Old Brown: Poems by Craig Paulenich
Old Brown

Here is a fine book that dares to look into the heart of the personage of American abolitionist John Brown. Using all of the tools he can imagine Craig Paulenich plunges into the heart of the man and of America. "Powerful and unwavering, Paulenich digs deep into nineteenth century history, using Captain John Brown as a touchstone to illuminate America’s uneasy relationship with race and its obsession with violence. Part poetry, part history, Paulenich’s portrait is an indictment of our contemporary times, his John Brown both prophet and terrorist, hero and cold-blooded killer, an everyman for our schizophrenic America. In stunningly imaginative poems that range from catalogs of the dead to lyric meditations on religion’s role in our complicity, Paulenich masterfully connects the dots from Harper’s Ferry to our modern terrorist state, pointing out along the way that 'Slavery is the American Leviathan, and we, / Jonah’s all, rattle about inside its brass ribs.'" ~Peter Grandbois
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