Ecstasy: Poems

by Alex Dimitrov

A fearless, revelatory collection from one of the most talked-about poets in America, whose poems have been embraced by critics and audiences alike as candid, intimate, and magnetically charged (“like catching a glimpse of the full moon in the middle of the day” — Bomb )

Alex Dimitrov embraces a life on the edge in New York and the finely wrought poetry that can come out of it as he explores sex, drugs, parties, pleasure, and God in the 2020s, and looks back to a coming-of-age in the 1990s that still informs who his generation is and will be. His unabashed and drivingly musical poems are a call against repression, a rebuke of cultural norms and shame, and a celebration of human authenticity—even if to live under such philosophies is dangerous. In “Today I Love Being Alive,” we find the poet naked in his kitchen, eating a banana and obsessed with a new lover, declaring “I don't care about being remembered. / I care about . . . Strong men. Beautiful sentences. Italian leather;” in “Poppers," he stands lightheaded in the bathroom at a bar, “thinking of what to do / with the rest of my life,” and issuing a warning to himself and “Poetry / is not a self-help book.”

Dimitrov is an iconographer of contemporary life, able to pin profound and timeless meaning to a fleeting encounter in the street. Ecstasy also engages with the poet’s Christian upbringing, interrogating faith as both an enemy and valve of catharsis, and a bedfellow of what this book celebrates and profound human ecstasy.

Genres: Poetry, LGBT, Queer, 21st Century

112 pages, Hardcover

Published April 1, 2025

About the author

Alex Dimitrov is the author of three books of poems, including Love and Other Poems, as well as the chapbook American Boys. His work has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, and Poetry. He was the former senior content editor at the Academy of American Poets, where he edited Poem-A-Day and American Poets. He has taught creative writing at Princeton University, Columbia University, and Barnard College, among other institutions. With Dorothea Lasky, he is the co-author of Astro Poets: Your Guides to the Zodiac. Dimitrov lives in New York.

Reviews

[nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Major thanks to Knopf for sending me an ARC of this in exchange for my honest thoughts:

“𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶?”

To be gay and bored and unsure of the world. What should life provide? What do I provide to life? Is God real through any of this? My Catholic upbringing says otherwise, but Dimitrov’s trust in the divine in that Lana Del Rey cool brings him to Frank O’Hara cool, a beatnik chic that once was, revived. Corvettes, Coca Colas, having a coke with you, can it be done?

The book is filled with boys and kisses and booze and charm. Dimitrov writes of a world where bumming off a cigarette from a cute face is life’s greatest pleasure, and pure ecstasy when you go home with them.

[julia lark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ecstasy is a perfect example of my problems with modern poetry. This could have been a post on Tumblr.com. The language is too casual, the stories repetitive, the sensory nonexistent, flattening this book of poems into nothing more than a self-pitying diary. The author’s insistence on crowning himself A Real Poet every other line made me roll my eyes. When I wasn’t rolling my eyes, I was scoffing. The only redeemable part of this was “Today I Love Being Alive,” but then it was immediately followed by a horrendous poem called “Soul-Fuck.”

I will say, this author writes with a wonderful starkness. He can clearly write, maybe his other collections are better. I don’t think I’ll read them though.

Lastly, I listened to this on audiobook. The poet read it himself and he sounded so bored and disinterested, which also didn’t help to stir up any emotion in me other than a similar boredom and disinterest.

Bring back rhythmmmmmmmmm and heightened language gahhhhhhhh

[June · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hopeful for this collection as a fan of Dimitrov's online presence and use of imagery, but Ecstasy was just okay. Some poems felt bloated, some poems felt a bit like a scattering of images or thoughts, and most poems felt a little too up front for me. I like reading between the lines and deciphering poems, but this felt a bit more like a beat travelogue... just not for me. Would recommend in lieu of Grindr scrolling though, I suppose.

Favorite poems - Soul Fucking, Hello, Xanax, & Baby

(thank you NetGalley and Knopf for the e-arc!)

[City Elf Reader (Ryan) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully queer. Happy and sad, the ecstasy is life itself and all the magnetic and mundane moments.

“I don’t care about being remembered.
I care about a great glass of wine.
Strong men. Beautiful sentences. Italian leather.

Call me old fashioned, really.
But when I cut myself shaving about the lip,
I lick up the blood. I don’t wince.”


Thank you to Knopf for the ARC!

