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Each Imaginary Arrow
This book is like an “encyclopedia of wind”. Ferry writes with wide-eyed wonder about what it means to exist, how to navigate the intersection of joy and terror and how to wrangle the banshees. “The real paradise is staying here in the languor” of these poems where “a depository of tongues” collides with otherworldly dimensions. The beauty is, that long after you close the pages of this book, you will still feel “the wind too loud in the teeth” and feel the “spirit standing outside the fence”.
- Lillian Nećakov author of Midnight Glossolalia, Duck, Eats Yeast, Quacks, Explodes; Man Loses Eye and il Virus.
In each imaginary arrow, poet-shaman Scott Ferry brings his trademark gift for juxtaposing day-to-day life with fantastical spiritual and existential explorations. In a way, this is his most cerebral collection yet—the poems, while rooted in familiar imagery, are very abstract. Yet you always know exactly what Ferry’s driving at. He makes you share in his every twinge and ache. From a Cartesian standpoint, we can only be certain of our own existence, and of God’s. In this book, God is interrogated chiefly through the body. By tunneling inward, Ferry unearths gems in a language of pimples and chest hair, of viruses and vomit, of broken teeth and asthma attacks, of needs and desire, of birth and growth. These poems are courageous, fiercely original, provocative, and always, always beautiful.
- Lauren Scharhag , author of Morels
This book is breathing, sharp, and full of strong poems where the natural world is itself but also metaphorical and the mental states of the speaker are both also. Storms/Storms. Like John Zorn’s Naked City , the thoughts, feelings, visions, refrains, cadences, dream logic, bats and orb spiders, the familial ghosts, the children outgrowing assumptions about them, the music of this book is recognizable but blown open, kaleidoscopic. It’s the music of real life.
- Michael Sikkema author of Caw Caw Phony.
- Lillian Nećakov author of Midnight Glossolalia, Duck, Eats Yeast, Quacks, Explodes; Man Loses Eye and il Virus.
In each imaginary arrow, poet-shaman Scott Ferry brings his trademark gift for juxtaposing day-to-day life with fantastical spiritual and existential explorations. In a way, this is his most cerebral collection yet—the poems, while rooted in familiar imagery, are very abstract. Yet you always know exactly what Ferry’s driving at. He makes you share in his every twinge and ache. From a Cartesian standpoint, we can only be certain of our own existence, and of God’s. In this book, God is interrogated chiefly through the body. By tunneling inward, Ferry unearths gems in a language of pimples and chest hair, of viruses and vomit, of broken teeth and asthma attacks, of needs and desire, of birth and growth. These poems are courageous, fiercely original, provocative, and always, always beautiful.
- Lauren Scharhag , author of Morels
This book is breathing, sharp, and full of strong poems where the natural world is itself but also metaphorical and the mental states of the speaker are both also. Storms/Storms. Like John Zorn’s Naked City , the thoughts, feelings, visions, refrains, cadences, dream logic, bats and orb spiders, the familial ghosts, the children outgrowing assumptions about them, the music of this book is recognizable but blown open, kaleidoscopic. It’s the music of real life.
- Michael Sikkema author of Caw Caw Phony.
74 pages, Paperback
Published June 24, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 18, 2023
Very intriguing imaginative images and phrase turns. Many of his pieces show that less is more. I love poems with great last lines and Ferry delivers. Poems that stood out for me: Almost all of them.
Hope to read more from Scott Ferry. I would have liked to have seen a Table of Contents. I'm probably going to steal his line, at the beginning of my readings for my own book that I found in his prologue: "I pray you find these demons delicious".
Hope to read more from Scott Ferry. I would have liked to have seen a Table of Contents. I'm probably going to steal his line, at the beginning of my readings for my own book that I found in his prologue: "I pray you find these demons delicious".
August 21, 2023
In each imaginary arrow Scott Ferry builds a world where the quotidian is whip-stitched into the surreal. Thoughts, memories, feelings and dreams of the speaker glint through other-wordly landscapes in surprising juxtaposition.
Scott Ferry writes a kind of poem that gives me muscular hope for the ongoing expansion of poetry, far into the future. His multilayered, yet deceptively simple poems fuse raw emotion and subtle technique.
Just when you think you've recognized where he's coming from, or believe you've identified where he's taking you–here comes a sharp turn, a dizzying twist, an unexpected choice of imagery, or voice.
Favorites from this collection: listening to coltrane's love supreme; 7/25; my time with the wolves; i want a set of instructions; it is my job; did you hear kitty ghosty?; in the belly of god.
Scott Ferry writes a kind of poem that gives me muscular hope for the ongoing expansion of poetry, far into the future. His multilayered, yet deceptively simple poems fuse raw emotion and subtle technique.
Just when you think you've recognized where he's coming from, or believe you've identified where he's taking you–here comes a sharp turn, a dizzying twist, an unexpected choice of imagery, or voice.
Favorites from this collection: listening to coltrane's love supreme; 7/25; my time with the wolves; i want a set of instructions; it is my job; did you hear kitty ghosty?; in the belly of god.
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October 11, 2023I've never considered myself spiritual or pious individual. My belief system is a set of principles I employ to understand my everyday reality. Although Scott Ferry's intuitive and thought provoking poetry in 'Each Imaginary Arrow' has given me reason to reassess my
values. His latest collection of poems are tenants giving flight to his imaginary arrows, soaring through the sky always hitting the target
Scott Ferry is endowed with a distinctive writing style I rarely encounter from contemporary poets of today. I'm grateful to have been introduced to these poems in 'Each Imaginary Arrow' I'm sure you'll revisit these gems often it should be on every writer's book shelf.
Thanks Scott.
values. His latest collection of poems are tenants giving flight to his imaginary arrows, soaring through the sky always hitting the target
Scott Ferry is endowed with a distinctive writing style I rarely encounter from contemporary poets of today. I'm grateful to have been introduced to these poems in 'Each Imaginary Arrow' I'm sure you'll revisit these gems often it should be on every writer's book shelf.
Thanks Scott.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews