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Four Elements
Four Bram Stoker Award winning poets join together to paint a rich, dark tapestry of evocative emotion in Four Elements. From modern interpretations to ancient mythology, they explore the magic and mystery of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. Their vivid poetry and prose brings to life a universe in a grain of sand, taking the reader through a journey of discovery from the inside out.
There is something for everyone in Four Elements- conjured especially for the reader that likes to examine the meticulous depth and meaning in every word.
There is something for everyone in Four Elements- conjured especially for the reader that likes to examine the meticulous depth and meaning in every word.
Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
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69 people want to read
About the author
Charlee Jacob
66 books78 followersCharlee Jacob has been a digger for dinosaur bones, a seller of designer rags, and a cook - to mention only a few things. With more than 950 publishing credits, Charlee has been writing dark poetry and prose for more than 25 years. Some of her recent publishing events include the novel STILL (Necro), the poetry collection HERESY (Necro), and the novel DARK MOODS. She is a three-time Bram Stoker Award winner, two of those awards for her novel DREAD IN THE BEAST and the poetry collection SINEATER; the third award for collaborative poetry collection, VECTORS, with Marge Simon. Permanently disabled, she has begun to paint as one of her forms of phsycial therapy. She lives in Irving, Texas with her husband Jim and a plethora of felines.
Courtesy: http://www.williamcookwriter.com
Courtesy: http://www.williamcookwriter.com
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 16, 2015
Poetry. By three of my favorite modern poets and one new one to get super excited over. There was no way I wasn’t going to buy this collection. Despite my usual attempts at aloofness, expect fanboy squees to follow in abundance.
The premise here is fairly simple, each poet attributed an element with poems that tie into that element in some way. This allows for a sense of coherence without limiting the results to the point of monotony.
“You call me mother”
Marge Simon is a perfect choice for Earth. Her poetry’s always well grounded and solid. Deceptively simple to grasp, even as fine grains slide through your grey matter. “The Time Drifter” and “The Astronaut’s Return” show this beautifully. Both seem to be straightforward narrations, one sided conversations, that bookend each other with a simple inversion (“It is death, not life, that has no limits” and “It is life, not death that has no limits”) that ties these two disparate stories together, feeding new meanings and impact into them. Then there is “That Thing You Do: 3005 A.D.”, which seems so archaic in concept, with the washing and preparation of the bride for congress juxtaposed with the futuristic date. It’s soft, sensual, natural, yet is obsessed with deception. And that isn’t going into her marvelous use of rhythm and stanza.
“Drink, and be reborn”
Then comes Rain Graves, whose work I have never read before this but who is described as a meeting point between Lovecraft and Bukowski in the introductory material. Any illusion of the peace and tranquility often associated with water is ruptured and drowned from the start with “The Alligator God and the Sea” awash in violence and rage and utter nihilistic disappointment. I am sure Hemmingway would be happy with the allusion. Her words slip and slither, edging on reason and sitting comfortably on the tongue; full of rich imagery and meaning that slides through grasping fingers. Where Marge’s poetry is easily accessible, Rain takes a bit more work, but it’s well worth the effort. Take this, from “HP Lovecraft, Drinking a Little”: “bleeding to be whole, and imaginary, and culinary and… simply loveable, like wine. We often feel, say the Elder Gods, we are just the cheese they brought, and not at all the good kind” and try not to weep a bit at the loss of importance. She ends it all on a series of poems based around the myths of Hades and those thick, black rivers that flow therein. I may well have a new obsession, here.
“Dancing to music of both screams and birth”
Charlee Jacob. I shouldn’t have to say more than that, should I? But you know I will. Fire blisters, burns and scars the flesh, but sears clean wounds that throb with infection. I can’t think of a better metaphor for her work. There are no words here that do not carry the weight of agony on their shoulders, no stanzas that do not bury you beneath it. There is less sense here, and more rage in these intricate paintings woven of words and emotion; dreams that screech and whine on the stark white of the page. Yet, there is a catharsis and a sense of hope to it all, echoed in the self-determinism of Lucifer (via “Reaching Back to Eden: The Snake”) that “when we die we shall have to rely on our own light, flickering, wan, at tunnel’s end”. I’ve said it before and will continue screaming it from rooftops until you bastards listen: This woman is my shit!
