The Gold Rush (2021)
Craig Martin Getz’ fifth 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 and/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 inheritance. 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, Confetti Dancers (2021)
Cover photography by me, 41 pages Check out the presentation video and poems previously published. Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble
A Mountain on Jupiter – Earth Castle (2020)
My 3rd & 4th self-published collections of poetry, together in one book, are an intimate log of my journey through space and time and love in Spain.
Cover photography by me, 137 pages
Check out the presentation video and poems previously published.
Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble
Billy Goat (2019)
As a 2nd book should be, Craig Martin Getz’s Billy Goat signifies a huge step from his wonderful debut, Suicide,1964. The writing is confident and communicative, intimate without being overly confidential. I felt as though I was sitting next to him in a bar as he was reminiscing and relating that reminiscing to the man he is; not simply retelling the past but owning it. “Godhavn”, a tour de force. “Moon Tree”, outstanding. I admire the way he subliminally references other poems by echoing a simple word like blue or plane linking in my mind to the stainless steel windmills, all combining to give a sense of connectivity, a linking of language if not necessarily the narrative. Great craftsmanship. At times the poetry seems to elide into prose but the dialogue is always poetic, and he’s not afraid to go there: not bullied by form.
“A Lesson in Hiking”, what a cracking poem to end on, packed with ideas for the reader to leave the book with: “…this vanishing world / crisscrossed by the sword gashes of planes losing their points”, reminds me of the eminent Welsh poet R.S. Thomas. And there it is, Chagall’s goat, a melancholic reminder of simpler times. Perfect. This is the most enjoyable book I’ve read in a long time.
—DAVID BATTEN, Winterreise (2021)
Cover photography by me, 53 pages. Available on Amazon, Barnes & Nobel
Suicide, 1964 (2017)
My 1st self-published debut collection of poetry is a homage to family, distance, time, damage and repair.
Cover photography by me, 69 pages
Check out the presentation video and poems previously published.
Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble
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