Craig Martin Getz' 5th collection is a rich seam of poetry which explores ideas of sexuality, ageing, identity, loss and all the places we might call home, "I'd parted one fall from my mother's belly with no promise of ever returning." With his photographer's eye, Getz shows us a "country forever in the throes of a natural &/or biblical disaster". There are dogs dressed up for a parade, flirty waiters, traffic jams and dams. His language is precise, full of a strange knowledge that beguiles the reader, drawing them deeply ...
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Craig Martin Getz' 5th collection is a rich seam of poetry which explores ideas of sexuality, ageing, identity, loss and all the places we might call home, "I'd parted one fall from my mother's belly with no promise of ever returning." With his photographer's eye, Getz shows us a "country forever in the throes of a natural &/or biblical disaster". There are dogs dressed up for a parade, flirty waiters, traffic jams and dams. His language is precise, full of a strange knowledge that beguiles the reader, drawing them deeply into the poems, "my bare feet brush the cheek of a thing called hay".The central poem, "The Miners' Ten Commandments", unites Getz' themes in a glorious, sprawling, epic tour de force which effortlessly encompasses American history, genealogy and a profound contemplation of inheritence. There is an honesty here which, at times, is quite breathtaking, "I surrender error to the world, error in the cracks." This collection is brave, defiant, edgy. It begins with the epigraph, "Never say 'die' - say 'damn'" and ends with the same. We should all live like this!SUE BURGE, author of Confetti Dancers (2021)
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