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About CarthageCarthage is Baron Wormser’s chapbook about an American president. Stephen Dunn has written about Carthage that “From the outset we recognize Carthage, Baron Wormser’s replica of a president befuddled by events he’s helped create yet cognizant enough to know that he can exercise enormous power. He invades a country, and Wormser has him think, ‘It doesn’t feel like much though. / You’re excited for a few days / And then you’re back to thinking about waffles.’” While recognizable, Carthage is sadder, more complicated, and even more pedestrian than his model. This is Wormser’s achievement. Through his droll and deft mediation and orchestration of effects, he has imagined for us a man who’s a frightening mix of power and banality.” The Portland Phoenix wrote about Carthage : “Wormser never misplaces himself. He is always just on the boundaries of his poems, leaving us with a main character we come to know as deep, conflicted, and someone who probably shouldn’t be running our country, all things being equal. But those are conclusions we’re allowed to reach for ourselves, and conclusions that require more than a little self-inquiry along the way.” Read a Poem from CarthageListen to Poems from CarthageHow to OrderCarthage is in its third printing and can be ordered directly from Baron Wormser for $12.25 per copy (add 50 cents per copy for Maine residents) by sending a check to 834 Thistle Hill Road, Marshfield, VT 05658, or on the Net at Jane Street Press. Containing fourteen poems on high-quality paper, Carthage also features cover art by the noted designer and artist Peter Cusack. |
