Becoming Friends with Chaos by Angel A. James
Fiction , Poetry / March 27, 2022

A heartfelt, witty, and deeply personal poetic homage to Bob Dylan, this collection explores the enduring influence of one of America’s great musical storytellers. Blending humor, memory, cultural observation, and genuine affection, the poems draw inspiration not only from Dylan’s songs and lyrics, but from the spirit of reinvention that has defined his work for generations. Beginning with a childhood encounter with Dylan’s music and following that influence through family, friendship, music, and the strange events of 2020, the collection is as much a memoir of becoming a lifelong listener as it is a tribute to Dylan himself. Some poems directly engage with Dylan’s songs, while others simply wander into the territory he has helped make familiar: the absurd, the political, the personal, the mysterious, and the beautifully unresolved. For anyone who has ever discovered a song that became part of their life, these poems offer a new home for old words—and an invitation to hear Bob Dylan’s music, and perhaps the world itself, a little differently.