Chased by Lunacies and Wonders by Brad Crenshaw
Chased by Lunacies and Wonders by Brad Crenshaw
As its title suggests, Chased by Lunacies and Wonders, the poems in this generous book both condemn and praise, grieve and rejoice, negate and affirm the world with all its majestic extremities. In language by turns colloquial and exultant, the poet acknowledges the lunacies that assault our contemporary social life, haunted by the fires torching California, climate changes altering the conditions for life itself, and the worldwide quarantines and national death counts of pandemic disease. The poems are visionary, and glimmer with amplitude and enormous generosity. He holds imagined conversations with various Western writers, both living and dead, to envision a workable cultural valuation, accusing Homer of having “the ethics of a predator,” while praising Virginia Woolf who “erupts again with visions, bursts again with surprising voices.” He overhears Lucifer exclaim, “As we know, the world is fucking magical.” Crenshaw would agree. The journey through this wild collection concludes with the poet reviewing his most intimate relationships, his long marriage, and affirms their decisions to bring children into the flawed generous created world, full of crazy people, saints and devils, and most of us just trying to get by.
Chased by Lunacies and Wonders is Crenshaw’s fourth volume of poetry. Critics have praised this latest collection, stating that “this poetry wanders through language and image unfolding a new world ‘where the miracles are raw’.” “When you find yourself wondering at ‘the complicated/glory of the still living,’ another writer states, ‘you can be sure that Brad Crenshaw has your back.”
"Golden style, the complex clauses of C.K. Williams, Wallace Stevens or Hart Crane, this poetry wanders through language and image unfolding a new world. And character voices, Lucifer, at his stand up bass, saying "As we know, the world is fucking magical." Or the Magi, where rolling down a California desert highway "an oasis/here and here, somewhere near Bakersfield where "the miracles are raw". The Bible, Yeats, Keats, allusions to the forebear poets abound. This is one talented poet."—Dorianne Laux, Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Poetry
“In language by turns colloquial and exultant, Brad Crenshaw’s Chased by Lunacies and Wonders takes the measure of a bifurcated world where dream and nightmare, history and myth, and fate, both tragic and benign, play out in the lives of lovers, family, and friends. While resolutely wedded to the world, these poems are visionary, and glimmer with amplitude and enormous generosity. Crenshaw’s prosody, a sonorous blank verse, accentuates the music and intelligence of his voice, and highlights his literary heroes and ancestors—Homer, Chaucer, and Shakespeare, among others—with whom he is in conversation. Crenshaw recognizes that our lives are inherently heroic, and he knows that the life of a hero is not an easy one. When you find yourself wondering at “the complicated / glory of the still living,” you can be sure that Brad Crenshaw has your back.” —Gary Young, author of Even So: New and Selected Poems
“ Tell you what,” Brad Crenshaw’s compelling Chased by Lunacies and Wonders begins; from there, this delightfully familiar voice launches us into the book’s many insightful observations and meditations. “There / is only ever one story, light / and dark, bright and not,” Crenshaw’s speaker claims, and indeed, these powerful poems feel fueled by equal parts love and loss, gratitude and grief. Speaking both personally and universally, Crenshaw catalogues our current crises, including wildfires, pandemic funerals, and recent elections; at the same time, he offers reminders of our everyday gifts like a daughter at the piano, a steamy greenhouse, and the Pacific coast where surfacing whales rise “like holy mountains.” Lean into what this speaker has to say, and you won’t be disappointed—this is a tremendously wise and wonderful new collection. “—Jennifer Richter, author of Dear Future
Brad Crenshaw
Brad Crenshaw has published three books of poetry with Greenhouse Review Press: My Gargantuan Desire, and two volumes of his epic poem, Genealogies, and Memphis Shoals, 2022. His work has appeared in a wide range of journals including Catamaran, Shenandoah, Chicago Review, Massachusetts Review, and Faultline, and recent poems appear in Salt, Hawaii Pacific Review, Trampoline, Pacifica Literary Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, and Phren-Z. His poems have been anthologized in Bear Flag Republic, The Hard Work of Hope, and California Fire and Water. He has also published multiple articles in literary criticism and theory, as well as articles in neuroscience. He received his MFA and PhD in English from the University of California, Irvine, and later obtained a second PhD in Psychology and Neuroscience from the University of Massachusetts. For many years, he worked as a neuropsychologist at Baystate Medical Center, and at the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services. He lives in Santa Cruz, California, and can be found at https://bradcrenshaw.me/about/