Ghost House

by Hannah Faith Notess

Poems

Genres: Poetry

34 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2013

About the author

Hannah Faith Notess is a poet, editor, web developer, and the author of The Multitude, winner of the Michael Waters Poetry Prize from Southern Indiana Review Press. She earned an MFA in creative writing from Indiana University. Her writing has appeared in The Christian Century, Crab Orchard Review, and Slate, among other journals.

Reviews

[boocia]

this was a really fun anthology to read. all the poems were good, though some felt like they needed more polishing, they weren't at their final iteration.

when i was blown away i was blown away though. the first poem, 'Mario World', made me tear up. 'St Augustine in the World's Largest Pacman Maze' was a really gorgeous construction. the poems were all quiet and calm in the exterior and filled with some sort of wistful yearning/pain, a really solid trademark to have. the video game metaphors - not cute, not cheeky, but imbued with a lot of genuine pathos - did not become cuter or cheekier over time; it definitely worked over and over for me.

there is a lot of yearning in this book, i think. the theme of 'ghost house', of ghosts, flits about across the poems in sort of wistful regret(?); things past not put entirely to rest. VERY cohesive, which is always nice to see in a poetry collection.

i think there were a few poems in here about death, and specifically other people dying, and caring about that but also being sort of helplessly distant from it, that was really validating to read expressed in the way they were. 'The Multitude' in particular had lines like: "You could do nothing for them - for the future dead ... in-laws, cousins ... distant friends ... falling in and out of marriages you have no power to arrange or even assuage. You pray for peace, pray they will go away and leave you in peace, but they won't." which is just a particular feeling i have a lot and never thought to try to write about? so that was solid.

this poetry anthology had a lot of christian god in it, and jesus, in ways i feel could have been alienating, but weren't at all. both wrestling with it AND invoking it, and both worked for me. i think they would do a different work for people more familiar with practicing christianity, but i'm definitely walking around afterward with a warm round appreciation for suffering-patience-faith, generally, feeling more at peace with the world being kind of spooky and confusing, generally.

some poems are more skippable than others but when it lands it's so fucking good fam.

[Mark Oppenlander · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find it hard to review poetry. More than any other form of writing, it seems that there is a great deal of subjectivity that is involved. Nonetheless, I'll make a few comments here, in hopes that it might be useful to any poetry lovers who follow my reviews.

This chapbook of poetry by Hannah Faith Notess is filled with juxtapositions between the old and the new. Some of the poems touch on that which is older (and even the Old World), including visits from immigrant ancestors, witches and trips to classic works in European museums while other poems are very much grounded in the modern era, especially those treating on the subject of video games, a thread throughout the book. Some poems collect both new and old imagery side by side. At times these juxtapositions fell a little flat or seemed a bit forced to me (e.g. "St. Augustine Enters the World's Largest Pac-Man Maze") but when they work, they can be downright breathtaking (e.g. "Mario World" or "Ghost House Level").

Many of the pieces here seem to speak to the process of learning and growing - a part of which is understanding that there is much that is unknowable in life (e.g. "To the Former Self in Art Class"). I appreciated that theme. I also enjoyed a few of the poems that had a strong sense of place and time, such as "To the Body Carried Out of the Apartment Across the Street." Although they didn't necessarily fit the larger old/new juxtaposition of the rest of the collection, they were evocative in just the way I expect from good poetry.

Other favorites of mine in the collection included "The Witch and the Soldier," "To the Church across the Bridge Who is Claiming the City for God" and "To the Girl Playing Mario Kart in the Botticelli Room." If you life traditional poetry written with quirky modern elements, you should enjoy this book.

[J.A.A. Purves · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s always fascinating to read the poems of a poet with old-fashioned sensibilities who writes about modern day phenomena not usually to be found in serious poetry. Also, the thing is, Hannah Faith Notess’s poems are quite fun. She mixes Mario Brothers with the Uffizi Gallery, imagines St. Augustine inside a Pac-Man video game, and contrasts the opposing/complimentary/similar views of enchantment with science (see “The Witch and the Scientist”). I particularly enjoyed “Chess By Mail,” “St. Augustine Enters the World’s Largest Pac-Man Maze” and “The Witch Sings a Bach Chorale” and will happily look forward to reading more of Notess in the future.

[Lisa Keuss · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ghosts here in these poems are not particularly sinister; but rather the sort that we learn to live with.

[Thomas Hale · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short collection of poetry, about nostalgia, longing, videogames and hope. It made me feel a lot of things, and I'm grateful.