Three new poems at Third Point Press!

"Treasure Beach Goat Skull," by Michelle Johnsen. Third Point Press, Issue 2.

My first batch of Silence of the Lambs poems has been published in the second issue of Third Point Press! You can now read "That is rather slippery of you, Agent Starling," "How do we begin to covet, Clarice?" and "Have the lambs stopped screaming?" here. I really like the way poems look on the site but I really love the art they used to pair with them. It's called "Treasure Beach Goat Skull," by TPP art editor Michelle Johnsen, and it is so perfect. Seeing these poems and this art together just make me even happier that we have now officially entered autumn territory and Halloween's a-coming. Cozy and creepy.

Another fun thing about this publication is that one of the poems also happens to be my second-ever perfume poem. Remember The Book of Scented Things, the anthology that I co-edited with the amazing Jehanne Dubrow? Well, it is the prompt that keeps on prompting. A few months ago when I was deep into the writing of this poem series, Jehanne stumbled upon this mention of The Silence of the Lambs on one of her favorite perfume blogs which names the scent Clarice Starling wears: L'Air du Temps by Nina Ricci. When she read this, she let me know straight away that I just had to write a perfume poem into my SotL series. And, as usual, she was right. I even bought a bottle of the iconic perfume as "poem research." And while it's not a scent I would wear myself (too powdery and musky and gives me a bit of a headache), it was a great way into a meditation on innocence, decay, and the destructive nature of desire.  

I hope you'll read this new issue from Third Point Press! I can't wait to dig into it tomorrow morning. Happy fall, friends.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

There are birds here

Image
We are now in the full porch-swing of summer, which means Summer Poetry Salons at my beloved Lit House. In celebration of the second salon of the summer on June 24 (tomorrow!), I was given the unbelievably fun task of designing and printing a letterpress broadside for Jamaal May's poem "There Are Birds Here,"  a love song for Detroit. As much I loved this poem on my first reading (and second and third), it was a particularly difficult design challenge. Don't get me wrong — there are so many ways  to illustrate this poem because it is so packed with images. But to illustrate it in a way that actually adds to the text, that builds on the complex foundation set down by the poet — that is the challenge to be met. That is the challenge we always aim to meet at the Literary House Press .   So that means no birds and no buildings. For me, those are the two most obvious, but least important images in this poem. Those details are just the shell around the ...
Read more

"Imago" on Hannibal season finale

Image
While watching the eagerly-awaited season 2 finale of Hannibal (one of my absolute favorite TV shows of the moment), I was happily surprised when a vocabulary lesson emerged mid-conversation between Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham. — "Do you know what an imago is, Will?" — "It's a flying insect." — "It's the last stage of a transformation." — "When you become who you will be?" — "It's also a term from the dead religion of psychoanalysis. An imago is an image of a loved one, buried in the unconscious, carried with us all our lives." — "An ideal." — "The concept of an ideal." Of course this term, in both of its definitions, has some great significance for me. It is a word I didn't even know until I stumbled across it in my dictionary browsing and knew immediately that this is the title of my chapbook . It was perfect. So when it snuck up on me again in my favorite TV show, in...
Read more

On the end of a year & a decade: 2019

Image
In this last month of the year, I've had five poems accepted by three different literary journals and two new reviews of my book appear in The Cincinnati Review  and Harbor Review . I also completed the letterpress printing of the Rossetti Prize broadside for American Literary Review , designs for four more digital broadsides , and the initial edits & contributor proofs for Cherry Tree 's sixth issue. Whew! It's been an amazing and overwhelming and utterly fulfilling year ; and I'm riding into the new year on 2019's coattails.  Also featuring the gorgeous handmade scarf that Jehanne Dubrow wove for me this past year. One of my favorite December inventories will always be reflecting on a year's worth of personal accomplishments and progress. By the time the end of the year arrives, it's so easy to forget all that happened just a few short months ago. Making a list has a way of bringing it all into perspective. Here's my roundup for the yea...
Read more