Yaddith Times

It's National Poetry Month in the United States! Are you revved up? Curious? Or completely confused?

Whichever the case, you can learn all about it here:

https://poets.org/national-poetry-month

Need more poetry in your life this month? You can sign up for free poems (usually daily) in your Inbox here:

https://poets.org/poem-a-day

or here:

https://poems.com/

or here:

https://www.rattle.com/

I'll be posting more sources & info as the month goes on, but for now -- why not treat yourself? Nobody needs an all-prose diet.

The Carrying: Poems by Ada Limon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I chose to read this collection for National Poetry Month because it followed me home from a favorite used bookstore, because it is by the current Poet Laureate of the US, & most importantly because I've previously enjoyed Limon's work.

I found this particular group of poems to be much more personal than others I've read by her, however. Some seemed nearly confessional, which I wasn't expecting. Quite a number of them dealt with fertility concerns, though never obsessively -- the concern was simply interwoven with anything & everything else in the poem. It felt natural, but didn't happen to be something this reader could easily relate to. Other aspects of her daily life, & the incredibly lyrical way she launched her thoughts from them, made much more of an impression on me.

Some of these poems are fairly highly structured, while others -- mostly the longer ones -- are free-form to the point of stream of consciousness. For me, the more structured ones worked better. I'm formalist poet myself, so this obviously influenced my view. In nearly all these poems, however, I came to at least one moment or line which made me catch my breath & reread more carefully. I'm not sure I can ask a lot more from poetry read for pleasure, which The Carrying definitely is.

Recommended for anyone seeking a strongly female, modern, & highly accessible view of daily life in quiet natural surroundings, or simply looking for something lovely to read in small doses.








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I'm very happy to announce that the latest issue of Abyss & Apex is up, with a poem by Yours Truly -- "In the Dream Bunkers," which appears to be the only bit of formal verse in this issue. Being a Spenserian sonnet, however, it's formal with a vengeance.

Find it here:

https://www.abyssapexzine.com/2021/01/in-the-dream-bunkers/

And the whole wonderful TOC for this issue here:

https://www.abyssapexzine.com/

Women in Horror Month is (officially) over, but I'm the featured WiH today on Colleen Anderson's highly informative blog. Bio/publication information, a short series of interview questions, & two poems are all here:


https://colleenanderson.wordpress.com/2020/03/01/women-in-horror-extended-ann-schwader/

Many thanks to Colleen!

. . . & Yours Truly is doing the Grateful Happy Dance.

https://ellendatlow.com/2019/09/15/full-recommended-list-for-2019-best-horror-of-the-year-volume-eleven-part-4/

My Mythos tale "Inheritance" (What October Brings, Celaeno Press) and dark fantasy poem "The Dark Reclaims Us" (Spectral Realms #9, Hippocampus Press) both appear here.

Big congrats to everyone who made the list, & thanks to klward for letting me know while I was traveling.

I'm a happy weirdie!

Weird Fiction Review #9 (listed as Fall 2018, but appearing in early 2019) and Spectral Realms #10 (Winter 2019), both edited by S.T. Joshi, are now available.

And I've got new poems in both of them.

Weird Fiction Review #9 -- a truly massive (over 400 pp.!) annual compilation of fiction, poetry, articles, & reviews -- is available from Colorado publisher Centipede Press. Find more information & a sale price here:

http://www.centipedepress.com/anthologies/wfreview9.html


Spectral Realms #10, THE twice-yearly journal of weird verse & reviews, is available from Hippocampus Press. This issue offers a full index to issues #1-10. Find ToC & ordering information here:

https://tinyurl.com/y69ey928

Beastly Boys and Ghastly Girls by William Cole

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was one of my favorite childhood library books (I think I must have checked it out at least half a dozen times), & I couldn't resist revisiting it recently via inter-library loan.

I'm happy to report that it's as strange as it ever was. This is a truly dark little item, with children's verses from some unexpected sources (A.E. Housman? John Ciardi?) as well as the classic ones (Lewis Carroll, A. A. Milne, Ogden Nash, Gellett Burgess, Shelley Silverstein). The line drawings by Tomi Ungerer are a treat in themselves.

Some of the offerings seem a little dated. The book was published in 1964, after all, & most of the poems are older than that. Many are cheerfully morbid. The rhymes are infectious, however, and might actually tempt a young reader into liking poetry. Or even writing some.

At least that's how it worked with me.









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Another January, another resounding thump as the latest issue of Weird Fiction Review from Centipede Press lands in my mailbox! This is issue #8, & possibly the largest ever at a whopping 391 pages.

Edited (as usual) by independent Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi, #8 is an homage to classic Weird Tales. Eleven tales, thirteen essays and interviews, and nine poems are included -- including one by Yours Truly. I'm particularly excited about Wade German's "Gorgonum Chaos," five pages of well-crafted narrative blank verse.

The production values of this sewn trade paperback annual are first-rate, and include several sections in color plus a full-color cover. All in all, an excellent choice for the long winter evenings still ahead -- and I'm proud to be a part of it.

For full details, or to order:

http://www.centipedepress.com/anthologies/wfreview8.html

HWA Poetry Showcase Volume IV by David E. Cowen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


[Disclaimer: I have a poem in this collection. Furthermore, it's one of the "special mention" poems the jurors chose to recognize this year. Please consider this review as more of a buyers' guide.]

This year's HWA Poetry Showcase celebrates the poetic side of the Dark Art of horror writing, as practiced by the HWA membership. It functions as both a contest and a showcase -- there are 3 Featured Poems (winners) and 3 Special Mention poems ( runners-up). The Kindle edition is fully indexed, and all the poems appear to have survived the conversion from print -- at least, so far as I could tell by comparing to a PDF copy. This in itself is notable!

The poems themselves are very diverse -- mainly free verse, but with a fair number of formal works as well. Most of the poems here are narrative. Subject matter and tone vary widely, though there was quite a bit of graveyard/ body horror. Almost all the works here would be very accessible to readers of prose horror.

An optimistic "Note from the Editor" -- David E. Cowen -- celebrates and comments upon the survival of dark poetry and other speculative verse, even in a time when mainstream poetry seems to be struggling in America.





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Just in time for H.P. Lovecraft's birthday (August 20th), Spectral Realms #7 is now available from Hippocampus Press http://tinyurl.com/ya8xglow . Edited by S.T. Joshi, this latest issue of the twice-yearly journal of weird verse offers over 120 pages of poems and related articles from old hands and newer practitioners.


Contributing poets include Richard L. Tierney, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, John Shirley, Ashley Dioses, K.A. Opperman, David Barker, F.J. Bergman, and Yours Truly -- among others. (Full disclosure: I have three poems in this issue, all previously unpublished.)


Spectral Realms is published in attractive trade paperback format, with a classic Gustave Doré cover this time around.