What do you think?
Rate this book
Reckless Constellations
“The poems in Grant Clauser’s Reckless Constellations break and enter a past peopled by a cast of restless adolescents who fight, fuck, set fires and chug bottles of rotgut wine in their race away from innocence. But, as he writes in ‘Going Back,’ ‘It’s not the memory you find . . . but the loss of this.’ Yet from the wreckage of the past and its many losses, he excavates meaning and ultimately the sort of enlightenment that comes to those who understand the ‘farthest stars / can only be seen / on the darkest nights.’ Fasten your seatbelt, people: This is one wild, beautiful ride of a book.”
—Sarah Freligh, author of Sad Math
—Sarah Freligh, author of Sad Math
- GenresPoetry
104 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2018
4 people want to read
About the author
Grant Clauser
10 books6 followersGrant Clauser lives in southeast Pennsylvania with his wife, daughters, and a loyal dog. He earned an MFA in poetry from Bowling Green State University in 1993, where he was a Richard Devine Fellow. He has worked for several literary journals, including the Mid-American Review, Janus, and Toad Highway. He currently serves as editor for the New York Times' Wirecutter.
In 2010 he was selected as the Montgomery County Poet Laureate by Robert Bly. That same year he started the Montco Wordshop, a monthly workshop for area poets. He has also led workshops at Philadelphia’s Musehouse Writing Center, Rosemont College’s Writers’ Studio, and several writers’ conferences. In 2013 his book Necessary Myths won the Dogfish Head Poetry prize.
His poems have appeared in a variety of journals including The American Poetry Review, Cincinnati Poetry Review, The Literary Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, The Heartland Review, The Journal, Mason’s Road, Cortland Review, The Good Men Project, Wisconsin Review, The Southern Poetry Review, Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Superstition Review, The Seattle Review, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Tar River Poetry, Painted Bride Quarterly and others.
In 2010 he was selected as the Montgomery County Poet Laureate by Robert Bly. That same year he started the Montco Wordshop, a monthly workshop for area poets. He has also led workshops at Philadelphia’s Musehouse Writing Center, Rosemont College’s Writers’ Studio, and several writers’ conferences. In 2013 his book Necessary Myths won the Dogfish Head Poetry prize.
His poems have appeared in a variety of journals including The American Poetry Review, Cincinnati Poetry Review, The Literary Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, The Heartland Review, The Journal, Mason’s Road, Cortland Review, The Good Men Project, Wisconsin Review, The Southern Poetry Review, Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Superstition Review, The Seattle Review, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Tar River Poetry, Painted Bride Quarterly and others.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 28, 2018
In Reckless Constellations, Grant Clauser has struck a unique voice and narrative that unifies this poetry collection. The voice embodies these poems and lingers with each line, reminiscent of a haunted past pushing forward to the present. It is an indication of how every day happenings shape the future, as trivial as some of those moments may seem. Clauser pulls the reader along from the turbulent teen years through the homes of empty nesters, relishing every occasion in a life that is fleeting, bringing character to the humbleness of everyday life.
The recklessness of youth in “Burning Down the Carousel” is revisited “where older boys lashed out at their youth / or carved their history into fake coffins,” and in the title poem, “Reckless Constellations” where Clauser demonstrates the promise and insignificance felt in our youth, by “the way evening stands still / […] especially / for the young” even though we are all “stars too small / to be named.” Because we are all those things, reckless with our youth, ignorant of time, famous in our own right yet cognizant of the triviality of our existence.
And life carries on, as Clauser points out, with the maturation of love in poems like “Coat of Arms,” the sometimes stifling familiarity between couples, sensing the end of a conversation by “the sound eyelids make / when they half close.” We all too often dwell on yesterdays in our relationships, foregoing memories in the poem “All Summer” for something “solid to save” while recognizing that “forgetting makes love possible.” Clauser reminds us again that it is the things that connect us to our histories, perhaps mistakenly, even for a parent reminiscing on a child’s past as done in “Elegy for My Daughter’s Toy Unicorn,” conceding that “[w]e want time capsules / instead of memories.”
In “Catch and Release” we can find strength in knowing “there’s fight in life” enough to power us through rather than existing, to bleed into the world instead of taking its beating, and all that we’ve done, if successful, lives on in our progeny. All those memories, thoughts, artifacts of previous lives, they mean nothing if there is no one left to carry them on. In “First Steps” we are led through a child’s life by Clauser, culminating with her “joining the march” to further a cause “so big it overwhelms her” because, as we know, some things are greater than us. Even though we may be “too small / to be named” our actions contribute to a greater whole that is impossible without all players becoming involved.
What Reckless Constellations does best is remind the reader that the ordinary creates the extraordinary, that every act in life is not without consequence. It is a collection of poems that is as forward thinking as it is reflective. Clauser tells a story singular to its owner but universal in its scope that any reader with a bit of life’s experience fading in their own rear-view mirror can appreciate.
The recklessness of youth in “Burning Down the Carousel” is revisited “where older boys lashed out at their youth / or carved their history into fake coffins,” and in the title poem, “Reckless Constellations” where Clauser demonstrates the promise and insignificance felt in our youth, by “the way evening stands still / […] especially / for the young” even though we are all “stars too small / to be named.” Because we are all those things, reckless with our youth, ignorant of time, famous in our own right yet cognizant of the triviality of our existence.
And life carries on, as Clauser points out, with the maturation of love in poems like “Coat of Arms,” the sometimes stifling familiarity between couples, sensing the end of a conversation by “the sound eyelids make / when they half close.” We all too often dwell on yesterdays in our relationships, foregoing memories in the poem “All Summer” for something “solid to save” while recognizing that “forgetting makes love possible.” Clauser reminds us again that it is the things that connect us to our histories, perhaps mistakenly, even for a parent reminiscing on a child’s past as done in “Elegy for My Daughter’s Toy Unicorn,” conceding that “[w]e want time capsules / instead of memories.”
