Epic Rites Press Release: CRUDELY MISTAKEN FOR LIFE

Epic Rites Press

"Wolfgang Carstens debuts here with a rock solid collection of poems where you can sense the presence of the viscera under the blood-coated muscle that is the text. And yet the poems are surprisingly gentle and nostalgic sometimes, sometimes angry, sometimes philosophical, sometimes funny. Not so much a traditional anthology of poems as a manifesto and statement of intent combined with a dissertation on life and the sort of things that are deserving in it, love, loyalty, and the forgotten child inside. Poems to read in all seasons, but especially when winter storms howl outside." - David McLean, author of LAUGHING AT FUNERALS

from the inside

he stands in a moon beam
and stares
at me

i try to catch him
but he darts beneath
the unwashed clothes

he disappears
under the floorboards

the cockroach
is like death
scratching
through
these
thin
walls
to
make
his
play
at
the
property

___

uttering of a curse

Steve committed suicide
when he was only eight years old.
Blair took his life ten years later.
Wade did it when he was twenty-one,
after catching his wife in bed
with another man.

my own botched attempt
happened when i was twenty-three and my mind,
like a porcelain vase, dropped and
shattered into fragments on the ground.

now, while playing with my kids at the park
i listen as a mother consoles her child
with the words, "you have your entire life
ahead of you.”  the same words my own mother
used to say to me.
only today i recognize these words
for what they truly are – not words
of encouragement or consolation,
but rather the uttering of a curse.

"Wolf Carstens' poetry reads like cries from the void. He is the master at uncovering old scars and turning them into the raw poetry of all the dark fathers and the primal dreams." - Todd Moore, author of DEAD RECKONING

for art's sake

in 1968,
somewhere on the outskirts
of Wildwood, Alberta,
a large gray Timber wolf
killed a large caribou.

a passing Grizzly bear
thought the caribou looked tasty,
so it chased off the wolf,
buried the kill, and claimed it
as its own. the Grizzly defended
the carcass against two wolverines
that decided to make a play
for the meat.

this is a true story –
the scene is on stuffed display
in the wildlife museum
in Jasper, Alberta.

the only thing missing from the display
is the stuffed corpse of the dumbass hunter
who stumbled upon this small drama of flesh
and murdered everything.

"Watching acme safes fall slowly from the sky… death as random and meaningless as life, only the moment is real so better have that laugh or that orgasm or that shot of life right now… that’s how i felt reading wolfgang carsten’s excellent collection, crudely mistaken for life, and it is actually a quite liberating feeling.” – Puma Perl, author of KNUCKLE TATTOOS

i was daydreaming

when i stumbled
upon the
large Australian
cockroach
on our
driveway

i scooped
it up
in an empty
paper cup
and brought it
inside
the house

i remember
my wife
screaming
bloody murder
before i
had even
showed it
to her

she must have
sensed
its presence

but that's how
it goes...

one night
you're sitting
alone
on the couch
watching TV
when suddenly
bugs arrive
to eat you
up

“CRUDELY MISTAKEN FOR LIFE is a book of poetry that uses darkness to get to the light.  More than that, it is one of those rare books in which the darkness is the light.”  – Tony Moffeit, co-founder of the American Outlaw Poetry Movement

missing in Canada

when i was younger i stuffed some clothes
into a backpack and boarded a Greyhound bus
with a rail pass and no particular destination.

i didn't tell anyone that i was leaving;
i had no intention of returning – i wanted
to disappear.

as the bus carried me across Canada
it stopped in many small prairie towns where
i'd light a cigarette in front of shop windows
and study faces on missing person posters.

once i recognized one of the faces –
it was the photo of a young man
that worked as a cashier in a gas station
in one of the small towns in which we'd stopped.

the man was neither missing nor dead
nor in any kind of distress whatsoever –
in fact he appeared happy and healthy –
apparently the only foul play involved
was his own desire to go missing in Canada.
here is a man much like myself, i thought,
as i entered the shop and put the poster
inside my backpack.
i found out two months later that my ex-girlfriend
was pregnant – so not wanting to be like my own
deadbeat father i jumped on a bus to take me back
home into the city of my birth.

as i passed again through that small prairie town
i entered the gas station, handed the poster
to the young man behind the register and smiled –
“it's too late for me man,” i said, “but for what it's worth
i hope they never fucking find you.”

"Wolfgang Carstens paints elegant images with intense brushes, uncovering the roots of madness, inhumanity and sorrow in his poetry.  there are lines and images as stark as the desert and as delicate as fresh blooms of spring flowers.  Carstens goes places you don't want to follow, but, inevitably you do (and for the better).  this is poetry, rich, full and brimming with life, even that wrought from the darkest corners.” – Jack Henry, author of WITH THE PATIENCE OF MONUMENTS

chipping away

what would've happened,
i wonder, if i'd been a part
of the Napoleonic regiment
of soldiers that stood
in the sands of the Sahara;
and gazed upon the great Sphinx:

would i have embraced the vision
of the mysterious man-beast of Egypt?
or, as is customary with humanity
encountering anything that defies
our understanding,
would i have packed a steel ball
into the barrel of my musket
and taken aim –

just to chip away
at the mystery.

Wolfgang Carstens' crudely mistaken for life is available March 12th, 2010 through Small Press Distribution at www.spdbooks.org or by addressing Small Press Distribution, 1341 Seventh Street, Berkeley, CA,  94710-1409.  Phone  510.524.1668 or 800.869.7553 (Toll-free within the US). E-mail spd@spdbooks.org.  The book will also be available through the Epic Rites website at www.epicrites.org.

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