not-quite-blank:
After a thirty five year writing career in the small press, elusive Outlaw Poet Dennis Gulling, a protege of Todd Moore, has finally published his first full-length volume of poetry, The Blood Dark Sea, which was released this week by Zombie Logic Press in Rockford, Illinois.
The book contains some of his greatest hits from his 35 year career, which included editing the classic Crawlspace from 1990-1999. Gulling writes with power, precision, and a quick, dry wit that never condescends into judgement of the small timers he describes to a tee, but never seems to lose his perspective as an observer rather than participant in the fiasco. Schadenfreude abounds in these poems about domestic disputes, robberies, assassinations, paybacks, and commupances. But enough of me telling you what the poems can do for themselves. here are three poems from The Blood Dark Sea by Dennis Gulling.
FORD
When the cops got
there
Billy Ford was
sitting
At the kitchen
table
Face down in a
plate of spaghetti
The bullet hole in
the back of his head
Made the hair
around it
Red and bristly
Mrs. Ford was
sitting on the sofa
Bathed in white tv
glow
Rubbing the gun
between her legs
And whispering
Now I’m in love
WRECKAGE
He’s lying on his
back
In a hammock
Watching a jet
Put a white scratch
in the sky
Somewhere in
another yard
Someone is mowing
their lawn
And somewhere else
Someone has the
radio on
Playing a song
He’s heard before
and doesn’t like
He yawns and puts
his hands over his eyes
Fingers cupped
together to shut out the light
Lets his mind
wander
Sees places he’s
been to
Houses he’d slept
in when he got there
Women he’d wanted
so much he could taste them
A dog he had once
that ran away
Scenes from movies
with actors
He knows by sight
Not by name
But nothing comes
together
His concentration
pinballs
He thinks of
everything at once
To keep from
thinking
Of anything that
matters
Wants to forget
that the hands
Don’t do much
these days
Beyond the
masturbation of survival
The head just takes
up space
Behind the eyes
And the fever of
life
Feels like ice
Something constant
bleeds through him like a stain
Something dark
that’s on him like a shadow
He’s eaten alive
by the familiar
Like a blind man in
a burning house
The darkness is
wrapped around him now
And he knows what
he won’t admit
How he wanted to be
a big man
In the land of
giants
But all his big
ideas
Are just cold
wreckage now
Taking up space
In a life he’ll
never get right
I WAKE UP
I wake up at 2 a.m.
Scared of something
Just beyond my
reach
Shaking all over
I can feel its
breath on me
Its shadow stains
me
And leaves me a
little less
Than I was before
I drive around at
night
Trying to find its
face
Its shape
I want to know its
weight
Its smell
Its taste
But it stays a
little
Ahead of me all the
time
I reach for it
A blind leap into
nothing
A free fall with no
bottom
A forever downward
Where the darkness
waits
And you can order The Blood Dark Sea from Zombie Logic Press as well as other books of Outsider Poetry and Outlaw Poetry