Local poet, writer, and open mic host, R.M. Engelhardt, has released a brand new collection of poetry, Coffee Ass Blues & Other Poems from Alien Buddha Press.
So after all these years go by along with some 15 or so published books, writing, and poems published in an infinite amount journals & zines you begin to question “Why do I still write?” “Why write at all?” “Why send out your work to magazines anymore?”
But seriously?
It’s because that’s who you are and that’s what you do.
If you live it, breathe it, walk it, wear it it’s all pretty much all you are in there inside the body, mind & soul. You can walk away from writing or live another life but as the old saying goes “I will find you” & “You cannot escape” I (The Muse) will put words into your head …
And you shall write.
My new book Coffee Ass Blues & Other Poems came about one night as an invitation from my friend and fellow poet Red Focks who’s a writer and an amazing illustrator to publish a new book. He lives in Arizona. One of those places that I hope to travel to and see someday soon before America is eventually closed. Red & Jay Miner run Alien Buddha Press and they’ve published a lot of great writers and poets from the indie zine era (late 90’s -early 2000’s) -my era as well as many new and upcoming writers. I’m happy to be in the company of such talented poets as Ron Androla, Matt Borczon, Catfish McDaris, Rob Plath, Ryan Quinn Flanagan & others. I pretty much feel at home. I was already working on two manuscripts but it didn’t really all come together until Red asked me. The last book that I put out before this (and that may also be coming to a bookstore soon near you) was the most serious, themed apocalyptic dystopian book of literature that I have ever written and quite frankly after Trump was elected? A little too prophetic let alone scary. Coffee Ass Blues has a few poems that walk along that same edge but from a different place & perspective. There are three poems about Trump that have previously been published in Writer’s Resist, Wine Drunk Sidewalk & in Tuck but the majority of the book’s poems are my classic style of cynicism meets humor as they walk into a bar together where they meet a sarcastic old punk-goth writer who’s drinking whiskey with your Mom and seriously looking into the grim shadows that are being cast upon the world. Sure, some of the poems fall under the good vs. evil category and a few may even piss a few popular Instagram poets off but that’s who I am and what I see through my experience and through my eyes and pen. We live in hypocritical times where we should most importantly fear two things: Overly politically correct players of the media and the real players who are controlling the Monopoly board and our country. What are the Coffee Ass Blues? The “Coffee Ass Blues” are the blues that you get when you look at what’s going on around you in the world (politics, guns, kids, death, war, more death) while having your first smoke and cup of coffee in the morning. Then realizing that there’s not much you can do about all the shit that’s happening but that surrendering isn’t the answer. Poetry isn’t the answer. But with your middle finger proudly displayed?
It helps.
Over the last 25 years or so Author-Poet- Writer R.M. Engelhardt‘s work has been published and has appeared in many journals & magazines such as Poetic Diversity, Rusty Truck, Sure! The Charles Bukowski Newsletter, Thunder Sandwich, Writer’s Resist, The Boston Literary Review, Full of Crow, Fashion For Collapse, The Hobo Camp Review, and in many, many others.
He has published over 13 books of poetry and is the author of The Resurrection Waltz (2012).
