Poetry. The word brings many things to mind. Beautiful haiku. Dirty limerick. Deep verse. Flowing prose. But readers of dark fiction often think of darker creations, and their minds turn to Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and Lovecraft’s “Fungi from Yuggoth.” But the dark beauty and flowing horrors of dark poetry and horror poetry are not relegated to the past and found only in classics. As many of you know, dark poetry continues to spring forth from the talented literary minds of today, and there is much to choose from.
Extreme horror and Splatterpunk readers know about the boundary-crossing poetry of Wrath James White. His poetry is found in his short story collections and in anthologies, but he is well-known for his 2018 collection, If You Died Tomorrow, I Would Eat Your Corpse.
Poems of the Erotic, the Romantic, the Violent, and the Grotesque.
Includes two short stories; one of dark desires, the other of dark love and loss.
Bibliophilia Templum calls it “a collection of dark and visceral poetry” that is “deep, beautiful, and horrifying.”
Wrath James White is known for his extreme content and vivid sensory description, and while his poetry has a devoted following of fans who embrace his style and words, that title makes it clear the poetry within may go deeper than some readers want to go. But Wrath is not the only dark poet out there. We will be looking at other dark poets and poetry in the coming weeks.
And you can tell those who don’t understand those of us in dark fiction that yes, yes, I do read poetry.
Stitched Smile Publications 