Redneck Poems

Pub­lished in the MiPoe­sias Chap­book Series. Avail­able at Scribd as well, and at Mag­cloud if you want a print ver­sion (for a small fee). Thanks to editor/publisher Didi Menendez.

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING:

"Harsh, funny, dark, and ten­der. Red­neck Poems will kick you into next week." –Adrian C. Louis

"These poems are very sen­sual, grounded in nature and set­ting that form the back­ground for the human inter­ac­tions: vio­lent, sad, jeal­ous over lovers, the death of a new­born, the pure ani­mal joy of being alive. Will read again and again. A real pleasure."–David Woodruff

"This is just great. I espe­cially loved 'Ode To ____'. A bunch of tight lit­tle tales that are just as likely to tug your heart-strings as to make you hurl. Bad and sad and stun­ningly evoca­tive of a time and place. I wish this guy would write a novel. Fail­ing that, just more stuff like this."–Mark Stan­i­forth

"The main com­plaint I have on Rusty's books are, they're too dang short. I said this about Break­ing it Down, I'm say­ing it again about Red­neck Poems. Mr. Barnes writes folks well, has a spooky abil­ity to get into the skin of any char­ac­ter, man, woman, child, and write them with vivid real­ism. Be warned, these are not always happy peo­ple, but the grit and resolve in which they plow through life in these poems is so inspir­ing you don't care whether or not they're happy. In fact, you kinda hope they keep on falling on hard times, again and again, so Rusty will keep writ­ing about them.

Rusty Barnes is the kind of writer I hope to be some day. I would read soup labels if he wrote them."–Helen Peter­son

"With a voice so orig­i­nal in every poem, from begin­ning to end ("Tony lit­tle girls in slim skirts/never really appealed; give/me blues­gals with high-stockings and lovely round thighs/at two ayem in a stripmall/parking lot…Yeah, boy"), Rusty Barnes' "Red­neck Poems" is one of those poetry books I can read all the way through, over and over again."–Melissa McEwen

"Fight­ing for love in Appalachia. Tune­ful, vis­ceral, gritty."–Lydia Ship

"The term "red­neck" has many dif­fer­ent mean­ings. There is the humor­ous Jeff Fox­wor­thy par­ody, but there is also the hard-working rural farmer and fresh air image that is tied a lit­tle closer to real­ity. I'm not sure why Rusty chose that word to rep­re­sent this col­lec­tion of poems, but I feel he almost uses it affec­tion­ately. Sure there is men­tion of cut-off jeans, hal­ter tops, beer, shot­guns, fights, and of course cows, but in each of these poems there is also some­thing that is uni­ver­sally rel­e­vant. Be it young love (or lust), a father's fears, neglect, or lose, the poems are power, mov­ing and real."–What To Wear Dur­ing an Orange Alert

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"This book is dif­fer­ent, and you'll begin to notice the first time you hold it in your hands. It's a small book, a sim­ple book, uniquely sized, well printed, and unas­sum­ing. You'd never guess, gaz­ing upon the cheer­ful monarch but­ter­flies grac­ing the cover and many of the pages, that this is a trea­sure full of per­sonal depths, moun­tain land­scapes, and trapped moments. Rusty Barnes man­ages to sur­prise even us, and we were already fans.

Much like his short story col­lec­tion, "Break­ing it Down" (sun­ny­out­side 2007), "Red­neck Poems" offers dis­tinct Appalachian themes, as well as pain, sex, a smat­ter­ing of social com­men­tary, and even some big grins. Rusty does a beau­ti­fully lyri­cal job of paint­ing places and peo­ple with crisp real­ism and res­o­nant images." The Leg­endary.