poetry Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Cemetery Dance Online

Review: Fortunate by Kim Rashidi

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 3, 2022May 1, 2022ReviewsFortunate, Joshua Gage, Kim Rashidi, poetry, ReviewsLeave a comment

Fortunate by Kim Rashidi
Andrews McMeel Publishing (May 3, 2022)
161 pages; $14.99 paperback; $7.16 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Kim Rashidi is a 24-year-old poet based in Toronto. She explores the cosmos through her words and has a soft spot for capturing love and life in the mundane. Writing about the lives, cities, and timelines that mirror back the romantic, she weaves reality with imagined possibilities. She holds an MA in English literature and has taken to poetry since she was 16. Her newest collection is Fortunate, a series of poems based upon the Waite-Rider-Smith tarot deck.Continue Reading

Review: A History of Touch by Erin Emily Ann Vance

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 25, 2022April 16, 2022ReviewsA History of Touch, Erin Emily Ann Vance, Joshua Gage, poetry, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of A History of Touch A History of Touch by Erin Emily Ann Vance
Guernica Editions (May 1, 2022)
101 pages; $17.95 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Erin Emily Ann Vance is the author of the novel Advice for Taxidermists and Amateur Beekeepers (Stonehouse Publishing 2019) as well as six chapbooks of poetry. She was a recipient of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Young Artist Prize in 2017 (nominated by Aritha van Herk) and a finalist for the 2018 Alberta Magazine Awards for her short story “All the Pretty Bones.” Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in magazines and journals all over the world. Her newest poetry collection is A History of Touch, which is a profound collection of poetry about women who were ill, disabled, mad, or simply too rebellious, and the fates they faced.Continue Reading

Review: Escaping the Body by Chloe N. Clark

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 4, 2022February 20, 2022ReviewsChloe Clark, Escaping the Body, Joshua Gage, poetry, ReviewsLeave a comment

Escaping the Body by Chloe N. Clark
Interstellar Flight Press (March 7, 2022)
118 pages; $12.99 paperback; $9.99 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Chloe N. Clark is the author of Collective Gravities, Under My Tongue, Your Strange Fortune, and The Science of Unvanishing Objects. Her forthcoming books include Every Song a Vengeance and My Prayer is a Dagger, Yours is the Moon. She is a founding co-EIC of literary journal Cotton Xenomorph. Her favorite basketball player will always be Rasheed Wallace and her favorite escape artist can only be Houdini. Her newest collection, Escaping the Body, is a tour de force exploring the physical body and the liminal spaces between one’s soul and one’s skin and bones. Continue Reading

Review: Dancing With Maria’s Ghost by Alessandro Manzetti

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 18, 2022February 13, 2022ReviewsAlessandro Manzetti, Anton Cancre, Dancing with Maria's Ghost, poetry, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Dancing with Maria's Ghost Dancing With Maria’s Ghost by Alessandro Manzetti
Independent Legions (December 2021)
65 pages; $11.90 paperback, $2.99 ebook
Reviewed by Anton Cancre

Alessandro Manzetti always does a great job of evoking a narrative with his poems. He has figured out a great balance of information given and withheld within the swirling images his poems paint that hints at the larger narrative beyond what we are given. I love it. So, when he has a narrative stretched over fifteen poems, you know I’m in. Continue Reading

Review: Pangaea: Prose and Poetry by Hinna Mian

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 24, 2022January 15, 2022ReviewsHinnah Mian, Joshua Gage, Pangaea, poetry, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Pangaea: Prose and Poetry Pangaea: Prose and Poetry by Hinnah Mian
Central Avenue Publishing (February 8, 2022)
128 pages; $16.99 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Hinnah Mian is a Pakistani American poet and author whose work has appeared in Harness Magazine, JUMP, Blue Minaret, and The Rising Phoenix Review. Her first book, To Build a Home, won silver in the Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards. She spends her time journaling, exploring, and living out her days with the love of her life — her dog, Felix. Her newest collection, Pangaea: Prose and Poetry explores the horrors and traumas inflicted on one’s body in a striking and poignant collection.Continue Reading

Review: Coffin Honey by Todd Davis

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 17, 2022January 9, 2022ReviewsCoffin Honey, Joshua Gage, poetry, Reviews, Todd DavisLeave a comment

Coffin Honey by Todd Davis
Michigan State University Press (February 1, 2022)
147 pages; $19.95 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

In Coffin Honey, Todd Davis explores themes of violence and how people hurt each other. The book is broken into sections, each one reading like a short story told in narrative poems, which makes for some haunting connections between the poems. For example, the first section contains the poem “Taxidermy: Cathartes Aura” with lines like:

The bird’s spiraling descent
was unexpected, like when
his uncle touched him
in the cellar as he shoveled
coal for winter, telling him
he couldn’t have the fried
doughnuts sprinkled
with confectioner’s sugar
if he screamed
or told his mother.

Review: The Smallest of Bones by Holly Lyn Walrath

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 17, 2021September 19, 2021ReviewsCLASH Books, Holly Lynn Walrath, Joshua Gage, poetry, Reviews, The Smallest of BonesLeave a comment

cover of The Smallest of Bones by Holly Lynn Walrath The Smallest of Bones by Holly Lyn Walrath
Clash Books (September 28, 2021)
90 pages; $14.95 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Holly Lyn Walrath’s poetry and short fiction appears in Strange Horizons, Fireside Fiction, Daily Science Fiction, Liminality, and Analog. She is the author of Glimmerglass Girl (Finishing Line Press, 2018), winner of the Elgin Award for best speculative chapbook, and Numinose Lapidi, a chapbook in Italian from Kipple Press. Her newest collection is The Smallest of Bones, a collection of minimalist poems that deal with the body and the horrors found within.Continue Reading

Review: Meaningless Cycles in a Vicious Glass Prison: Songs of Death and Love by Anton Cancre

Cemetery Dance OnlineNovember 12, 2020November 8, 2020ReviewsAnton Cancre, Joshua Gage, Meaningless Cycles in a Vicious Glass Prison, poetry, Reviews, Songs of Death and LoveLeave a comment

cover for Anton Cancre's poetry collection Meaningless Cycles in a Vicious Glass Prison: Songs of Death and Love by Anton Cancre
Dragon’s Roost Press (October 2020)
114 pages, $9.99 Paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

In Meaningless Cycles in a Vicious Glass Prison: Songs of Death and Love, Anton Cancre creates scenes of death and works to capture them in short, poignant poems. Cancre works within various horror tropes but does his best to keep the ideas fresh and visceral for the reader. This is an interesting collection, and while the poetry is inconsistent at times, fans of horror poetry will enjoy perusing it.Continue Reading

Review: A Route Obscure and Lonely by LindaAnn LoSchiavo

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 22, 2020July 17, 2020ReviewsA Route Obscure and Lonely, Joshua Gage, LindaAnn LoSchiavo, poetry, ReviewsLeave a comment

A Route Obscure and Lonely by LindaAnn LoSchiavo
The Wapshott Press (December 2019)
60 pages, $7.50 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

A Route Obscure and Lonely is a unique artifact in horror poetry. It’s primarily in blank verse, and while formal horror poetry isn’t rare, what makes LindaAnn LoSchiavo’s poetry unique is that she doesn’t let the form control her poems. While many formalist horror poets fall back on outdated tropes and clichés in their writing, LoSchiavo is able to use those tools and make a very rhythmic poem, while also using modern ideas and imagery to update her poems to 21st century pieces.Continue Reading

FREE email updates!

Categories