Gutting Cats in Search of Fiddles

“Let me assure you of my attraction to Blazek’s work. I like it, admire its energy and imagination. I am a sucker for poems of this nature. They’re my bread and butter.” – Thomas Lux

Gutting Cats In Search Of Fiddles is the second title in a long awaited series of books representing the life’s work of Douglas Blazek.

Achieving prominence in his first 25 years, Douglas Blazek was known as an instrumental figure in the sixties literary movement, the Mimeo Revolution: publishing his poems in over 500 journals, authoring several dozen books and chapbooks, and editing the infamous journal Olé, in which formative work by Charles Bukowski and d.a. Levy were published. John Martin of Black Sparrow Press spoke of Olé as “the best and most important of the lot” but added “that Blazek’s own poetry is by far the most important.” This was the moment that Blazek vowed to make poetry dangerous. 

Several years later, reaching what he felt was his limit, Blazek backed away from these accomplishments to write new poetry and painstakingly revise his existing material for the three decades that followed.

After this meticulous thirty year process the series of titles now being published by Edition Muta represents the poet’s complete life’s work.

“I’ve been a fan of Blazek’s for thirty years. His poems have always had a special power for me, and I’m happy they were there at the very beginning.” – Albert Goldbarth