Rick Christiansen is a poetic archeologist pealing back the layers of his life with no anesthetic. Each transgressive event is dug up and laid out on the white earth of the page for the reader to see. Each poem in this amazing book is a bit of bone from the broken skeleton of his life. Bone Fragments opens the poet's life to what must be confronted, must be negotiated, must be accepted, and what must be surrendered, then finally to believe it all and laugh. Christiansen conducts a brilliant, heartfelt and painful excavation of his life. If readers only read one book of poetry this year, it should be Bone Fragments.
-Walter Bargen, First Poet Laureate of Missouri, author of Radiation Diary
Rick Christiansen is a poetic archeologist pealing back the layers of his life with no anesthetic. Each transgressive event is dug up and laid out on the white earth of the page for the reader to see. Each poem in this amazing book is a bit of bone from the broken skeleton of his life. Bone Fragments opens the poet's life to what must be confronted, must be negotiated, must be accepted, and what must be surrendered, then finally to believe it all and laugh. Christiansen conducts a brilliant, heartfelt and painful excavation of his life. If readers only read one book of poetry this year, it should be Bone Fragments.
-Walter Bargen, First Poet Laureate of Missouri, author of Radiation Diary