Lug Your Careless Body out of the Careful Dusk: A Poem in Fragments

by Joshua Marie Wilkinson

Drawing from the paintings of Susan Rothenberg, Gwyneth Scally, and Eric Fischl as well as from the photography of Allison Maletz, Joshua Marie Wilkinson’s  Lug Your Careless Body out of the Careful Dusk  is a book-length poem written in small fragments. Comprised of seven sections, the poem is formed as much by the poet’s travels through Turkey, the Baltics, and Eastern Europe as it is by the movies of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Krzysztof Kieslowski, and Bill Morrison. The painters Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud are here alongside whispers of Emily Dickinson and Wallace Stevens.  Lug Your Careless Body out of the Careful Dusk  is a book of cinematic images and fragments, of small stories overheard and quickly abandoned, of hidden letters and phone booths, and of ghosts who return with questions. Born and raised in Seattle’s Haller Lake neighborhood,  Joshua Marie Wilkinson  is the author of one other book of poetry,  Suspension of a Secret in Abandoned Rooms , and the chapbook  A Ghost as King of the Rabbits . He holds an MFA from the University of Arizona and an MA in film studies from University College Dublin. Presently he lives in Denver, Colorado, where he is pursuing his doctorate in English and creative writing and completing his first film.

Genres: Poetry

104 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2006

About the author

Joshua Marie Wilkinson is the author or editor of fifteen books, the most recent of which is his debut novel, Trouble Finds You (Fonograf 2023).

He lives in Portland, Oregon, in the United States, with the writer Lisa Wells, where they serve as series editors, with Mark Levine, of the Kuhl House Poets series for University of Iowa Press.

His work has appeared in Poetry, Tin House, The Believer, Iowa Review, A Public Space, and many others. After many years in academia, he now works as a psychotherapist.

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wilkinson's title already introduces the language you will find here, captivating, unique, mysterious, broken. This "poem in fragments" is like scenes through a viewfinder, not quite but almost piecing together, like memory. I am caste towards a place which is familiar, concrete yet unraveling under my fingertips. A land of suburbia and thieves, of ladders and puzzles of instamatic Kodak images. Lovely.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joshua Marie Wilkinson is a remarkable poet of the generation now coming of age. His voice carries much of the wisdom of his poetic forebears, Paul Celan among them.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm re-reading this over and over again. So beautiful.

"In swimming pool light
the boy who freed the moth
plods back up the stairs, does
a little jig in the mirror
& flops
into bed.

He has cats & sisters & confuses on purpose
their names.

***

The machines
break down in a street sweeping huff

& the city has its
imperial way with us.

[Alana · Rating 5 out of 5]

***

Until I put your toe, with its little drop of blood,
into my mouth.

Until you work your fingernails into my lower back
like skin mites.

* * *

Until starlings return & nest in the engine.

Until you win the match point
with speed & integrity.

Until the storms break open the leaf-clogged ravine.

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many lines in this fragmented collection that I want to stencil onto my forehead. Great read (and introduction to the work of Wilkinson).

[Amanda Ventrudo · Rating 4 out of 5]

am not the best at following fragments but each of these floored me. (must try to remember to reread!)

[Jennine (Cheska) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am actually obsessed. Brilliant.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

if the "careless body" is the text that we live, then josh's writing is the gorgeous "lug" that unyieldingly examines actions as they pass through the lexicon of the world. i assume the "careful dusk" is the coherency that we must contend with with each gesture. josh's writing exists somewhere in between careful and careless, for instance, when a careless mattress turns into a door.

these aren't "poems"- a careless approach to conformity of the genre. They are extremely careful fragments that describe the small world of the moment. Inside a described space, elements become so intimate that in a "sun-kicked field" the sun is that close to the field. the fragments are stitched together with asterisks throughout the entire book, which allows them to fold over onto themselves, fold out into a larger world, and for a reader to snuggle in between and spread out under its covers.

No, I couldn't find my bicycle in the blizzard. how careless of me. josh asks us over and over to consider in what ways are we careless with our bodies, each other and love and how every object in our stratosphere can turn into a phrase that curiously reflects back inward, beyond our bodies, where we turn into the space between each other, between person and word, beyond caring to a deeper bond.

[W.B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've only read excerpts but I want it. Everything I read was well above the sublunary usual. Also, "Wolf Dust" on YouTube is a really great short short. The perceptual timing of those lights on the poem's "drive" are about perfect...you'd think someone studied Kandinsky's Farbstudien or summat. Those color studies have been abused horribly by design whores in recent years, but here it's more a real approximation of the sort of spiritual alchemy K. believed in. I'm not sure that's a real German word. I'll check and fix it. I like poets who can create mystery and not yank my chain doing it...first encountered a few short poems done to perfection in Court Green and since have enjoyed about everything I've seen by this poet. Interesting that the promo lists painters Rothenberg and Fischl as influences. Creeley wrote some amazing poems with her work...that series breaking the body up into components is about amazing. Fischl is pretty naked as naked goes. I wonder which poems were inspired by those scary takes on kill-or-be-killed families and dream seductions. I swear the five stars are not b/c he's probably one of the most handsome inhabitants of American poetry. That part's just gravy. Mazeltov, Joshua!

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Then Francis comes home to find
a plain old petty thief
at the fat window, sort of just
casually lurking around & says
you should take off your clothes
& have a drink & a bath & supper
around the corner with me, maybe
a few more drinks (certainly) & fall
in love & have tea, another bath, get
dressed & stop drinking so much, have some
eggs, though, enough with the pills already
& let me kiss your elbows & knuckles
good afternoon & goodbye.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

well, i'm a little disturbed that for a year and a half I thought this book was called "Lug your careless body out of the careful DUST." So I was kind of taken aback when, 10 pages from the end I glanced at the cover again and realized it was DUSK. i don't know what that says about my attention to poetic detail.
My favorite line is "Cities are for breaking you into several people at once."

[Charmi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was hard for me to rate this one. There were some good fragments, but on the whole the fragments just didn't get it for me. It was too fragmented. Personal taste, I guess.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though the title is better than the actual poems inside, it's still better than most modern (1960-present) poems I read there days.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like not as much.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ladders, birds, the serial.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

this guy was my teacher....AMAZING!

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

picked up at a used book store while on vacation. a very worthy piece of work.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

First full poetry book I've read - smart and captivating work. Highly recommended.

[Greg Bem · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt my insides contract and squeeze with images stolen and returned, a round robin of exchange and discovery, in a time neither here nor there.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Visceral and mostly dependent on the natural world and our responses to it. American haiku, fragmented and deep in its simplicity without giving a damn about syllable count. A lovely little book.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strong diction and unexpected turns of phrase....brilliant overall

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

film poems. yes.