[Charlotte Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved many of these poems but sometimes I think we’re on the verge of lacking complexity and sonic quality. You and me both Alex

[katryna · Rating 3 out of 5]

some of these poems are kinda bad and some of these poems are like rly good soooooooooooooooooidk

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted you to be a stranger to me, so that I could tell you more than I knew I remembered, but you too quickly became so sweet, and I didn't want my words to sour you.

[janna ✭ · Rating 3 out of 5]

"How fast will misery make us its keeper/ when the memory of ecstasy wanes?"

Hm, this was interesting. I definitely thought I would like it a lot more than I did, but I also read it in one sitting, so I guess it wasn't too bad.

I'm curious to pick up more of Dimitrov's work, but this collection felt a bit half-baked to me. It's too short, in my opinion, and the poems could use some fleshing out. I like his voice and the themes he chose to explore in this one, but a lot of the poems were just him listing things, like this:

"The xanax
inside me.
The poppers.
The torsos.
The past."

This style works sometimes, but after a while, it becomes lazy and repetitive. He also split up the poems into different themes, for example in part 4, almost all of the poems are named after the seven deadly sins, which I wasn't a fan of. It felt too on the nose..I don't know, I think I should be able to tell that your poem is about greed, for example, without you having to literally call it "greed." A lot of the poems also reference oranges and Jesus and it felt too internet poetry for my liking.

I think more poets need to lean away from the Bukowski style of writing that they all seem to be adopting recently; I don't think most of them do it well and it turns their work into a shallow caricature. The conflation of prose and poetry is so annoying, you starting a new line at random parts in the middle of your sentences does not a poem make.

There was a certain earnestness about this that worked for me though, and I definitely highlighted a couple of lines, so I would pick up more of his work, but otherwise, this was largely unmemorable. It was giving Richard Siken and I don't like Siken's style, so figures that I wouldn't love this.

My favourite poems were: Soul Fucking; Someone in Paris, France is Thinking of You; Everything Always, and Paris.

[Luke Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up Ecstasy after meeting Alex Dimitrov at a reading at Book Culture last week. This year I’ve been trying to read more poetry.

This collection was fantastic. Hedonistic and lovable. I’m always drawn to artists who make the difficult seem effortless and Dimitrov is one of those poets for me. Paris was my favorite poem.

I would suggest reading it.

[Matt Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not really a poetry guy and not much to compare it too but I did enjoy this. Sometimes I felt like it was trying to be *provacative*, but the commentary on how annoying and selfish and weird it can feel to be a gay person in our current times was spot-on. It was all so referential and tongue in cheek that you get engaged in his battles and whims.

A few lines I loved:

“I don't care about being remembered.
I care about a great glass of wine.
Strong men. Beautiful sentences. Italian leather.“

“Naked and French and all our friends would call to say: boys! Don't you think you'll come home now?“

“I remember watching it with you
and staring only at your face.”

Reminded me of: Lorde’s Virgin album, Ed Ruscha paintings, Salman Toor paintings, how it feels kinda edgy to use an iPhone with a cracked screen, when someone told me her friend was taking a leave of absence at work to “collect stories”

[reading_racc00n · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely adored this collection. Reading Ecstasy was my introduction to Dimitrov’s work and I am excited to explore more of his poetry. The poems here are modern, sexy, and filled with life and humor. A few of my personal favorites are The Years, Another Party, Knife Tattoo, and Wednesday.

Thanks to aaknopf for the advanced copy.

[Kira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dimitrov's poems are playful and entertaining—and this collection is no exception. Witty, ironic and at times mocking, he succeeds in balancing the satire with quiet moments of poignancy and nuance. You can feel the fun he had writing these poems, which makes it such a pleasure to experience.

I constantly return to ‘The Years’ again and again since its publication in The New Yorker. Gorgina.

[Sparrow Murray · Rating 1 out of 5]

Vain, soulless, “I do this—I do that” poems. Cathedrals of the self. Not even a self. A symptom. Indictment of the literary establishment. More like indictment of our nothing burger culture, of bourgeois leisure.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly loved these poems and this style. Visceral and romantic and yearning while also witty and understated. It just felt like it said something and I liked it.

Thanks for the ARC

[Isabella Vallone · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re not a woman or gay, don’t read this.

[Taylor Napolsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very fun collection that vacillates between intense and relaxed in a way I connect with. Tons of style and power. Really enjoyed this.

