Brass Knuckles
is a barroom pièce de résistance written by a poet with a wry smile on his face. Weaving together a tight knit debut collection of poems, Jared Riley Jenkins heralds forth a renaissance of bardic wisdom and lyrical precision within the folds of mystic sympathy. His voice is hardwired, arresting and at times challenging. Jared Riley encourages the reader to be more than just a spectator —he wants the reader as a sparring partner, willing and able to put down their phone and engage in the art and practice of reading poetry as an object of textural beauty.
In a world where everything is fungible and instantaneous, Brass Knuckles is a forged weapon at the ready, written by a poet fighting the good fight against the snares of technocracy.
Take a hold of your signed copy today.
Published by - B House Publication
“ THE POEMS RESIST CASUAL READING. THEY ARE DIFFICULT, DECEPTIVE, CHALLENGING. THEY RESIST CASUAL PERUSAL. THEY WANT A CAREFUL, ENGAGED READING. THEY DEMAND A HIGH DEGREE OF ACTIVE PARTICIPATION FROM THE READER. LET ME ASSURE YOU, THE REWARD IS WELL WORTH THE EFFORT.”
— Eugene Stickland, Playwright, W.O. Mitchell Award Winner
“THIS IS A GAME OF MYSTIC ATTRITION. A SISYPHEAN BOXING MATCH WITH THE GLOVES OFF. THE WAY IT IS / IS THE WAY IT WILL BE; THE MORNING BELLS SIGNALS THE START OF ANOTHER WAGER.”
— Jared Riley Jenkins, Excerpt from “ Brass Knuckles
ABOUT JARED
Jared Riley Jenkins is a poet currently living in Toronto, Ontario. He was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta where he received his BA from St. Mary’s University. Under the tutelage of many mad men, woman and saints, he has apprenticed in innumerable careers, working as a railway man across Western Canada; a gardener in Northern Ontario; a banker in small town Alberta; a bartender’s keeper in a Hole in the Wall and most recently, an electrician in the Big Smoke.
After 25 years of banging away at the typewriter and composing 1000’s of poems, he has rigorously nurtured and raised forth a voice that he can at long last call home. Brass Knuckles is his startling debut and reveals that, as Eugene Stickland writes in his introduction, “[w]ith this book, I believe we can say Jared has arrived and how wonderful in this insane and deeply shallow world we live in today that someone still cares to further the interests of poetry in such an uncompromising and intelligent fashion. / Enjoy the ride.”
