“The poems of Wolfgang Carstens are like Tyson’s punches in his prime. It may take 10, it may take 110—but you are getting knocked the fuck out.”
—Brenton Booth, Punching The Teeth From The Sky
“BULLETPROOF is a short, punchy and powerful collection of poems. Carstens looks death in its blackest eye, with anger, sorrow, and humour, and emerges victorious.”
—Magdalena Ball, The Compulsive Reader
“BULLETPROOF is both funny and sober, approaching themes of death from many directions: regret, denial, defiance, inevitability.”
—Elynn Alexander, Full of Crow 
“Carstens should be a sharp-shooter, he’s always on target. He has the ability to haunt your dreams, charm you over morning coffee, and invite you out on Main St. for a duel at high-noon. Read him, feel the hair on the back of your neck tingle, and the piercing of your heart—when he pulls the trigger...”
—Bill Gainer, Lipstick and Bullet Holes
“In BULLETPROOF Wolfgang Carstens uses terse language of an exactitude unsparing inessentials to make a defiantly unsentimental last stand. Like a Daniel Boone of poetry—stoic yet capable of deep emotion—Carstens acknowledges brute existence, but does not give in to it, exults even, in his (and our) continuance, and with mordant wit, skewers vicissitude.”
—Wayne F. Burke, Dickhead
“The poems in BULLETPROOF remind us to pay attention, to walk your dog more often while she can still walk, & not take shit for granted.”
—David McLean, Cadaver's Dance
“With precise timing, gut punching lines, and a crackling wit, Wolfgang Carstens' BULLETPROOF stands on the precipice of the universe and looks all that nothingness right in the eye. Carstens has the balls to say what we all feel, to laugh when we would otherwise cry and to cry when we would laugh. His work lays bare our humanity, our commonality, and, with an unflinching eye, reminds us that we’re all going to die so we better make the most of it.”
—Ally Malinenko, Better Luck Next Year
“The poems in BULLETPROOF feel like a Stooges concert circa 1971; raw power and serious action. The language is lean, the subjects are street tough, and the poems don’t require a thesaurus or explanation. They just rip through the flesh and bone like a hollow point valentine from the devil. This is the kick in the nuts that modern poetry needs.”
--Todd Cirillo, Burning the Evidence
“Death thrusts a stake through our identity, our consciousness, and it ends all our hopes and dreams for the future. But in Carstens’ fiendish, creative hands, Death can also be seen in terms of a celebration, a renewal, a beer in the hand between equals.”
​—George Anderson, Bold Monkey
“Carstens tackles an inextinguishable topic with finesse, injecting a new perspective into a tired concept.”
—Christopher Byck, 48th Street Press
“My work is with suicide, helping people stick around long enough to learn skills so they get to experience life worth living. I help people through intense pain, and the work catches up with me. The work from the weekend before I read BULLETPROOF meant I later cried, and that was ok. Then I read Wolfgang Carstens' words and laughed A LOT. And THAT was really ok. I meet a lot of poets through my podcast, Talk With ME. Wolfgang is one who truly hits the spot. I love the BULLETPROOF poems.”
—Marcia Epstein, LMSW
BULLETPROOF is Wolfgang Carstens’ latest publication and it further establishes Carstens as one of the finest and strongest poets currently writing in the underground/small press; Carstens writes with his usual M.O.; he has taken off the gloves and has unleashed a truly blistering and startling volley of 21 short poems that hit the gut and head hard; the imagery drawn from poems like, “my father spent,” “i put my dog,” “reasons to quit,” “you started walking,” “it’s not rocket science” and “i want my funeral” will leave you hanging onto the ropes feeling dazed, shaken and a little bruised but also will leave you wanting more. Each poem strikes the target square on with a rawness and truth of compassion; frequently the poems are threaded with a barbed sense of humour that sometimes stings with a sadness and of deep reflection; Carstens is a Heavyweight with a quality, style and a voice all of his own; do yourself a favour and buy this beautiful and insightful ass-kicking book of poetry which carries a striking illustrated front cover from the ever wonderfully talented Janne Karlsson; it doesn’t get better than this.
—John D Robinson, Holy & Intoxicated Publications

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Carstens, Wolfgang, author
          Bulletproof / Wolfgang Carstens. -- 1st edition.

Poems.
ISBN 978-1-897180-80-8 (softcover)
 
          I. Title.

PS8605.A77768B85 2017        C811'.6        C2016-908142-7 ​