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Spectral Realms #12
Spectral Realms No. 12: Winter 2020
This twelfth issue of Hippocampus Press's award-winning journal of weird poetry begins with David Barker's affecting acrostic sonnet in memory of the late W. H. Pugmire. Contributions by other leading contemporary poets--Leigh Blackmore, Frank Coffman, Adam Bolivar, Benjamin Blake, Christina Sng, and many others--are scattered throughout the issue. We also find vivid and evocative prose poems by Maxwell I. Gold, Manuel Arenas, and Wade German.
Thomas Tyrrell writes a poem in tribute of renowned fantaisiste Lord Dunsany; Don Webb evokes the shade of Edgar Allan Poe; Carl E Reed draws upon the work of Arthur Machen; and Manuel Pérez-Campos pays homage to the comic book Creepy. Nicole Cushing contributes a poem that fuses grimness and beauty, while Scott J. Couturier teases out the horrific potential of Greek myth.
Two classic reprints - by Ernest Dowson and Arthur Symons - hint at the bountiful stores of weirdness in poetry of the turn of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. S. T. Joshi offers his assessment of Wade German's recent poetry collection, while Donald Sidney-Fryer waxes eloquent about D. L .Myers's long-awaited omnibus.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Poems
Acrostic Sonnet for Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire / David Barker
Gray / M. F. Webb
Pilgrim in the Mist / Wade German
Proem to the Fortress Unvanquishable / Thomas Tyrrell
Ode to the Great God Pan / Carl E. Reed
Ghebulax / Maxwell I. Gold
The Crimson Knight / Scott J. Couturier
Haematophagy / Ashley Dioses
Not All of Them Are Ghosts / Darrell Schweitzer
Poe, on the Morning After / Don Webb
Homage to Creepy / Manuel Pérez-Campos
Xipe Totec / Deborah L. Davitt
Necronomicon / Josh Maybrook
Wretched Raft / Kieran Dacey Boylan
Satanic Sonata / Manuel Arenas
Time’s Vulture / Leigh Blackmore
Urban Renewal / Mike Allen
Graveside Ghost / Mary Krawczak Wilson
No One Is Safe / Benjamin Blake
Minoan Messages / Frank Coffman
Madhouse Getaway / Manuel Pérez-Campos
Planet Fetish / Chad Hensley
Jack in Xanadu / Adam Bolivar
Genesis / Holly Day
I Want to Taste October / Ross Balcom
A Tasty Treat / Adele Gardner
Beyond the Fields / Andrew J. Wilson
The Tears of Cerberus / Wade German
A Witch in the House / Oliver Smith
The Psychopomp / Cecelia Hopkins-Drewer
The Plague Queen’s Song / Nicole Cushing
I’ll Return in Late October / K. A. Opperman
The Philosophy & Aesthetics of Horror / Carl E. Reed
Black Wings Return / Michael D. Miller
Slow the Night Grows Darker / David Sammons
The Wild Hunt / Chelsea Arrington
Lines Written in a Providence Churchyard / David Barker
The God of the Winds / Christina Sng
Singularity / Curtis M. Lawson
Dream Hackers / Maxwell I. Gold
The Bedlam Philharmonic / Steven Withrow
The House (A Conduit) / Mack W. Mani
The Pack / Scott J. Couturier
Kiss of Life / Manuel Arenas
The Last Golem / Allan Rozinski
A Summoning of Demons / Michelle Jeffrey
Astral Parasites / Manuel Pérez-Campos
The Silent Silver Sea / Leigh Blackmore
Homer Before the Trojan Court / Darrell Schweitzer
The Witch’s Cat / Deborah L. Davitt
In Arcadia / Josh Maybrook
My Loveliest Manticore; or, The Queen of the Lamiae / Wade German
The Conjuring / Frank Coffman
Wildfires / Christina Sng
Now and Forever / Kieran Dacey Boylan
Stela of Selos / Scott J. Couturier
Southern Gothic; or, Hillbilly Horror / Carl E. Reed
The Egyptian Splendor / Ross Balcom
Carrion Dreams / Maxwell I. Gold
Classic Reprints
In a Breton Cemetery / Ernest Dowson
The Vampire / Arthur Symons
Reviews
A Golgotha of Horror / S. T. Joshi
Dark Oracles Indeed / Donald Sidney-Fryer
Cover art by Albert Joseph Pénot, “La Femme Chauve-Souris” (c. 1890).
