Inevitable Carbon

John David Muth is a brilliant and self-deprecating observer, eavesdropper and participant in a string of partially fulfilled relationships, the occasional poorly chosen vacation and half-way satisfying work days. He is the stand-up comic you would pay to see, who makes you cringe and thankful his experiences are happening to him and not you. As his head nods during a boring staff meeting then rings with pain, we hope he can convince them he was swatting a fly with his forehead, and who else has the nerve to write about a woman with a wandering eye, and whether she’s interested in him or the guy three tables away? For all of us who have had horrific experiences with online dating, emailed with someone from Russia who wants to come have a relationship if you send money, competed with social bloggers who belong in the 70’s, or tried to make humor from failed hopes of any kind of relationship or success at work, John David Muth’s Inevitable Carbon is for you. You are not alone. Muth was there to live it and document it with humor, hysterics and a little grace.

Tobi Alfier, co-editor of Blue Horse Press and San Pedro River Review

Prepare yourself for a wild ride through relationship hell in this fresh, sardonic collection from John Muth. Inevitable Carbon starts with “Portrait of a 21st Century Girl” whose tongue is a pink vampire / impaled by a metal spike. Here Mr. Muth sets the tone for the rest of the collection. “Dating is a Miranda Right” according to Muth and one can’t help but agree considering the narrator’s bad luck with women. Yet, somehow, this single 40-something never stops believing in a chance-meeting at a bookstore, the promise of a second date, or another road to nirvana. “In a Tiny Indian Restaurant” we see his soft underbelly, This tablecloth and I have much in common / stained and torn in places not so obvious. By the end of the collection the narrator is contemplating love in the poignant “A Hard Word to Say.” And though he never does say it, we are hopeful that he will, someday.

Susan Gerardi Bello, poetry editor for U.S. 1 Worksheets

These poems come across without pretension, with undressed honesty to touch a certain pathos of relations in our modern life as they describe the ever present dance between males and females, pitch perfect to our time. Wonderfully clever, instant shots of personal drama in conflation with some of our social and political scenarios that are all too familiar. I find John Muth’s characters tragic, comic, absurd, but the poems in their irony and humor, show kindness to their (and our) fallible human nature.

Carlos Hernández Peña, author of Moonmilk and Other Poems