Image credit: Larm Rmah “Let me live behind a reclaimed mask set with jewels/long-ago dropped from bracelets, rings – abandoned/settings gather dust like empty coffins,” the speaker says in Kate Garrett’s poetry collection, A View from the Phantasmagoria. A View from the Phantasmagoria can be read on two levels–on one, it’s a collection of supernatural…
Author: Jessica Drake-Thomas
I am a poet, fiction writer, and blogger. I have degrees from Tulane University, Emerson College, and the University of Arizona. I am the author of a chapbook, Possession (dancing girl press).
This Week, I Read Memento: An Anthology of Contemporary Nigerian Poetry
Image credit: Namnso Ukpanah via Unsplash “I grieved for my country. But/my country never grieves for anyone./She puts the tails of Panthers and Hyenas in my hands;// she runs away when they turn to bite./My country ran away from the beasts/ she built. She the Ostrich, the goddess of sprint,” Bola Opaleke says in his…
This Week, I Read Erik Fuhrer: not human enough for the census
Image Credit: Paul Biñas via Unsplash “some bodies have always been haunted/their houses built on toxic remains/their bodies breathing in/the dust of industry’s buried bones,” the speaker says in Erik Fuhrer’s collection of apocalyptic ecopoetry, not human enough for the census. The poetry in this collection involves stunning wordplay and the absurd that is stylistically…
This Week, I Read Christina Thatcher: How to Carry Fire
Image Credit: Lís Clíodhna via Unsplash “Conjure every fire you have ever read about—/London’s gutting, Brisbane’s breadless/factory, Boston’s burning,” the speaker says in Christina Thatcher’s collection of poems, How to Carry Fire. The collection has several threads that run through it–Thatcher’s family history, poverty, addiction, and how to move on, how to heal from past…
This Week, I Read Paul Brookes: Stubborn Sod
Image Credit: Lís Clíodhna via Unsplash “Enter her grove barefoot,/no leather here,/no blood sacrifices/done.//Offer her honeyed milk,/not wine,” the speaker says in Paul Brookes’s collection of poems, Stubborn Sod. Stubborn Sod is the second installment in a trilogy of collections which surround Pagan cycle of year. Stubborn Sod begins in January, with the Pagan Sabbat…
Five Books For People Who Need A Pick-Me-Up
Image Credit: Ella Jardim via Unsplash Everybody needs a Pick-Me-Up, whether it’s a playlist of their favorite songs, a hot beverage, or a delicious thing involving lots of butter and sugar. Here are a few books which have a similar effect. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary-Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows Is…
This Week, I Read Annah Browning: Witch Doctrine
Image credit: Freestocks via Unsplash “I like to roost/in the minds of others,//like a blackbird/in the rafters of//a church,” the speaker says in Annah Browning’s collection of poems, Witch Doctrine says. “…I peer/into their ears and nuzzle//the small bones/of their sadness.” I love the world that these poems inhabit. It’s somewhere in the liminal space…
Tips for Working from Home from a Freelance Writer
Image credit: pardani ardan via Unsplash Technically, I’ve been practicing social distancing for the past two and a half years. I absolutely thrive when I don’t have to go in to work. Being at home is my happy space. Welcome to the wonders of working remotely. It’s a really beautiful thing once you hit your…
This Week, I Read Isabel Sobral Campos: Autobiographical Ecology
Image Credit: Debby Hudson via Unsplash “Notebook/is language peel, summary of misunderstanding in the wastebasket where/crumpled pages sleep,” the speaker says in Isabel Sobral Campos’s chapbook of poems, Autobiographical Ecology. The book has the feel of reading a diary. It’s equal parts confessional and listing of observations, which evoke the chaos of life in the…
This Week, I Read: These Poems Are Not What They Seem
Image Credit: Jay Heike via Unsplash “i wanted to be laura palmer,/ even when i saw her wrapped in plastic,/with blue lips and dead eyes./i wasn’t supposed to want that,/but i did,” the speaker says in Juliette van der Molen’s poem, “I Wanted to be Laura Palmer.” Thirty years ago, when Twin Peaks first aired,…
This Week, I Read... 