Thomas Tyrrell writes a poem in tribute of renowned fantaisiste Lord Dunsany; Don Webb evokes the shade of Edgar Allan Poe; Carl E Reed draws upon the work of Arthur Machen; and Manuel Pérez-Campos pays homage to the comic book Creepy. Nicole Cushing contributes a poem that fuses grimness and beauty, while Scott J. Couturier teases out the horrific potential of Greek myth.
Two classic reprints - by Ernest Dowson and Arthur Symons - hint at the bountiful stores of weirdness in poetry of the turn of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. S. T. Joshi offers his assessment of Wade German's recent poetry collection, while Donald Sidney-Fryer waxes eloquent about D. L .Myers's long-awaited omnibus.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Poems
Acrostic Sonnet for Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire / David Barker
Gray / M. F. Webb
Pilgrim in the Mist / Wade German
Proem to the Fortress Unvanquishable / Thomas Tyrrell
Ode to the Great God Pan / Carl E. Reed
Ghebulax / Maxwell I. Gold
The Crimson Knight / Scott J. Couturier
Haematophagy / Ashley Dioses
Not All of Them Are Ghosts / Darrell Schweitzer
Poe, on the Morning After / Don Webb
Homage to Creepy / Manuel Pérez-Campos
Xipe Totec / Deborah L. Davitt
Necronomicon / Josh Maybrook
Wretched Raft / Kieran Dacey Boylan
Satanic Sonata / Manuel Arenas
Time’s Vulture / Leigh Blackmore
Urban Renewal / Mike Allen
Graveside Ghost / Mary Krawczak Wilson
No One Is Safe / Benjamin Blake
Minoan Messages / Frank Coffman
Madhouse Getaway / Manuel Pérez-Campos
Planet Fetish / Chad Hensley
Jack in Xanadu / Adam Bolivar
Genesis / Holly Day
I Want to Taste October / Ross Balcom
A Tasty Treat / Adele Gardner
Beyond the Fields / Andrew J. Wilson
The Tears of Cerberus / Wade German
A Witch in the House / Oliver Smith
The Psychopomp / Cecelia Hopkins-Drewer
The Plague Queen’s Song / Nicole Cushing
I’ll Return in Late October / K. A. Opperman
The Philosophy & Aesthetics of Horror / Carl E. Reed
Black Wings Return / Michael D. Miller
Slow the Night Grows Darker / David Sammons
The Wild Hunt / Chelsea Arrington
Lines Written in a Providence Churchyard / David Barker
The God of the Winds / Christina Sng
Singularity / Curtis M. Lawson
Dream Hackers / Maxwell I. Gold
The Bedlam Philharmonic / Steven Withrow
The House (A Conduit) / Mack W. Mani
The Pack / Scott J. Couturier
Kiss of Life / Manuel Arenas
The Last Golem / Allan Rozinski
A Summoning of Demons / Michelle Jeffrey
Astral Parasites / Manuel Pérez-Campos
The Silent Silver Sea / Leigh Blackmore
Homer Before the Trojan Court / Darrell Schweitzer
The Witch’s Cat / Deborah L. Davitt
In Arcadia / Josh Maybrook
My Loveliest Manticore; or, The Queen of the Lamiae / Wade German
The Conjuring / Frank Coffman
Wildfires / Christina Sng
Now and Forever / Kieran Dacey Boylan
Stela of Selos / Scott J. Couturier
Southern Gothic; or, Hillbilly Horror / Carl E. Reed
The Egyptian Splendor / Ross Balcom
Carrion Dreams / Maxwell I. Gold
Classic Reprints
In a Breton Cemetery / Ernest Dowson
The Vampire / Arthur Symons
Reviews
A Golgotha of Horror / S. T. Joshi
Dark Oracles Indeed / Donald Sidney-Fryer
Cover art by Albert Joseph Pénot, “La Femme Chauve-Souris” (c. 1890).
- GenresPoetry
122 pages, Paperback
Published January 31, 2020
About the author
S.T. Joshi
788 books460 followersSunand Tryambak Joshi is an Indian American literary scholar, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors. Besides what some critics consider to be the definitive biography of Lovecraft (H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, 1996), Joshi has written about Ambrose Bierce, H. L. Mencken, Lord Dunsany, and M.R. James, and has edited collections of their works.