[Michelle | musingsbymichelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alex Dimitrov you’re twisted and I love it

[jane bro]

in this collection alex dimitrov turns himself into a christ who knows he should die but is having too much fun to be bothered. a sarcastic & gorgeous work. a more coked out frank o’hara.
*”coked” originally autocorrected to “choked” and tbh that works too.

<3
—
“the years”
“today i love being alive”
“someone in paris, france is thinking of you”
“someone in new york city is thinking of you”
“monday”
“hello”
“1995”
“xanax”
“paris”
“pink tesla”
“jesus”
“ketamine”
“wednesday”
“wrath”
“greed”
“alone in the maldives”

[eleanor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved reading this book at night because it reminded me of life in New York. The style was cool and edgy.

[Ryan Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

This poetry collection had a lot - and not enough - to say. I was eagerly anticipating this read and unfortunately, it fell into the overkill in repetition category. :(

[Brice Montgomery · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC!

For better or worse, Alex Dimitrov’s Ecstasy reads like an addendum to his earlier (and wonderful) work, Love and Other Poems, and interested readers might benefit more from simply revisiting that collection.

As always, Dimitrov’s voice is an absolute pleasure to read. It’s musical and playful without ever feeling twee, and he articulates a kind of gentle hedonism that suits the subject matter well. That said, the organizing theme of “ecstasy” just doesn’t seem capable of sustaining the collection.

Within the speaker’s world, ecstasy isn’t the euphoric release readers might expect. Instead, it’s a momentary pinch of something both listless and lonely. It’s recognition of transcendent potential without its attainment. For the first few poems, this definition seems to suggest an interrogation of how we elevate certain experiences, but it quickly becomes clear that the concept is too vague to really be a theme.

After a while, the poems begin to bleed together into shapeless recollections of substance-fueled hookups with arbitrary religious iconography thrown in for good measure. When the speaker describes doing a line of coke off of a crucifix, it feels less like a comment on parallels between drugs and religion and more like an outmoded attempt at provocation. Eventually, all the poems accumulate without forming any shape. One could argue that the poet’s intent is to deliberately withhold catharsis—that ecstasy is defined by its impossibility—but it reads more like an editor just realized there were finally enough pieces to fill a book.

Despite these criticisms, Dimitrov remains a formidable poet, and individual poems are simply a delight. “Monday” and “1995” are particular standouts, and I wish I had found them without the baggage of the surrounding collection. For readers who want to check out Ecstasy, it may be more rewarding to simply flip through it rather than approach it as body of work.

[Geo · Rating 3 out of 5]

“There is no true self. No one gets to the bottom of anything.”

Alex Dimitrov is an American poet living in New York. I cannot remember how I stumbled upon his work, but reading this made me feel connected to him. I struggle with poetry as an art form, but this sparse entry in a poet’s work connected with me. I feel like this is one of the few modern poets who hits the nail on the head in the modern human condition, or rather, my human condition. Another reader could interpret this as pretentious or amateurish, there are certain moments that feel like the narrative voice is pulled straight from social media posts, but I think this is just the nature of modern writers. I like that this writer blends a poetic narrative with splashes of modern vernacular, it highlights the duality of people living in a world that is so plugged into the online space and a modern cityscape culture like New York. This feels like an early entry in a legendary queer author like Dennis Cooper, although much less dark than Cooper’s work. Maybe it’s offensive to compare any queer and transgressive art with Dennis Cooper, but he’s who I consider to be one of the greats in the queer literature space, so I do mean it to be a compliment. I’m curious to read the author’s other works and where he’ll go from here. I love how these poems explore the existential malaise so many of us feel in the modern day, trying to find ourselves, to find meaning, and the strange places we find ourselves in while we are on our own journeys. While I do not particularly connect with the way that this is written, the ideas and feelings that I they explore are things that I, and everyone to some extent, are experiencing. Identity is nebulous and mercurial and none of us truly knows what we are doing, even after it’s done.

“Isn’t it terrible to be people no one can fix?”

[wulvz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dimitrov is gospel to me and this is my first time ever rating him a 4 instead of a 5.

A 4 to me means that there were too many good poems to rate it any lower, and a few that just felt quick and messy.

It is hard to explain but I feel like Dimitrov shines in the fact that he can make any aspect of life, no matter how negatively charged (especially mistakes) look and feel beautiful. He doesn’t just inspire me to write, he inspires me to live by making any experience whether vibrant or grim feel fruitful. He did not fail to deliver that in this.

