Dark Poetry Recommendations for the Halloween People (Pt. 2)

“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." - from 'A Dream Within a Dream', 1849, Edgar Allan Poe

Last month, I recommended some of my favorite poetry collections, most of which involved monsters and slashers and all the things we strange and unusual people first fell in love with when we started to worship the Pumpkin King and Queen. As promised, I wanted to follow up with a few more recommendations that are just devilishly perfect for this time of year.

1.       Motherdevil by Kailey Tedesco: I recently interviewed Tedesco about her collection here, but I want to take a few moments to scream about its mastery some more. I’ve written about her earlier collections Lizzie, Speak and Foreverhaus. But, as a cryptid-loving woman who also experienced PPD and writes about the monstrousness of motherhood…this book has a very special place in my heart. Think the New Jersey Devil meets Rosemary’s Baby. You can’t really ask for more than that!

Here is my blurb for the collection: MOTHERDEVIL is an initiation ritual for birthing monsters. Readers will be possessed, obsessed, and screaming by the end.

2.       Scary, No Scary by Zachary Schomburg: I picked this collection up years ago at AWP. It was the beginning of my love affair with Black Ocean books, and everything about this book felt off—but in the best way. It was like walking into an abandoned home and soon realizing it was haunted and also that you were growing into a tree: “There is a new kind of night. / It is never-ending.” If you want a dose of body horror and surrealism this Halloween, this is your read.

3.       The Saint of Witches by Avra Margariti: By this time, you all know I love the witch, yes? Well, this collection was a delicious catacomb full of magic, complete with body horror, spell casting, and gut-wrenching howls: “Up to the slaughterhouse they take us,/Strung out and dissection-ready./ Our young guts put on display--/. Grab a glass of red wine as an offering and read on the full moon.

4.       Burials by Jessica Drake-Thomas: I’ve read a lot of the poetry that Clash Books has put out over the years, and I’ve truly enjoyed it. One poet in particular, though, has become a fast favorite: Jessica Drake-Thomas. I read this collection by her not once but twice in one sitting, and I still think about it and teach it often. You can read my full review of the book here.

Excerpt: “Woven throughout these poems are memories, bone shards, ashes, and doorways, and I felt the reoccurring images of horses, birds, and hunger echoing throughout as I moved through this graveyard of decaying bodies, trapped souls, and wandering girls.”

5.       The Next Monsters by Julie Doxsee: I first discovered Doxsee’s work when I picked up a collection of hers titled Objects for a Fog Death. The way she handled imagery and violence with this hypnotic, haunting diction won me over fast, so it was no surprise that I loved her Black Ocean sophomore book, The Next Monsters. This book…wow. I’m just going to include a few of my favorite lines here and let them speak for themselves.

“I capsize the urn and cover myself in a soot-suit, feel something/ ugly disappear, then scream when a handprint appears on the/hip.” – ‘Lightning”

“I want your tooth to bite a different/ kind of me until it compliments the blood.”- Ganges Spirit

“The wild dogs howl and I drink coffee/ until I go deaf.” –“October”