The World Cut Out with Crooked Scissors: Selected Prose Poems

by Carsten Rene Nielsen, David Keplinger (Translator)

Born in 1966, Nielsen works as a full time writer in Aarhus, the second largest Danish city, an academic and cultural center located on the peninsula of Jutland. Aarhus is also the home of the Grauballe Man, a bog man 2000 years old and displayed year round at Moesgaard Museum in a wooded area south of the city. This man, his cut open throat, his fractured shin, his beard stubble, his skin―even his fingerprints―preserved by the tannins of the bog, though flattened by its tremendous weight, lies displayed under glass, a ghastly testament to our common tribal past. I find in Nielsen’s poems a similar spectacle―the little glass box of form, and, within, something old, nasty, fascinating, human.

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

First published October 15, 2007

Reviews

[Gerry LaFemina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book starts with these interesting beastiary prose poems, and continues to explore the world through the fun house mirror that is the prose poem. Playful and insightful, the pieces focus on the lyrical possibilities of the paragraph to remake the world.

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great prose poems! I especially enjoyed the first section from the collection Forty-one Animals (2005). Fables in rectangles. Looking forward to reading more work from Nielsen.

[Siri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ethereal and creepy-wonderful.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful prose poems. Surreal and profound.