High Art and Love Poems, by Keith Gaustad

ISBN 978-0982595619
December, 2012
34 pages

About this chapbook:
The title and arrangement of High Art & Love Poems is partly inspired by James Liddy’s Art is Not for Grown Ups. The poems in this collection utilize common vernacular, accessible to most readers, but they reveal subtle undercurrents of cultural satire and personal introspection for those who dig deeper. The collection is a fun (and often funny) volume that has a lot to say.  The cover art is by Kyle Fitzpatrick.

About the Author:
Keith Gaustad has never won a single poetry contest. He applied to a graduate program once and was even accepted but not awarded a TAship and couldn’t afford to go. That’s why he’s still in Milwaukee makingBurdock Magazine, hosting an internet radio show called Burdock Radio, promoting a poetry and music series called Burdock Presents and publishing chapbooks on Teppichfresser Press.

Praise for High Art & Love Poems:

• “[A] consuming view of Milwaukee, Catholicism, philosopher parties, taxpayers, uncomfortable and wry love . . . Words are clever and honest. Nowadays that can be dangerous. Wonderfully dangerous.” –Tyler Farrell, author of The Land of Give and Take
• ” . . . a refreshing and relatable exploration of the daily-beautiful, the mundane-extraordinary . . . ” –Freesia McKee, reviewer for Verse Wisconsin
• ” . . . High Art & Love Poems offers complex poetry that doesn’t give up easy meaning.” –Christodoulos Makris, reviewer for Burning Bush 2
• “The poems sound good when read aloud . . . Gaustad uses breath and sound with skill and originality.”  –Christopher Frost, reviewer for Neon Magazine.
• “Full of humor and grit, Gaustad has a sense of intent he flings at his readers in quiet ways, and yet it takes a keen listen to determine and appreciate that intent, without feeling philosophically indignant at all . . . a collection of poetry as unique and chaotic as the world it was born into, somehow comforting, and somehow disturbing all at once.” –Liz Hart, author of Sacred Names
• “Equally at home referencing pop culture and the Bible, High Art & Love Poems pokes fun at our contemporary condition, but without being mean-spirited about it. Gaustad’s evident delight in language is contagious, making this sequence a lively read.” –Ian Chung, editor of Eunoia Review
• “Keith Gaustad’s sculptural, ‘soundbitten,’  asymmetrical, very smart poems challenge, amuse,  patrol,  document, and beg. They explore partying, religion, language, art, love, America, and more.  While keeping the poems always interesting, he Hail Marys for us all. ‘We can change mysteries,’ Gaustad writes.  In High Art & Love Poems his poems start that process.” –Susan Firer, author of Milwaukee Does Strange Things to People
• “Gaustad serves up a fin de siècle salad with a side of weltschmerz . . . creating lyric paroxysms that fall like fiery plops of spittle . . . ” –Paul Vogel, author of The Empty Quarter
• ” . . . Gaustad uses a variety of styles that satisfies the palate. He is clever with his imagery and is unafraid to tamper with the more conventional aspect of poetry and connecting common ideas with original detail.”  –Rochelle Liu, reviewer for Niche Magazine.
• “In these amulets against despair, the poet Keith Gaustad inoculates the reader against the follies of our age . . . ” –Jim Chapson, author of Scholia
• “Keith Gaustad’s poems are concise, deliberate in diction, at times terse—they are, as Pound would put it, ‘free from emotional slither.’ Yet there is deep feeling here, which emerges side by side with Gaustad’s subtle sense of satire.” –Michael S. Begnal, author of Future Blues