This is Wayne F. Burke's seventh full-length collection since he began to publish his poetry in 2013 after a major health scare. The writing is characteristically first person, narrative in form and features a wide variety of voices and subject matter. There are 53 poems in this collection which are divided into eight loosely thematic sections, each which begins with a cryptic heading.
Similar to Burke’s earlier collections, the poems are typically confessional and 20-30 lines in length and use anecdotal detail in simple, highly accessible language. The words hug the left margin and cascade down the page without the relief of stanzas, full-stops, literary allusions or the intricate use of figurative language.
Some of the poems in the collection have previously appeared in iconic small press publications such as Unlikely Stories, The Daily Dope Fiend, Beatnik Cowboy, Mad Swirl and other fine places.
The title ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET CROUTON is referenced in the poem ‘Dee-Wee’ in section 2 of the book. The speaker says:
I live
here
on Planet Crouton
in an a.p.t.
with the shades drawn
and doors locked
on the 2ndfloor
of a house
on the back street
in a town
some people avoid
Burke told me recently about the title, “Crouton is without geographic correlative: it is a state of mind, spirit, and emotion. A negative state, standing for all that is crass, loutish, insensitive, and uninspired. Escape from which may be impossible, yet, through great effort, all may rise above the littleness and small-minded provincialism of Crouton and its Croutinians.”
Crouton is most likely a satirical Swiftian reference to middle America and its inane values. This way of life, as represented throughout the book- the shallowness of relationships and the quest for quick gratification through alcohol or sex are mocked by Burke. The people represented in the book aren’t able to escape their environments as they never gain a critical sense of self-awareness.
To give you a better idea of what you may discover in the book, here's a brief overview of the 8 sections. There are between 4 and 10 poems in each section:
To give you a better idea of what you may discover in the book, here's a brief overview of the 8 sections. There are between 4 and 10 poems in each section:
1. These poems take us back to Burke’s childhood in the late 1950s and 1960s, to a time when people suffered from highly infectious diseases (‘Polio’, ‘TB’), kids ran from the cops after wild pranks without being shot (‘M-80’), teachers lived within their own communities and saw the teaching of English as the study of grammar & spelling rather than a practical basis for communication (‘Palmer Method’, ‘Prepositioned’) and it was a time when kids could briefly disappear and not be noticed by their parents (‘Runaway’).
2. This section is comprised of poems from the point of view of a speaker, perhaps Burke, looking back at his adolescence- at dead-end summer jobs (‘Highway’), being given a ticket for speeding (‘Hot Ticket’) and getting fired for arriving at work pissed (‘Tattoo’).
3. These are portrait poems, usually of artists such as ‘Van Gogh’, ‘Pollack’, ‘Al Dugan (1923-2003)’ and Bukowski (‘The Track’).
4. Most of the poems in this section appear to be from the point of view of Dick, a loutish drunk. The last poem adds variety and surprise, reminiscent of Billy Collins’s death poems in which a dead person narrates his own demise:
Another Day
they find me sitting up
in my chair
on the back porch
mid-afternoon
gray sky
no visitors for weeks,
maybe more;
my head back
mouth open
eyes pecked-out by birds,
holy shit, a cop says.
I hear him clear as day
I can see him too,
eyes or no eyes,
I am in the sky
above the old ash tree,
seems I can fly,
or something
holds me up,
don’t know what,
it is odd
like the sun
setting
in the east
red
like the blanket
the cops
threw over my face.
(all poems in this review are posted with the permission of the poet)
5. I think this is the best section in the collection. (It is numbered 6 in the book). It appears to be autobiographical in form from Burke’s present perspective. He writes about his insecurities (’Hypnopompic’) and his struggles with Type 2 diabetes (‘Glucose’). More importantly, Burke outlines who he writes for (‘I Write for the Factory Workers’), how the publication of his first book of poetry Words That Burn (BareBack Press, 2013) rejuvenated his spirits (‘1stBook’) and how he is now addicted to the process of publishing more of his work (‘Excavation’). The latter poem recalls his triple bypass, an event which Burke writes in his Author’s Note in his second book DICKHEAD (2015, BareBack Press) as prompting him “to begin writing daily and with a sort of vengeance.”
Excavation
digging poems out of a 4-foot high stack
of drafts
to try and revive ones
that almost made it,
close but no cigar:
digging down seven years
to my triple bypass
the bloody remnants
of that trip under lights
the doc and other spacemen
and women in blue scrubs, masks
wheeled me into the
cold operating room,
administered the anesthetic;
I woke in the dark,
a death crypt of some kind
it seemed- in bed with a tube
stuck into my chest,
an iron-curtain ahead
moved back & forth
like fate…
Two nurses told me
get up
out of bed
I said, I can’t
one said, yes you can
they made me stand
and walk
to a chair
in a corner
where I sat
and stared out at
the strange world,
a taste of blood
in my mouth,
and wondering when
my next pill was due.
6. This section is about the speaker’s dysfunctional relationship with women, including his wife. ‘The Old Lady’ and ‘Spit’ are sexually explicit and oddly compelling in a grim, dissociative kind of way.
7 & 8 include an eclectic bunch of poems about a variety of subject matter- baseball (‘Greatness’), travel observations (‘Dublin’, ‘Budapest’, ‘Last Bus’) and alcoholism (‘In Case of Emergency’ and ‘Shut-Off’).
The quirky poem ‘Door-Knob’ may evoke in the reader an unsettling memory of predatory behaviour they may have previously read about in newspapers. The seeming randomness of the narrative has been planned all along by a devious mind, although hugely understated by Burke:
Door-Knob
walking through well-lit hallways of
an apartment building trying door knobs
until one turns
and I walk into
a dark room
faintly lit
by streetlights
other rooms
also dark.
A back room
And a girl
Lying on a mattress
On the floor
I kneel and massage her
bare back,
she stirs and moans
contently;
a gust of wind sweeps-up the
window curtain and
it or something else
calls me elsewhere
and I leave,
wander city streets
who knows how long or
where
before I am back at the door
only now locked
and as I tug the knob
the curtain in the window
is swept aside
and a girl, eyes stark
stares back
terrified.
After seven years and eight full-length poetry books, Wayne F. Burke remains a man on a mission. He writes with great clarity about being trapped by the general malaise and hollowness of contemporary American living, of the underlying discontentment and fakeness of life- and in order to cope- how we drown ourselves in booze, religion, apathy, & in his case, art.
Buy the book here: https://www.bookdepository.com/Escape-From-Planet-Crouton-Wayne-F-Burke/9781950380787
Buy the book here: https://www.bookdepository.com/Escape-From-Planet-Crouton-Wayne-F-Burke/9781950380787
Luchador Press is a new venture, off-shoot of Spartan Press out of the American mid-West. Burke’s book of short stories Turmoil & Other Stories is due out at end of year from Adelaide Press (NY,NY).
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