See What I Mean?

What a glorious grab bag Charles Rammelkamp's latest, See What I Mean, is. Mixing mostly poetry with some flash fiction pieces, the collection takes us on a tour from the miserable life of Beethoven's nephew Karl, to the expedition that found the frozen remains of Robert Falcon Scott on the Antarctic Ross Ice Shelf, to the horrors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot when whites ripped through Greenwood, the Black section of town (from the point of view of a Black high school teacher, telling the horrible tale to his class and particularly to one disbelieving student), to the 21st century world of sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, and yoga, all observed with Rammelkamp's ironic eye and well-turned phrase.

-Robert Cooperman, A Nightmare on Horseback (Kelsay Books) and Bearing the Body of Hector Home (FutureCycle Press)

From the life and times of Peter Roget (father of the thesaurus) and Beethoven family drama, to recent pandemic restrictions and modern-day politics, See What I Mean? has it all: life and death; love and hate; war and peace; the guilt of privilege and the release of yoga-even mutating cooties! Spend some time with Charles Rammelkamp's latest collection and you'll ... see what I mean.

-Eric D. Goodman, author of Wrecks & Ruins and Tracks: A Novel in Stories

The title of Charles Rammelkamp's new poetry collection, See What I Mean? taps the reader on the shoulder and reels us in as participants in the harrowing social issues of our time-because these poems speak to us so fluently and are relatable. And we definitely see what Rammelkamp means. Who hasn't suffered from the repercussions of the coronavirus? A computer virus? Witnessed racism? The subject matter is hard hitting at times, addressing the reality of text message bullying and teen suicide, as in "Like Romeo and Juliet, Only Tragic," or rape, in "Twitterpated." These poems are meted out as one raw moment after the next, to remind us what this world is, and what we face as human beings grappling to understand what drives us to behave as we do.

-Jennifer Juneau, author of More Than Moon and UberChef USA