Our 2023 chapbook season kicks off with the return of Juliet Cook and red flames burning out. I welcome seeing manuscripts from old GBP friends come in during our open readings, and Juliet walked through the door with one of her most immediate and jarringly personal (sounding) collections. While many of the pieces fit comfortably in Juliet’s oeuvre of horror poetry, I found myself moved by the “Internal Suffocation” series and the last poem, “White Doldrums.” And I laughed my way through “My Bridal Meat Doll.” She keeps us guessing, even if her subjects are the ones that seem trapped and/or lost.
How does Juliet describe it? “Broken doll fingers bulging their way out of blubbering chicken wire. Losing parts of one’s self and growing new parts in the form of self-created nightmares, body and brain malfunctions, seizures and other divorces from parts of past reality. Pitching standard traditions in the trash, wrapped in drying blood. Creepy bird’s nests and fear of impending death, yet still continuing to create one’s own sizzling and burning red fire.”
What more can I add to that?
From “Body Captivity”:
It starts from out of nowhere,
then won’t stop growing.
If I get rid of it, it will come back.
If I shovel it, the next seizure
will break a rib to prove a point.
Pick up your copy on the Titles page. Features Juliet’s own artwork on the full, borderless cover.