Juliet Cook's Blog, page 21
April 12, 2022
An Extra Special Poetry Month Acceptance of a new chapbook manuscript, Your Mouth is Moving Backwards!
This manuscript has been floating around and looking for a home for a little over a year (I think I started submitting different versions of the manuscript in February 2011 and from then to now, it's received about 10 rejections) and now its home has been found and its tentative publication date is October 2023.
That may sound like a while away, but time speed races fast and plus October is my favorite month. Just don't ask me how old I'll be in October 2023, because in my mind, that's one down side to the speed racing of time.
But one upside is that this new chapbook of mine will be newly brought to life by a fabulous independent press!
The 20+ poems in this chapbook collection are filled with internal and external violence and abuse, chaotic horror and entrapment, humans trapped behind walls or in beds, dolls thrown down the stairs and hiding in partially contained places, dolls pretending to be humans, humans pretending to be dolls, real humans fused together with evil. A lot of the inspiration for many of the poems at least partly derives from Twin Peaks. 15 poems in the collection have the title "FLESH WORLD", which comes from the name of a magazine in Twin Peaks. But there are other titles too and other inspirations and insinuations too.
I'm very happy that this manuscript found a fabulous home and also that it found its home during poetry month!
And also too, another wonderful side note is that this will be the second poetry chapbook manuscript of mine that Ethel Zine & Micro-Press has accepted and published! They published my chapbook, "The Rabbits With Red Eyes" in March 2020, which can still be purchased in their shop at a price cut of only $4 (and which might soon be available as a free online PDF file too)! https://www.ethelzine.com/the-rabbits-with-red-eyes
They also have tons of other fabulous poetry chapbooks available, so I recommend checking them out and buying a handful of chapbooks! https://www.ethelzine.com/chapbooks-minibooks
March 31, 2022
I'm not always aiming for positive emotions...
Sometimes it's hard to explain why I am drawn towards certain kinds of creative writing, visual art, and photographic art that others might view or interpret as gross, gory, unsettling, disturbing, or even offensive, because there are various different reasons, sometimes fused together and somewhat different depending on the piece of art.
One of those reasons is that earlier on in my life, I feel like I experienced quite a few examples of people choosing to hide (or avoid knowledge or awareness of) parts of reality that they found disturbing. I understand not revealing certain disturbing aspects of reality to little kids (but also some little kids don't even have the privilege of being able to avoid certain disturbing aspects of reality), but I also think that some adults would rather act like disturbing aspects of reality don't really exist forever. On one hand, that's an individual choice, but on the other hand it's a choice that not everyone has the privilege to make if they're surrounded by a different part of reality.
With my own poetry/art OR poetry/art by others that I choose to share, I'm not purposely aiming to shock or offend, but I'm also not aiming to keep it calm or pretty or avoid the unpleasant or bothersome. There are a variety of different kinds of poetry/art I'm drawn to in some ways, but among those, I've always been drawn towards some dark, unsettling, and disturbing. Why? I don't know exactly or maybe that's because there's a variety of different reasons, depending on the art and other factors. Sometimes because it stimulates my brain and catalyzes creative impulses. Sometimes because it has a strong affect on my emotions (and I'm not always aiming for positive emotions). Sometimes because I'd rather feel angry than sad. Sometimes because I'd rather be made aware of/attempt to confront something disturbing or disgusting than stay unaware of it, hidden from it, or choose to just ignore it. Which is not to say I never ignore things. Sometimes I do.
I would never personally kill an animal, but I've taken photos of dead birds and dead baby bird fetuses before, not because I thought it was shocking or titillating but partly because it's a small but unsettling part of reality that many people would rather just walk past and ignore. Also because I'm so disturbed by death or by life just visually disappearing.
