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POETRY
Dark Palace
Winner of the 2017 Kármán Liminality Chapbook Prize
Radiant Crown Publishing · March 15, 2017
About Dark Palace
In DARK PALACE, a panorama of global violence reminds us of severed nerves, disconnected from war and violation. The traumas come in flashes: the bombed Buddhas of Bamiyan, the Iraq War, movie stars at secret parties, a passenger jet downed, Syria in ruins, refugee crises ... and the birth of the Dajjal.
The shocks transport the poems into surreal mirror worlds. Whistleblowers and prostitutes speak light language in Nevada's deserts. Dreams of space landscapes promise deliverance. The poems push through the illusion of daily reality to liberation and a love, beyond knowing, and larger than truth.
Manuscript Status
Dark Palace was awarded the Kármán Liminality Chapbook Prize in 2017 by Radiant Crown Publishing. The publisher subsequently restructured as Aurelia Leo Press. Aurelia Leo closed during COVID and did not publish Dark Palace. The publisher was Olivia Raymond (aka Zelda Knight).
Dark Palace is now envisioned as the first book in a POETRY CHAPBOOK TRIPTYCH, which takes the reader through a grand reckoning and recovery. Chapbook 2 is Sparrows Still Sing in the Morning, followed by Growing Lemons in the Desert.
Dark Palace
Manuscript Status and AI Usage
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Approximate Word Count: 12,587
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Manuscript Status: Draft substantially complete; final revision to align with other two chapbooks in the triptych.
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AI: No AI was used to write, edit, or revise the original manuscript, which was written in the 2010s. All current and future creative writing and revision of the manuscript will remain entirely human-authored.
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The AI banner illustration was generated with AI; this is separate from the manuscript. The original planned book cover from Aurelia Leo was not generated with AI.
Sparrows Still Sing in the Morning
A panoramic view of obscene Millennial wealth, power, and privilege. Snapshots of a violated landscape lead to a moment of reckoning.
This collection of poems starts with a murdered girl, which unfurls a connected set of poems, set around the world. Real estate deals, Manhattan lunches, suicides on the lawn, dead interns in Washington. Towel girls at resorts. Casinos, hotels, beachfront restaurants, yacht parties, tax havens, hurricanes, stranded tourists, and earthquakes.
Excerpt from "Inherit the Earth,"
a poem in
Sparrows Still Sing in the Morning
Blessed are the meek, for they have fallen
Into the sphere of the soul’s domination
One voice alone snaps, the contempt of the critical mother
The needle twitches, response times detected
The subject molested, a lick prod electric
Porn-hive friendly reloads the cloud of shocked pixels
STATUS: In progress.
AI USAGE: No AI usage.
Growing Lemons in the Desert
This is the third in a triptych of poetry chapbooks, which begins with Dark Palace, followed by Sparrows Still Sing in the Morning. The poems in Growing Lemons in the Desert lead to healing and recovery by returning the reader back to the soil from which we grow. The title plays on the idea that we have all inherited legacies and a broken world, but we must bring fruit from barren ground. The poems also describe our troubled relationship with the environment. This is a symbol for resolving family karma, and the attempt to come back from the dead through a return to the land.
Excerpt from "Leaves and Acorns,"
a poem in
Growing Lemons in the Desert
We talk across the distances
In secret nights of love and justice
In ways they cannot contemplate
In ways that make them fear the night
Because they cannot touch us
And they can’t see how to do this
No one taught us, we just know
We light up in all directions, look north first
Through the cardinal points to the spaces between
Spokes in the destined wheel, time turning
Into the rewarded calendar
So that when they come to harvest us, we are no longer there
Vanished, into the dying warmth north of autumn
It knows only the thud of fruit
It hears the chorus of birds perched amid dry rustling corn
And crow-filled conversations
STATUS: In progress.
AI USAGE: No AI usage.