by Jay Rafferty
The latest offering from Alien Buddha Press, which releases this Saturday (December 4th, 2021) is a remarkable debut chapbook from Canadian poet Perry Gasteiger. I was lucky enough to get an early glimpse in the last few weeks and here is it what I learned: it is ethereal.
Meditations for the Dead and Dying is a vibe. It’s a natural rhythm like the breath of a racehorse on a cold morning or a rabbit’s pupil dilating in the headlights. It’s an exhalation of a poet that understands the body all too deeply (it’s consumption and decay), who is perhaps repulsed by their own intimate knowledge and yet writes their poetry like watercolour paint falling in a glass of water. But these are all blunt and dramatic $5 sentences for a collection which is much lighter than words do credit.
In these pages you’ll find lust, hunger, disgust and praise for the flesh and bones within. Big ideas yes. Ambitious? Maybe. But far from falling into the trappings a lesser artist might tread through thoughtlessly, Gasteiger plays hopscotch with them, treading lightly. More Timothy Q. Mouse than Dumbo. Gasteiger (an editor for the Red Lemon Review) writes in the same way that they read their work: with tremendous care and gentleness, though the subjects may be gory or (as one workshop participant thought of the poem ‘Apricot’) raunchy. Their work will surprise you, whether its making old cliches feel fresh again (“Like a snake, I shed the skin//you so graciously shoved me into”) or their powerful reply to Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’. Gasteiger’s poetic talents lie chiefly in tone and imagery.
My favourite poem of this little collection has to be ‘A Modest Feast’. With a name and theme reminiscent of George Bernard Shaw’s satirical essay A Modest Proposal, it’s anti-capitalist tones refuse to be pinpointed to an era. The poem’s core message is as prominent today as it would have been in Victorian England, Lenin’s Russia or Robespierre’s Paris. There is something timeless and chilling about this prophecy of the working class rising against the 1%. I’ve not read something quite so passionate in its message, yet delivered so gently as a whisper from a lover since I first read the Irish revolutionary Patrick Pearse’s poem ‘The Rebel’.
In short, and to borrow half a line from the final poem of this collection, there really is nothing more stunning than new poetry.
Meditations for the Dead and Dying is available from Alien Buddha Press from the 4th of December. You can follow Perry Gasteiger on twitter @sunshineloft for more of their poetry.
Jay Rafferty is an uncle, an Irishman and an eejit. He’s the Social Media Manager for Sage Cigarettes Magazine and a Best of the Net Nominee. His debut chapbook Holy Things is forthcoming in early 2022 and you can read his other poems in several journals including Lights on the Horizon and Daily Drunk Magazine. When not playing games of pool he, sometimes, writes stuff. You can follow him on Twitter @Atlas_Snow.