His literary criticism is notable for its emphases upon readability and the dominant worldviews of the authors in question; his The Weird Tale looks at six acknowledged masters of horror and fantasy (namely Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Dunsany, M. R. James, Bierce and Lovecraft), and discusses their respective worldviews in depth and with authority. A follow-up volume, The Modern Weird Tale, examines the work of modern writers, including Shirley Jackson, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, Robert Aickman, Thomas Ligotti, T. E. D. Klein and others, from a similar philosophically oriented viewpoint. The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004) includes essays on Dennis Etchison, L. P. Hartley, Les Daniels, E. F. Benson, Rudyard Kipling, David J. Schow, Robert Bloch, L. P. Davies, Edward Lucas White, Rod Serling, Poppy Z. Brite and others.
Joshi is the editor of the small-press literary journals Lovecraft Studies and Studies in Weird Fiction, published by Necronomicon Press. He is also the editor of Lovecraft Annual and co-editor of Dead Reckonings, both small-press journals published by Hippocampus Press.
In addition to literary criticism, Joshi has also edited books on atheism and social relations, including Documents of American Prejudice (1999), an annotated collection of American racist writings; In Her Place (2006), which collects written examples of prejudice against women; and Atheism: A Reader (2000), which collects atheistic writings by such people as Antony Flew, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, Gore Vidal and Carl Sagan, among others. An Agnostic Reader, collecting pieces by such writers as Isaac Asimov, John William Draper, Albert Einstein, Frederic Harrison, Thomas Henry Huxley, Robert Ingersoll, Corliss Lamont, Arthur Schopenhauer and Edward Westermarck, was published in 2007.
Joshi is also the author of God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong (2003), an anti-religious polemic against various writers including C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, William F. Buckley, Jr., William James, Stephen L. Carter, Annie Dillard, Reynolds Price, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Guenter Lewy, Neale Donald Walsch and Jerry Falwell, which is dedicated to theologian and fellow Lovecraft critic Robert M. Price.
In 2006 he published The Angry Right: Why Conservatives Keep Getting It Wrong, which criticised the political writings of such commentators as William F. Buckley, Jr., Russell Kirk, David and Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly, William Bennett, Gertrude Himmelfarb and Irving and William Kristol, arguing that, despite the efforts of right-wing polemicists, the values of the American people have become steadily more liberal over time.
Joshi, who lives with his wife in Moravia, New York, has stated on his website that his most noteworthy achievements thus far have been his biography of Lovecraft, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life and The Weird Tale.
His literary criticism is notable for its emphases upon readability and the dominant worldviews of the authors in question; his The Weird Tale looks at six acknowledged masters of horror and fantasy (namely Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Dunsany, M. R. James, Bierce and Lovecraft), and discusses their respective worldviews in depth and with authority. A follow-up volume, The Modern Weird Tale, examines the work of modern writers, including Shirley Jackson, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, Robert Aickman, Thomas Ligotti, T. E. D. Klein and others, from a similar philosophically oriented viewpoint. The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004) includes essays on Dennis Etchison, L. P. Hartley, Les Daniels, E. F. Benson, Rudyard Kipling, David J. Schow, Robert Bloch, L. P. Davies, Edward Lucas White, Rod Serling, Poppy Z. Brite and others.
Joshi is the editor of the small-press literary journals Lovecraft Studies and Studies in Weird Fiction, published by Necronomicon Press. He is also the editor of Lovecraft Annual and co-editor of Dead Reckonings, both small-press journals published by Hippocampus Press.
In addition to literary criticism, Joshi has also edited books on atheism and social relations, including Documents of American Prejudice (1999), an annotated collection of American racist writings; In Her Place (2006), which collects written examples of prejudice against women; and Atheism: A Reader (2000), which collects atheistic writings by such people as Antony Flew, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, Gore Vidal and Carl Sagan, among others. An Agnostic Reader, collecting pieces by such writers as Isaac Asimov, John William Draper, Albert Einstein, Frederic Harrison, Thomas Henry Huxley, Robert Ingersoll, Corliss Lamont, Arthur Schopenhauer and Edward Westermarck, was published in 2007.
Joshi is also the author of God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong (2003), an anti-religious polemic against various writers including C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, William F. Buckley, Jr., William James, Stephen L. Carter, Annie Dillard, Reynolds Price, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Guenter Lewy, Neale Donald Walsch and Jerry Falwell, which is dedicated to theologian and fellow Lovecraft critic Robert M. Price.
In 2006 he published The Angry Right: Why Conservatives Keep Getting It Wrong, which criticised the political writings of such commentators as William F. Buckley, Jr., Russell Kirk, David and Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly, William Bennett, Gertrude Himmelfarb and Irving and William Kristol, arguing that, despite the efforts of right-wing polemicists, the values of the American people have become steadily more liberal over time.
Joshi, who lives with his wife in Moravia, New York, has stated on his website that his most noteworthy achievements thus far have been his biography of Lovecraft, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life and The Weird Tale.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 24, 2020
A well-crafted collection of weird poetry. Monstrous, horrific, or just a bleak landscape that calls from another realm the collection does its job and amazes the eyes.
Some of my favorites:
-Pilgrim in the Mist - Wade German
-Homage to Creepy - Manuel Pérez-Campos
-Xipe Totec - Deborah L. Davitt
-Santanic Sonata - Manuel Arenas
-Jack in Xanadu - Adam Bolivar
-Dream Hackers - Maxwell I. Gold
-Carrion Dreams- Maxwell I. Gold
Some of my favorites:
-Pilgrim in the Mist - Wade German
-Homage to Creepy - Manuel Pérez-Campos
-Xipe Totec - Deborah L. Davitt
-Santanic Sonata - Manuel Arenas
-Jack in Xanadu - Adam Bolivar
-Dream Hackers - Maxwell I. Gold
-Carrion Dreams- Maxwell I. Gold
June 23, 2021
First of I like to say how much I love this cover! It's Albert Joseph Penot's piece 'La Femme Chauve-Souris'. A piece I love and it fits so well with this weird poetry journal.
This is another wonderful volume of dark beautiful poems. There where quite few poems that stood out for me. 'I want to taste October" by Ross Balcom. So dark, yet beautiful!
"I want to taste October. I want to blacken my tongue on burning leaves, slice it on razor blades Co cealed in apples."
This just brings to mind the smell of autumn, the smell of soil, and the taste of apples and other autumn fruits. Other favorites where:
- The house (A Conduit) by Mack W. Mani.
-Pilgrim in the mist" by Wade German,
-Xipe Totec" by Doborah L. Davitt,
-Wretched Raft by Kieran Dacey Boylan (with made a unpleasant image linger in my mind), - A Summoning of Demons" by Michelle Jeffrey.
I also found David Barker's poems in memory of W. H. Pugmire to be just beautiful. It gives me a feeling how much Barker and Pugmire enjoyed working together in this poems.
I'm sad there are no more articles in this newer volumes. They where always so interesting!
Luckly the books review are still presented with I always enjoy to read. It lead me to find new authors to enjoy. I immediately enjoyed reading S. T. Joshi's review on Wade German's newest poetry collection, "The Ladies of the Everlasting Lichen and Other Relics"!! I adore German's poems. Their amazing.
Overall it was a wonderful read!
This is another wonderful volume of dark beautiful poems. There where quite few poems that stood out for me. 'I want to taste October" by Ross Balcom. So dark, yet beautiful!
"I want to taste October. I want to blacken my tongue on burning leaves, slice it on razor blades Co cealed in apples."
This just brings to mind the smell of autumn, the smell of soil, and the taste of apples and other autumn fruits. Other favorites where:
- The house (A Conduit) by Mack W. Mani.
-Pilgrim in the mist" by Wade German,
-Xipe Totec" by Doborah L. Davitt,
-Wretched Raft by Kieran Dacey Boylan (with made a unpleasant image linger in my mind), - A Summoning of Demons" by Michelle Jeffrey.
I also found David Barker's poems in memory of W. H. Pugmire to be just beautiful. It gives me a feeling how much Barker and Pugmire enjoyed working together in this poems.
I'm sad there are no more articles in this newer volumes. They where always so interesting!
Luckly the books review are still presented with I always enjoy to read. It lead me to find new authors to enjoy. I immediately enjoyed reading S. T. Joshi's review on Wade German's newest poetry collection, "The Ladies of the Everlasting Lichen and Other Relics"!! I adore German's poems. Their amazing.
Overall it was a wonderful read!
April 11, 2020
Another great issue of the premier journal of weird poetry, featuring memorable contributions from Carl E. Reed ("Ode the the Great God Pan" and "Southern Gothic; or, Hillbilly Horror"), Deborah L. Davitt ("Xipe Totec"), and many others.
Editor S.T. Joshi continues to maintain a high standard, and features the best poets in the field (Wade German, Christina Sng, etc) alongside lesser-known contributors who have much to offer. I'm thrilled that Spectral Realms has made it to twelve issues so far, and I look forward to future volumes eagerly.
Editor S.T. Joshi continues to maintain a high standard, and features the best poets in the field (Wade German, Christina Sng, etc) alongside lesser-known contributors who have much to offer. I'm thrilled that Spectral Realms has made it to twelve issues so far, and I look forward to future volumes eagerly.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews