Michael Earl Craig

Born: 1970
Years Active: Presently active
Genre: Surrealist

Biography
Michael Craig is most definitely not Hemmingway, nor is he Mark Twain. He is clearly not Edgar Allen Poe and would laugh at being compared to Hunter S. Thompson. In fact, at first glance, the only thing that would seem remotely poetic about Michael Earl Craig is how completely ordinary and unpoetic his life seems. He is a man who is drenched in normality. Yet, often within the most average and unassuming man lies the soul of a poet. Such is the case with Craig.

Michael Earl Craig was born in 1970. The details of his life seem to be a well-kept secret. Whether this is of his own wishes, or simply a lack of public interest, it is hard to say. All that is known about him is that he is currently living in Livingston, Montana, where he works as a farrier, making horseshoes and taking care of horse hooves. While he has only published a small amount of books, his poems have appeared in such magazines and journals as Verse, Volt, Jubilat, Cutbank, The Iowa Review, Dunes Review, and Provincetown Arts.

There seems to be a very inviting quality about Craig’s work. He has a tendency to open his poems by welcoming the reader in casually and without any real force as in, Master Chang and Student, which he starts off “Something came to mind this morning:/ a pudding esplanade.” From there, his ability to put together humorous two-liners encourages the reader and holds their interest as in the line from the same poem, “Ideal for Sigourney Weaver tombstone:/ You saw my panties in alien.” Perhaps the most recognizable theme in Craig’s poems is his uncanny ability to pick out seemingly unimportant and mundane details that would likely have gone overlooked and give them great import. It leaves the reader with a feeling of, “well I guess I always saw it that way, I just never really thought about it.”


Major Works:
2002: You Can Relax In My House
2004: Isn’t it Romantic
2006: Yes, Master

Moods:

Humorous – “When I look at the box of Twinkies/
They make me want to puke./
I eat ten of them./
Ten is all I can eat./
Now two remain, and I look at them./
For some reason I don’t feel so sick./
I don’t feel sick at all./
I think I can eat them” from Untitled.

Outlandish – “Today you strike me as needing something./ 
So take my ten-thousand-pound typewriter . . ./ 
. . . For here is an older,/ 
other world, taking almost forty sheep to make one sock.” from Can You Relax In My House

Naturalistic- “A horse is walked before me/ and needs her toes shortened”

Absurd – “I’d like to see just once/ the rabbit box this hawk”

Ironic – “On my way to see my therapist/… She always cries during out sessions.” from Seashore.

Groups or Movements

Surrealist
The surrealist movement began in Europe during the early 1920’s as a reaction to the harsh realities of World War I. Unlike the movements predecessor, the Dada movement, which focused on “anti-art”, setting out to deliberately break rules and defy reason, the surrealist movement emphasized positive expression. It sprung up as the antithesis of rationalism, which many believed was the mind-set responsible for guiding Europe into both of the World Wars. Rather than view the world as strictly black and white and constrained by what seemed plausible and concrete, surrealist writers tried to achieve a joining of the dreams and reality. Their goal was the joining of the conscious and the unconscious through artistic expression.
One of the prevailing traits of Michael Earl Craig’s work is his ability to take that which seems commonplace and ordinary and make seem extraordinary. His way of looking at the world are unapologetically unique and individualize, a point which he is quick to point that out and does so in his poem, Ways of Dealing, after describing a collection of money he is handling, “The bills smell like sharkskin,/ shake like celebrity boobs./ You can’t leave it to me to describe your world.”

Similar Artist

James Tate
Much like Craig, James Tate is a master of imagery and has a tendency towards a chaotic style According to Tate, “I like being in the world of Michael Craig's poems. Anything can happen, and probably will, and it will affect me in small or large ways that I couldn't have imagined. The precision of their imagery keeps me reeling with delight.” Both Tate and Craig have a level of insight into the surreal and ability to make the normal seem strangely bizarre and the bizarre seem mundanely normal.


Follower
Ian Kunkes (me)
I know this may seem like a cop out, but bear with me. In trying to do this assignment, I was forced to truly dig for each and every scrap of information and poetry available, which was no easy task. In doing so, I was only able to find a very small amount of his poetry. I managed to find a very short interview with him that I found particularly interesting and inspiring. In it, he talks about his work as a farrier. He talks about how much he loves his job, where he gets to work with his hands, using tools that have been around for centuries. He is a man who has a true passion for his job. He also talks about why, given this passion for his day job, he continues to work as a poet. What he basically says is that he loves how ordinary, yet profound he feels his job is, on top fo the fact that it pays the bills. He also talks about this is what influences him to write. He has a way of looking at the world where he is constantly finding things in life that others wouldn’t find and he is abel to express them through poetry. So what it comes down to, is I am inspired by a man who is passionate about his day job, no matter how common-place it may be, and who finds poetry in the ordinary.

Influenced by

Andre Brenton
Brenton is credited as being the founder of the surrealist movement with his book, The Manifesto of Surrealism. Until he started writing, that which we would have considered surreal had a very negative and almost nihilistic view of the world as it was a reaction to the harsh conditions of Europe during World War I. Brenton decided to take a different approach and put a positive spin on fantastical and surreal approaches to literature. He opened the door for other writers, like Craig, to find bizarre humor in unconscious connections in every day life.

Benjamin Peret
Peret was considered the first surrealist poet. His work is characterized by a wild and unrestrained style, which I see in many of Craig’s works. Additionally, Peret, like Craig, has a tendency to go off on tangents about the most common place events and details, until the reader is forced to question what the point is, only to allow his imagination to run amok on the idea with little regard. This is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting and appealing aspects of both poets writing.

Sites Consulted:

http://www.foumagazine.net/MEC.htm
http://www.hoboeye.com/word1.htm
http://greatamericanpinup.blogspot.com/2005/08/can-you-relax-in-my-housemichael-earl.html
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/fence-journal.html
http://www.bearparade.com/2006/04/touch_my_omeletby_michael_earl.html
http://reviews.coldfrontmag.com/2006/11/yes_master_by_m.html
http://www.surrealist.com/
http://alangullette.com/lit/surreal/