Scared Text

by Eric Baus

Winner of the 2011 Colorado Prize for Poetry
Published by the Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University

Marvelously sustained and densely rhythmic, this tightly constructed whole is built of parts that, at each level, all the way down to the phrase, constitute poems in themselves. Baus manages to keep a cast of words in constant replay until many of them take on the presence of character, and some emerge as characters themselves—Minus and Iris, for instance—keeping the whole on the verge of a narrative project that remains always just barely out of reach, just barely in another world in which language and animal endlessly interleave. Baus has opened a new literary field: the linguistic bestiary, a new zoo where words pace like fauves behind ever-thinning bars.

Genres: Poetry

78 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Eric Baus is the author of Scared Text (Center for Literary Publishing, forthcoming 2011), The To Sound (Verse Press/Wave Books), Tuned Droves (Octopus Books) and several chapbooks. He co-edits Marcel Press chapbooks with Andrea Rexilius and lives in Denver.

Reviews of The To Sound:
Double Room
Rain Taxi
Bookslut
Octopus

Reviews of Tuned Droves:
Jacket
Publishers Weekly
Cambridge Book Review
Oranges & Sardines
Poetry Project Newsletter
Black Ocean Blog
American Poet
Galatea Resurrects

Interviews
Jacket
PFS Post

Links
Pennsound Author Page
To The Sound (audio blog)
Minus House Chapbooks
Tiny Tour

Reviews

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a luscious, almost tactile sensuousness about the sounds and rhythms assembled together in these poems which, in combination with Eric's over-ripe imagination, makes reading them aloud a delight.

[Jason Kron · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was hard to latch onto anything specific when it's SUCH a barrage of batshit imagery, but the weird language was beautiful and intriguing.

[Lute · Rating 2 out of 5]

Baus wrote my favorite book of poetry, The To Sound. It was a nice treat to see some echoes of language that felt half-remembered from The To Sound and Tuned Droves. I enjoy the way he plays with language, the kind of squinting, glancing meaning that only makes sense out of the corner of your eye, but ultimately, this book of poetry fell flat for me. It was ultimately just a little too meaningless. Perhaps the imagery just didn't strike a chord in me the way The To Sound did.

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 5 out of 5]

The scared text is sacred, the sacred text is scared. When I read the sections, I knew I was in for a treat: Minotaur Stable, Molting Solos, Negative Moon (!!!), Puma Mirage, Ox Tongue, Scared Text, Lamb Comb, Flooded Cloud. I am a Minus sign running up a hill to get a better view of this blue and beautiful and beautifully brutal world.

[Donald Armfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

With Scarred Text Baus cuts his text with characters (of sorts) in this collection.
Minus and Iris embark over Dove Bombs and Negative Moons in this narrative project, a sing-song melody that stays on the verge just out of reach of its proliferate meaning.

Favorites:
Glass Ear
Eggshell Plumbs
Glass Deer
Hornet Fleece
Puma Mirage
Creature’s Creature