GHOST in the Bloody Show (2004) by Martin Vest

GHOST in the Bloody Show is a starkly honest and often startling collection of poems about surviving on the edge of poverty by a tough survivor who has endured the deaths of friends by suicide, alcohol, drugs, relationships gone awry, and memories of other “outsider” writers, yet Martin Vest’s poems explore the beautiful depths of those experiences with a lyric and poignant clarity.

Over the years, Vest has stunned audiences with his stark and unembellished stories woven into poetic lines.

Vest was raised in Idaho and Tennessee. He says his earliest memories are of his father, a Nashville songwriter, typing out songs at an old Underwood typewriter. His poems have appeared across the nation in such journals as The New York Quarterly, Slipstream, Rattle, The Chiron Review, and Pearl. He has received several Pushcart Prize nominations.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of anonymity. People are always striving to become noticed,” Vest says. “To actively pursue your own anonymity makes you either a saint, a criminal, or Sasquatch … writers are a little bit of all three. Bob Dylan says, ‘To live outside the law, you must be honest.’ These poems are an attempt toward honesty.”