Ontario.