Some years ago when I had my dog put to sleep (which in my opinion is a pretty disturbing phrase and a very difficult experience) and then brought his dead body back to my house, I was drawn to take a few photos of him, because that was the last time I was going to see his body. I had loved my dog and I had taken tons of photos of him when he was alive. But I only snapped one really quick one after he was dead, because my parents were over and that might have freaked them out and seemed ridiculously weird to them. They liked my dog too, but everyone processes and handles these things somewhat differently. I guess I'm drawn to someone incorporate death into art, since I'm so into art, and if something still exists in art then it doesn't seem entirely dead?
I'm much more disturbed by the idea of death/non-existence and the uncaringness of death itself and by people just tossing dead animals in a big trash heap like they're garbage than I am of people photographing that unsettling part of reality and presenting it in order to provoke thoughts and feelings (which is part of what I think art does).
With this interconnected small series of poems I'm currently in the process of working on, one of them is trying to express a difference between fantasy horror films and documentation of real life violence, in terms of some people implying it's not a good idea to watch too many horror films but also implying that we should try to ignore many aspects of real life violence. I'm having a hard time with the poem for some reason. Who knows? Maybe semi-sorting through these thoughts of mine here and then copying and pasting them next to my poem-in-progress might help me finish it soon. Or maybe not.
March 28, 2022
March 25, 2022
New! A poem of mine is appearing in the Spring 2022 Issue of Scapegoat Review!
Maybe your mouth has been filled with expired
dripping pabulum that nobody else wants
to gaze upon or even try to understand."
in my poem "MENTAL METEOR SHOWER", which appears in the new Spring 2022 Issue of Scapegoat Review!
read more here - http://www.scapegoatreview.org/spring-2022/juliet-cook
March 22, 2022
New! Three poems of mine are appearing in A Thin Slice of Anxiety!
The ongoing ugly gestures of my body's
impending Armageddon. "
Delighted to have three new poems appearing in A Thin Slice of Anxiety!
read more HERE - http://www.athinsliceofanxiety.com/2022/03/poetry-selections-from-juliet-cook.html
March 14, 2022
March 13, 2022
The NEW March 2022 Flock of Thirteen Myna Birds is HERE!
Visit the flock HERE - https://13myna.blogspot.com/
The ticket seller is asleep in his cage - my room had no window, only white liquor and a monsoon - the one who loves you shows you the trees full of hooks - like the leaf-light of the darkest forest - A room full of shrunken heads - with a gravel crunch and the click of teeth - willing to stand there skeletal but proud, with tiny brown corpses littered at their feet - more a death sentence, than impediment - Footsteps on their way and the figure could be skeletal, could be gaunt, could be anybody - I could see you becoming prey to some larger insect or bird - a wildness I’ve tried to hide, but can barely contain - I’m compelled to shelter Barbies in a plastic house inside a wooden one I own - Programmed and predictable, we are dominated by prayer - Behind the curtains of an invisible world - why would all your meat, be covered by a flimsy skin coat? - reflecting the thin arms of bare trees - The flaming sky signed our names in blood - The porcelain lamp shattered in your hand, and left no doubt - hearts holler joyfully into the black earth - tucked into the endoskeleton of your former lover - White light creeps into your eyes, where nothing lives.
Lagoon by MISHFebruary 28, 2022
Me, the last day of February, 2022...
(how is it the last day of February already?)February 26, 2022
February 21, 2022
New! Three new poems of mine are appearing in the Terror House ("Death Will Always Exist," "Field Dressing Fantasy," and "Body Captivity")
"...You’re horrified by the idea of not existing
and that nobody will remember you very well.
You won’t be able to remember yourself
or think for yourself or speak for yourself
and that’s your current interpretation of Hell.
Whenever you have one of your unexpected seizures,
you then spend weeks feeling negative and afraid
of unexpected death. You don’t feel ready to not exist yet."
Three new poems of mine are in the Terror House today - "Death Will Always Exist," "Field Dressing Fantasy," and "Body Captivity". You can read more HERE - https://terrorhousemag.com/exist/