“Sings softly over stony curves”
Rounding us out, we have Linda Addison, a woman who was first brought to my attention by a scraggly post-mortal feline and the grandiose come-on of Dr. Booty. Her poetry can seem random, immensely beautiful but evasive. Words flow and eddy, tear and caress, then flit away into nothing and it all can too easily be dismissed as nonsense. As she states in “Fearless”, “There are no answers in this empty when, just death, ghosts, bleeding songs, one broken moon shape high above, no one to breathe me.” Please note that “seem” from earlier, though. There is meaning here, even if it will not present itself to you. There is sense as well as sensation, but it refuses to sit still. Like Marge’s twinning of the Drifter and the Astronaut, Linda loops the aptly named “Disambiguation” into “Homecoming” into a dance of dissolution and reformation that makes it clear that Addison does not act without purpose. I’ll be puzzling over these poems for quite some time and I love it.
I don’t normally like to give directives, but you should just go ahead and buy this damn book.
The premise here is fairly simple, each poet attributed an element with poems that tie into that element in some way. This allows for a sense of coherence without limiting the results to the point of monotony.
“You call me mother”
Marge Simon is a perfect choice for Earth. Her poetry’s always well grounded and solid. Deceptively simple to grasp, even as fine grains slide through your grey matter. “The Time Drifter” and “The Astronaut’s Return” show this beautifully. Both seem to be straightforward narrations, one sided conversations, that bookend each other with a simple inversion (“It is death, not life, that has no limits” and “It is life, not death that has no limits”) that ties these two disparate stories together, feeding new meanings and impact into them. Then there is “That Thing You Do: 3005 A.D.”, which seems so archaic in concept, with the washing and preparation of the bride for congress juxtaposed with the futuristic date. It’s soft, sensual, natural, yet is obsessed with deception. And that isn’t going into her marvelous use of rhythm and stanza.
“Drink, and be reborn”
Then comes Rain Graves, whose work I have never read before this but who is described as a meeting point between Lovecraft and Bukowski in the introductory material. Any illusion of the peace and tranquility often associated with water is ruptured and drowned from the start with “The Alligator God and the Sea” awash in violence and rage and utter nihilistic disappointment. I am sure Hemmingway would be happy with the allusion. Her words slip and slither, edging on reason and sitting comfortably on the tongue; full of rich imagery and meaning that slides through grasping fingers. Where Marge’s poetry is easily accessible, Rain takes a bit more work, but it’s well worth the effort. Take this, from “HP Lovecraft, Drinking a Little”: “bleeding to be whole, and imaginary, and culinary and… simply loveable, like wine. We often feel, say the Elder Gods, we are just the cheese they brought, and not at all the good kind” and try not to weep a bit at the loss of importance. She ends it all on a series of poems based around the myths of Hades and those thick, black rivers that flow therein. I may well have a new obsession, here.
“Dancing to music of both screams and birth”
Charlee Jacob. I shouldn’t have to say more than that, should I? But you know I will. Fire blisters, burns and scars the flesh, but sears clean wounds that throb with infection. I can’t think of a better metaphor for her work. There are no words here that do not carry the weight of agony on their shoulders, no stanzas that do not bury you beneath it. There is less sense here, and more rage in these intricate paintings woven of words and emotion; dreams that screech and whine on the stark white of the page. Yet, there is a catharsis and a sense of hope to it all, echoed in the self-determinism of Lucifer (via “Reaching Back to Eden: The Snake”) that “when we die we shall have to rely on our own light, flickering, wan, at tunnel’s end”. I’ve said it before and will continue screaming it from rooftops until you bastards listen: This woman is my shit!
“Sings softly over stony curves”
Rounding us out, we have Linda Addison, a woman who was first brought to my attention by a scraggly post-mortal feline and the grandiose come-on of Dr. Booty. Her poetry can seem random, immensely beautiful but evasive. Words flow and eddy, tear and caress, then flit away into nothing and it all can too easily be dismissed as nonsense. As she states in “Fearless”, “There are no answers in this empty when, just death, ghosts, bleeding songs, one broken moon shape high above, no one to breathe me.” Please note that “seem” from earlier, though. There is meaning here, even if it will not present itself to you. There is sense as well as sensation, but it refuses to sit still. Like Marge’s twinning of the Drifter and the Astronaut, Linda loops the aptly named “Disambiguation” into “Homecoming” into a dance of dissolution and reformation that makes it clear that Addison does not act without purpose. I’ll be puzzling over these poems for quite some time and I love it.
I don’t normally like to give directives, but you should just go ahead and buy this damn book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review