In “Catch and Release” we can find strength in knowing “there’s fight in life” enough to power us through rather than existing, to bleed into the world instead of taking its beating, and all that we’ve done, if successful, lives on in our progeny. All those memories, thoughts, artifacts of previous lives, they mean nothing if there is no one left to carry them on. In “First Steps” we are led through a child’s life by Clauser, culminating with her “joining the march” to further a cause “so big it overwhelms her” because, as we know, some things are greater than us. Even though we may be “too small / to be named” our actions contribute to a greater whole that is impossible without all players becoming involved.
What Reckless Constellations does best is remind the reader that the ordinary creates the extraordinary, that every act in life is not without consequence. It is a collection of poems that is as forward thinking as it is reflective. Clauser tells a story singular to its owner but universal in its scope that any reader with a bit of life’s experience fading in their own rear-view mirror can appreciate.
May 6, 2018
First, lest anyone take offence, please note that my star-rating system is my own, not Goodreads's. I reserve 5-star ratings for poets of the caliber of Houseman, Millay, Auden - and such as they. Three stars is good, four very good, and I have stuck to this system throughout my time on this site except once, when I felt forced. So - I have lied, one time, and therefore deserve whatever quibbles folks may have about what I say.
Restless Constellations is a book about an American childhood so familiar to many of us we could have lived it ourselves, a childhood that happened mostly out of doors, with its graveyards and abandoned houses, ground-life animals and engines rotting on blocks, friendships, betrayals, and too-early deaths. It is a comforting read and fullfills one of poetry's goals thereby, helping us feel less alone. The writing is good too, quite solid.
Other than emotional ones, the author takes no risks, however. There is a sameness about these poems, the voice predictable, and quiet, and sane. There are no surprises, no new terrain.
It will be interesting to see how Clauser develops in the coming years. He has a good ear, good potential.
Restless Constellations is a book about an American childhood so familiar to many of us we could have lived it ourselves, a childhood that happened mostly out of doors, with its graveyards and abandoned houses, ground-life animals and engines rotting on blocks, friendships, betrayals, and too-early deaths. It is a comforting read and fullfills one of poetry's goals thereby, helping us feel less alone. The writing is good too, quite solid.
Other than emotional ones, the author takes no risks, however. There is a sameness about these poems, the voice predictable, and quiet, and sane. There are no surprises, no new terrain.
It will be interesting to see how Clauser develops in the coming years. He has a good ear, good potential.
March 21, 2018
The cliche, "Time heals all wounds" often seems to also work with the written word. When we write about the past, sharp edges of painful stories smooth away and broken pieces are patched together. Not so much in Grant Clauser's latest collection of poems, Reckless Constellations where he retells childhood stories full of wounds that are more than just bumps and bruises. In these narrative poems, we see images of electric fences and tree forts, slasher movies and dead snakes. Yes, all these could be mere elements of more whimsical verse, but there is nothing light about these poems. Indeed, the reader will walk away from this book thinking about the wounds of childhood play that never really heal. Yes, I will admit my bias: much of this book takes place in rural Pennsylvania, a world that I am rather fond of, especially in my own writing. But I don't think there is a reader out there that won't appreciate the fact that Grant Clauser avoids the sentimentality of youth and instead focuses on the grit, grime, and in general, what makes us all stronger adults.
January 28, 2019
If you haven't read a Grant Clauser book, this is an excellent collection to start with. It's filled with narrative poems that rage with nostalgia in the universal sense so the reader feels them and contemplates the past on a personal, intimate level. At the same time though, the poems only hint at the confessional, leaving enough to the imagination that different readers will find different pieces of their own past in them. The poems are meditative, stirring, complex. Really, it's quite a good book.
Just as a taste, here are few lines from "The Neighbor Killed Snakes," one of my favorites in the collection:
"I'd find the strays he missed, broken backs
with their heads still on, tongues forking in and out
and try to save them, take them home, hide
their bloody stripes in the shrubs around our garden
until one day she caught me, told my dad, called me little devil
for stealing, called me sick for playing with death...."
Truly a worthy read. The poems took my mind places I didn't expect it to go. That's something I value above all else in poetry.
Give this one a shot.
Just as a taste, here are few lines from "The Neighbor Killed Snakes," one of my favorites in the collection:
"I'd find the strays he missed, broken backs
with their heads still on, tongues forking in and out
and try to save them, take them home, hide
their bloody stripes in the shrubs around our garden
until one day she caught me, told my dad, called me little devil
for stealing, called me sick for playing with death...."
Truly a worthy read. The poems took my mind places I didn't expect it to go. That's something I value above all else in poetry.
Give this one a shot.
March 25, 2018
There is a lot of revisiting throughout this book really, feelings that aren’t “distance or wonder / or the shifting perspectives of age, / but the loss of something great / too late to savor” (Too Late). As I read, I lingered on the lines, going back to re-read a number of times -- this is what I do when I read good poetry.
August 7, 2018
I enjoyed nearly every poem in here, but "Camouflage" and "Mapping Mars" spoke to me enough to bring my rating up to a 4/5. I had the privilege of attending a poetry reading by this author, although as far as I remember, he read very few poems from this book so I had no idea what to expect. I'm even more excited to move on to another of his collections now.
November 3, 2018
Grant Clauser's Reckless Constellations explores the emotional landscapes of a life lived--from adolescence to the being the parent of adolescents, from punk clubs to fishing holes, the range of these poems delights. Add to it the fine--often surprising--lines and firm but gentle musicality and you have a fine poet at the top of his game.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews