Heaven Unbuilt

by Colin Dodds

Heaven Unbuilt encompasses the entirety of Colin Dodds' career as a poet, which spanned more than twenty years, beginning in the late 1990s. It includes selections from early books like The Last Man on the Moon and The Blue Blueprint, the entire Spill-O cycle, decades of poems from bars, selected lyrics from the band Adultogram and the 2018 collection Spokes of an Uneven Wheel.

These poems have appeared in more than three hundred publications. The late poet and songwriter David Berman (Silver Jews, Actual Air) said of them: "These are very good poems. For moments I could even feel the old feelings when I read them." This 2025 edition of Heaven Unbuilt is complete, having been assembled to mark Colin's retirement from poetry.

"When I read Colin's work, one of his own lines comes to mind: "What persists / is glad amazement." His work consistently delights with humor, inventiveness, a blessed dose of sarcasm and, yes, wisdom (despite his best intentions). We are all "born for that other thing," and this is that other thing." - Sharon Mesmer, author of Greetings From My Girlie Leisure Place

"People pick up a book of poetry at leisure, but can find themselves stopped in their tracks, pacing the room, weeping at an insight or a way of looking at things that simply hadn't found that magic formula of words to express before. Colin Dodds is the kind of writer who believes in this." - Blognostics

"A vividly and inventively dark dystopia... This is intelligent writing, the images are often startling and usually thought-provoking... Powerful work and well worth anyone's time." - Pulsar Poetry

"Colin Dodds' cataclysm of phrases and lines, broken by a tough guy making good on his promises, has got the Zarathustra thunder of myth and the You Can't Win resignation of Jack Black (not the singer, the old grifter-writer who sent William Burroughs to the interzone). He provides us with sharp knives of the low life mind and a cathartic liturgy genuflecting for an exit. Spokes of an Uneven Wheel speaks for noses out of joint, joints out of town, and entire towns out of luck. And we are there too, among the overcast of characters. Maybe we're at the helm of a ship that sunk before it was built. Or maybe we're prisoners not of walls, but expanse, free to roam forever with zero chance of escape. Being bad at things is the one thing we're good at. Like a singer songwriter whose masterpiece depends on laryngitis and a guitar in the pawnshop, in total exile from easy street. But exile from is also exile to, where despite the bleak economics, overbooked disappointment calendars, and a landscape of scapegoats, we prevail together. Life is uneasy, dark, and essentially impossible, yet here we all are. Under Dodds' gaze, our existence is the obtained unobtainable which easily surrounds the darkness... sometimes." - Brendan Lorber, author of If this is paradise why are we still driving?

"Narratives breathe life into the overlooked... Spill-O is the martyr of the authentic conscious mind, journeying and suffering at the hands of the corruption and sickness that plagues the linguistic and sentimental plains... honest and unflinching..." - Furious Gazelle

Genres: Poetry

486 pages, Paperback

First published May 20, 2025

About the author

Colin Dodds is an award-winning author and filmmaker, whose works include Pharoni, Ms. Never and The 6th Finger of Tommy the Goose. He grew up in Massachusetts and lived in California briefly, before finishing his education in New York City. Since then, he’s made his living as a journalist, editor, copywriter and video producer. His work has appeared in Gothamist, The Washington Post and more than three hundred other publications, and been praised by luminaries such as David Berman and Norman Mailer. Forget This Good Thing I Just Said, a first-of-its-kind literary and philosophical experience (the book form of which was a finalist for the Big Other Book Prize for Nonfiction), is available as an app for the iPhone. He lives in New York City, with his wife and children.

Reviews

[Jonny Parshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

A man after my own heart, is Mr Dodds. His go-to poetry scheme is juxtaposing religious/holy symbolism with urban elements. He is very much an urban poet, blending sin with sanctity; gods, angels, demons, prayers, scriptures, hotels, freeways, brick buildings, dim bars, neon signs, tired prostitutes, the kitchen sink, et cetera. There were slogs in this book, including some 80 pages of poems about bars, or maybe even only one bar, but once you bite through the thick crust there's savory meat, especially the last 10 percent of the book--good stuff.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book thru Goodreads First Read Contest. Since it is a book of poetry, I am reading a bit each day. Each evening my husband opens it and reads 3-5 poems. We discuss what they mean.

