Poetry review – DISTANCE TO INFINITY: Charles Rammelkamp commends g emil reutter’s willingness to issue vigorous poetic warnings about dictatorships around the world and especially in the USA
Distance to Infinity
g emil reutter
Alien Buddha Press, 2025
ISBN: 979-8263553647
$11.50 47 pages
In the Introduction to his powerful new chapbook about the lengths to which the Trump administration is going to consolidate power, g. emil reutter sounds the alarm about the rise of autocratic rule all around the globe, not just in the United States (“Never Again,” “Burn Baby Burn”, “Bang” “Counterclockwise” and elsewhere). But, yes, indeed in the United States under the Trump regime the rule of law and the Constitution are under assault as they have never been before. This is what gives Distance to Infinity its urgency. Poets have an obligation to raise their voices in protest and warning, reutter reminds us. ‘From now into the distance to infinity we must always rise up and speak the truth.’
The slide into authoritarianism may seem subtle (though also jaw-droppingly heavy-handed). Many may not notice in the course of their daily lives. Many may not be paying attention. After all, as reutter begins and then concludes the opening poem, “Traitor”:
Subways grind along
Freights sound their horns
Commuter trains around their curves
Buses heave to and fro
As the people go about their business
As they do everyday
But make no mistake, this regime is only in it for itself, for the accumulation of wealth and the consolidation of power. In the poem “Incomplete,” reutter implicitly warns about the rapacious lust for control, even as the grand vision of the border wall, Trump’s glittery Wizard of Oz promise in the 2016 election, is revealed as puny, pathetic, ineffectual, the fifty-two miles built to guard against ‘shit hole countries…garbage people,’ not to mention the laughable vow ‘take care of women if / they like it or not.’ These proclamations are ultimately ridiculous, easy objects of scorn and ridicule. But don’t take your eyes off of the ball: these people are still relentlessly coming after our democracy.
While reutter is concerned about the United States, he widens the lens to take in the whole world – Russia, North Korea, China, Rwanda and other African countries, the nations of the Middle East. And of course the tragedy of Gaza. In the title poem he widens the lens even further. ‘Endless yet universe is finite,’ he begins. With reference to Zeno’s Paradox he notes the impossibility of reaching a goal (peace? harmony?). The poem ends enigmatically:
Endless motion, whirling, twirling
unbated, spinning at the speed of light……
INFINITY
Then Nothing.
Such an intriguing title! The assonance makes it fun to say; you can taste the poetry in the phrase. Yet it’s the poem “Pennywise” that, for me, conflates the universal picture of space and time with the immediate urgency of NOW:
Space and time — dense
as the man with little hands
big tie, suit made in sweat
shop, the grotesque comb over
whisks of hair of eve changing
color, pre-fab teeth, fake tan
fake man shreds constitution
as if a f-5 tornado, destroys moral
fabric as a runaway wrecking ball.
In the wake of this destruction
he peers out at us, the plastic
smile, as Pennywise the
dancing clown from the sewer
of his mind.
Never ending corruption dwarfs
Teapot Dome and Watergate
the rich get richer while this
snake oil salesman spins tales
of support for working people
who pay more and more
while he sits on his gold throne
in his tower of babble.
Nightmare continues as nation
judders, divide by design. This
will end either by the bright
light of freedom or in the
sewer gas of despair.
Donald Trump is a clown, no doubt about it. But like so many clowns, he presents a true danger. This is a truth to which g. emil reutter gives the full voice of a poet who heeds the alarm. Distance to Infinity is a full-throated expression of an apprehension that is quickly approaching panic levels.
Oct 8 2025
London Grip Poetry Review – g emil reutter
Poetry review – DISTANCE TO INFINITY: Charles Rammelkamp commends g emil reutter’s willingness to issue vigorous poetic warnings about dictatorships around the world and especially in the USA
In the Introduction to his powerful new chapbook about the lengths to which the Trump administration is going to consolidate power, g. emil reutter sounds the alarm about the rise of autocratic rule all around the globe, not just in the United States (“Never Again,” “Burn Baby Burn”, “Bang” “Counterclockwise” and elsewhere). But, yes, indeed in the United States under the Trump regime the rule of law and the Constitution are under assault as they have never been before. This is what gives Distance to Infinity its urgency. Poets have an obligation to raise their voices in protest and warning, reutter reminds us. ‘From now into the distance to infinity we must always rise up and speak the truth.’
The slide into authoritarianism may seem subtle (though also jaw-droppingly heavy-handed). Many may not notice in the course of their daily lives. Many may not be paying attention. After all, as reutter begins and then concludes the opening poem, “Traitor”:
But make no mistake, this regime is only in it for itself, for the accumulation of wealth and the consolidation of power. In the poem “Incomplete,” reutter implicitly warns about the rapacious lust for control, even as the grand vision of the border wall, Trump’s glittery Wizard of Oz promise in the 2016 election, is revealed as puny, pathetic, ineffectual, the fifty-two miles built to guard against ‘shit hole countries…garbage people,’ not to mention the laughable vow ‘take care of women if / they like it or not.’ These proclamations are ultimately ridiculous, easy objects of scorn and ridicule. But don’t take your eyes off of the ball: these people are still relentlessly coming after our democracy.
While reutter is concerned about the United States, he widens the lens to take in the whole world – Russia, North Korea, China, Rwanda and other African countries, the nations of the Middle East. And of course the tragedy of Gaza. In the title poem he widens the lens even further. ‘Endless yet universe is finite,’ he begins. With reference to Zeno’s Paradox he notes the impossibility of reaching a goal (peace? harmony?). The poem ends enigmatically:
Such an intriguing title! The assonance makes it fun to say; you can taste the poetry in the phrase. Yet it’s the poem “Pennywise” that, for me, conflates the universal picture of space and time with the immediate urgency of NOW:
Donald Trump is a clown, no doubt about it. But like so many clowns, he presents a true danger. This is a truth to which g. emil reutter gives the full voice of a poet who heeds the alarm. Distance to Infinity is a full-throated expression of an apprehension that is quickly approaching panic levels.