The Hate Poems

by John Tottenham

John Tottenham writes poetry. But don't hold that against him. It's the kind of poetry that is accessible to people who don't read poetry, i.e. everybody. This new collection, 'The Hate Poems', presents a further elaboration on the themes addressed in his two earlier volumes - 'The Inertia Variations' and 'Antiepithalamia & Other Poems of Regret and Resentment'. In elegantly-wrought laments of self-deprecation and hateful love poems, the author finds that he has more to say on already exhausted subjects, and gives voice to the kind of thoughts most people prefer not to express but will automatically relate to and be entertained by. Poets are doomed, among other fates, to repeating themselves. Another potential fate is to be consigned to a world of embittered obscurity, and this is the world that Tottenham restlessly inhabits and relentlessly explores. He has staked out a singular terrain where egotism and self-loathing meet, where futility merges with urgency, and beauty is created out of bitterness. He furnishes mesmerizing proof that a poet maudit can still, if not thrive, at least survive, alive and unwell, in this benighted age, and that the dregs can sometimes be the cream.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

Published October 15, 2018

Reviews

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Pessoa in LA, but with more spleen

“To give up at last / What a relief”

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly irritating in its repetitive pounding in the misanthropy button.

[Nikolai Garcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the first 15 pages of this but then it got kind of repetitive and I felt like I was reading the same poem over and over again. I do think the cover art and title are genius and I relate to this author's mood so I would definitely check out his other work.

[Michael Legge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shame he dies in the end.

[sry_fully_booked run by QM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excerpt from Death in the Hills:

Cast further adrift by this subtle urgency,
I can feel my precious life ebbing away.
Better to be a recluse than a loose wreck,
a small fish in a pond instead of lost at sea.

[Anonymous · Rating 3 out of 5]

False advertising. They claimed this book delivered "near-orgasmic wit" but, I didn't even get close.