He however, leaned fully into ego in this, which made it a little more difficult to relate to. I still think he is a genius, and my favorite poet of all time, and I honestly think he is fully aware of the tone he was casting when writing this (he is a genius, it’s kind of annoying the level and layers of self awareness he has while still being sometimes impossible to relate to).

Lots of queer nuance, I can’t relate him in full to any poet because he is Dimitrov, but some of the intersection of violence, toxic masculinity, and being “gay” in america was so revelatory, fresh, new, and spoken in such a unique tone, it reminded me of some of my favorite Siken and Vuong (of course, each poet having something completely unique and new to say about these matters).

I love Dimitrov, I wouldn’t change anything about this book, it probably deserves a 5, he knows it deserves a 5 and I think he also knows why rivaling ego readers are not giving it a 5 (me included).

Sincerely sad to have no more new work from him again, back to patiently waiting, and crying to his old stuff. This one didn’t make me cry, just frustrated that I didn’t write some of it

I too wish god would nail me to something I couldn’t return from
(holy fuck)

[Gabriel Noel · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC given by NetGalley for Honest Review

Expertly written and self-indulgent. "Ecstasy" is a juxtaposition against itself. Themes are heavy on the queer lens of Americana and capitalism, during which insight is sometimes found or flies right over the head of Dimitrov himself. I was captured by the writing, it's lush and metaphor heavy, but found many poems to be repetitive. Dimitrov relies heavily on the usual poetry tropes of eating citrus fruits and smoking cigarettes. Yeah, it's sexy...as long as you don't draw attention to it. Then you're trying to hard. Honestly though, I think that might be the point which is what draws me back in. It's a collection of a young queer man not ready to leave his youth screaming "Please! I'm still here I'm still beautiful!" and honestly...I GET it.

A solid collection for the melancholy queer whose been through way too much shit. Definitely recommend a read through.

My favorite poems are: "Soul Fucking", "Alex, It Was Really Nothing", "Everything Always", and "Baby, No."

[Joseph · Rating 1 out of 5]

Elementary school children have more emotional intelligence than the navel-gazing, self-indulgent effluence that stains these pages. The author likes to write the f-word as if he is passionate and somehow transgressive (with the effect that it's more like bad 70's porn movie dialogue), drinks, smokes cigarettes, goes to parties, does blow (upturned eyes emoji). The poem "Alex, It Was Really Nothing" might be the worst poem I have read in a collection in years, followed closely by "Poppers." I have read his earlier work, and there is some artistry in it, but this is a steaming pile of Central Park horse carriage horse hockey. The editor of this drivel should be grateful his or her name isn't acknowledged in these pages because he or she may have to enter the witness protection program under some criminally negligent publishing statute that might exist. And please, if the author can write honestly about pissing in mouths, he can accept the honesty of this review.

[Mara]

Favorite poems in this collection include:

The Years
Monday
Paris
Sunday


"Not everything is an ending.
Not anything's worth believing." (p.20)

"The job of a poet
is to chase a feeling." (p.36)

"I wish you would nail me
to something I won't return from." (p.38)

"And Jesus, the first one of us maybe
to find out that anyone who wants you
will surely betray you.
Anyone who wants you (turns out)
may not love you at all." (p.42)

"I'm not sure what love is
but I know it's not this." (p.47)

"What I'm trying to say is
it all sort of passes.
The years we have buried.
The drinks in our glasses." (p.89)

[Toby · Rating 2 out of 5]

I always admire the bravery it takes to put legendary art on your cover, you should just have the content to back it up. While there's a few diamonds in the rough, most of these poems made me roll my eyes and cringe. I really hate the direction that "buzzy" modern poetry is going, gonna just stick to the classics for a while I think.

[Jade Wootton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some poems made me laugh, some poems made me cry. As a fellow NYC poet who is newly obsessed with Miami this hit all of the right notes. Underneath excessive partying there is always a bit of emptiness — but there are also, always, moments of pure ecstasy as well. This collection does a great job straddling that line.

[Nicole Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this poetry collection, but I liked it for the most part. I agree with some of the critiques people have, but I do think most of the poems were fun and written well. The stand out poems for me are: Tripping in the USA, The Years, Today I Love Being Alive, Monday, Blue Porsche, and Alex, It Was Really Nothing.

[chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't care about being remembered.
I care about a great glass of wine.
-- "Today I Love Being Alive"

Not everything is an ending.
Not anything's worth believing.
And you can begin anytime
like this whole world began
out of nothing. You can walk out
tonight and feel totally new.
All you need is the right pair of boots.
-- "Tuesday"