Carried Where We Go

Advance praise for Carried Where We Go

“Poet, Bart Solarczyk does the same thing that Larry Brown did in Southern Lit: break the readers’ hearts, in his case by holding up his broken heart for them to see, wrestling with, at times even bear-hugging his grief. He does so in poems of astounding economy, a form he has mastered. And yet in Carried Where We Go, he manages to balance tragedy with humor, wit, warmth, and the joys of the life he has lived. Solarczyk is the rare poet who gets better every time out. This one may be his best.”

—Tim Peeler, author of The Life of Jesus Christopher Duende.

“Carried Where We Go—the beautiful new collection by Bart Solarczyk—confirms what some of us have known for years: the author is an absolute master. When Charles Bukowski said, ‘An artist says a hard thing in a simple way,’ he must have been talking about Bart. Very few poets—alive or dead—capture how we spend our days in such perfect language with such amazing insights. Here are poems about stinky old Pittsburgh and broken men speaking truth from bar stools. Here are remembrances of Catholic school that look like flames burning lust into beauty. Beware the crows. The crows are everywhere. Then comes this punch, ‘If Santa Claus & Jesus had a baby it wouldn’t be me.’ Bart Solarczyk is not a saint. He’s a genius. A broken genius. He knows love and loss. He knows death. He knows what his wife looks like in heaven. He knows all the ways to remember, and those remembrances will crush your pain and turn it into a diamond ring. He’s Johnny Cash writing about June. He’s the very best of Richard Brautigan. He’s Li Po and he’s rock n’ roll. If you don’t like poetry, pretend Solarczyk is a monk making beer, then drink it down. Different craft, same result—absolute greatness. If you want to feel better about a bad world, read this book. It will set your day on fire in the best way.”

—Dave Newman, author of The Same Dead Songs

“When it comes to brief, short form poetry, Bart Solarczyk is one-of-a-kind, a master of his trade. His work is at once succinct, in-your-face and heartbreakingly lyrical. There are more than a few poets whose work embodies the first two qualities, but unique is the poet who consistently exemplifies all three. Carried Where We Go contains some of Solarczyk’s best work to date and Redhawk Publications is to be congratulated for making it more generally available to the poetry world.”

—Don Wentworth, Lilliput Review, editor and publisher emeritus

“Homer once wrote that the gods envy humans because we are mortal, because any moment may be our last and everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. Bart Solarczyk’s heartrending and heart-filling new collection, Carried Where We Go, sparkles with the beauty that comes with loss. Rich with longing, love, nostalgia, and compassion, these poems simultaneously celebrate and mourn, dance and weep, rage against the dying of the light and find peace in the darkness. There’s a lot of raucous joy here, too—Catholic nuns and Baudelaire, beer and pizza, the Blessed Mother in her bathtub shrine bedazzled with immortal plastic flowers, crows and The Three Stooges. Solarczyk—wise, wickedly funny, and tender beyond words—is the poet/guide we need as we move together through this beautiful, temporary, enviable life. I’m so grateful for him.”

—Lori Jakiela, author of How Do You Like It Now, Gentlemen? and more.

About the Author

Bart Solarczyk is a lifelong resident of Pittsburgh, PA. Over the past forty years his poems have been published in print & online in a variety of magazines, journals, anthologies, broadsides & chapbooks. He is the author of two full-length poetry collections: Tilted World (Low Ghost Press) & Classic Chapbooks (Redhawk Publications).