When it first arrived in the mail, my daughter and I had just come home from spending the day together. She is in grad school and has been published in the yearly school publication on art, poetry and such. We read the title and discussed how ironic it was "Heaven Unbuilt" - "A Treasury of Well-Loved Poems for Old Children." Like a modern day "Grimms Fairy Tales" for adults. Mr. Dodd has no fear of conjuring up(often via drink) snide, frank, and dark grey thoughts and pondering if they really do go bump in the night. And yes, like other treasuries it is large. Novel size.

I commented on the heft of the volume(Written 2000 - 2010). My daughter replied you got to think that is this man's life work. That is what his soul was put here to do. We had been discussing souls' purposes today on our day together driving, attending a hobby conference, and dining. So for me the arrival of this book was apropos. And for Mr. Dodd - I think writing poetry is very apropos. So I flipped to a page in the book and read our first experience in "Heaven UnBuilt". My daughter commented that "he is a very good poet". The particular poem we read has strong imagery.

The book is organized in sections:
- Some Kind of Record Poems, 2000 -2001
- Wisdom's Read Opposite - 101 Poems about an Odyssey on a Stool(Drinking Poems) 2000 - 2010
- Lucky to be this Sick Poems, 2003 - 2006
- Can't Stay the Night(Lyrics) 2005 -2007
- The Harmony & the Irony Poems, 2006 -2008
- Lights Ambient and Otherwise Poems, 2008-2010

Spill-O who I believe is Mr. Dodd;s Alter Ego Appears first on page 44 in a poem entitled (Welcome to the Neighborhood). Spill-O has about 14 poems in the first section of the book and seems to dominant the middle of the last section. All of Spill-Os poems are in (parenthesis). Is Spill-O to be viewed then as a tangent ? I will see, as I spend more time reading his musings.

My favorite quotes so far are:

pg. 101 Carved into the Bar - is a reflection about a man's broken relationship to a woman. Again the poem uses irony and vivid imagery. Dodds sums up his alcohol charged musings on this sensitive(to him - as he reflects about the loss of an intimate relationship in poems in this section)topic by writing - "A man needs a woman like a fish needs a fishhook". It is a solid, permanent statement as it is carved into the bar. Another great image which cropped up easily in my mind's eye upon reading the first stanza is "Ex-Boyfriends and ex-girlfriends wander in from the rain, with magic marker X's on their hands."

Pg 177 The Last Scene in the Movie
"We chuckle. The city is still a healthy animal. Its fur is shiny, its windows clean."
"The roaring behind me sounds like an end-of-the world dress rehearsal. It's probably sounded that way forever. But it's only another ring in the circus of rush hour."

Pg 195 Year of Love and Hunger
"There are many seasons in the long year of love and hunger.
They bring reconciliation and they bring the sword. Mostly, though, they dissolve us."

"In the winter, the underworld is too accessible. Ferries leave every minute from every darkened corner.
The hearses roam the streets, looking for fares."

There are many seasons, but only one progression."

I have to say that I, for one, am glad that spring is here and sailboats are more prominent than ferries.

My favorite title - "Too Long at the Shrimp Table"

Lastly a verse from Sedona, AZ (pg. 421) - This was one poem in a batch apparently written when the author left New York for a trip "out west".

""It is strange.
Like I found a place
I didn't want to leave""

I find Sedona a spiritual place and one I didn't want to leave. So for me this place has strong meaning.

I hope this gives you a bit of a taste of the book and as time allows I will share more. One last note of irony the author autographed the book in bold, dark letters "CAD". Much of Colin Dodds stool musings are from or reflect upon a caddish viewpoint.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the poems I found depressing to read and I skimmed through after a while not reading them fully. There were quite a few about drinking and being down and out. I did, however, enjoy the poems in the last 30 pages dealing with places he has visited & a poem to his wife.
I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for a review.

[Ronald]

It was a ptryy good reqad even though It could be out there , but I do beleive it was susposed to be !

[Csimplot Simplot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book!!!

[Ellen Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as a Goodreads' prize. Heaven Unbuilt is a collection of poetry that tends to be rather on the dark side. The common themes include drinking, depression, and the overall negative aspects of life. There are fairly frequent swear words and adult topics. It was interesting to see the world through the author's eyes through his poetry, but overall, I felt the book was very dark - which isn't really what I look for when I read poetry.