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Rituals for Dissolution
Winner of the 2021 Eastern Iowa Review/Port Yonder Press chapbook contest, Rituals for Dissolution explores what happens when we just...let...go. Grounded in imagery, symbolism, and wordplay from nature, this collection of 36 prose poems-as-rituals mixes density and breathing room to celebrate what can happen when we seek to become ethereal.
"Where is a path to survivorship and healing? In Jericho M. Hockett’s Rituals for Dissolution, the ritual is in both the writing and the protection spells, in dissolving those traumatic agents both private and public. These poems carry a mythos in their making, in praise of women from a familial lineage both past and present, alongside women who dare to face the wolves, as if fairy tale telling in a way the Brothers Grimm could not access. They also sing into the future, as a voice proclaims, “And I will sing from my belly to Mary, Queen of Heaven, our life, our sweetness, our hope, Mother of Mercy, whose name means both ‘bitter’ and ‘strong.’” I want to tell everyone, Hockett's words are made of that strong, life-giving Midwest balance of earth and sky seeking to reclaim Kansas, reclaim Dorothy, reclaim the beloved, and reclaim the very ground only a Kansas witch can make holy again. Just as the title poems asks, “Beloveds, take courage, jump, dare to stretch,” this chapbook holds an invocation for us all to find a way to emerge new."--Dennis Etzel, Jr. author of The Sum of Two Mothers
"Where is a path to survivorship and healing? In Jericho M. Hockett’s Rituals for Dissolution, the ritual is in both the writing and the protection spells, in dissolving those traumatic agents both private and public. These poems carry a mythos in their making, in praise of women from a familial lineage both past and present, alongside women who dare to face the wolves, as if fairy tale telling in a way the Brothers Grimm could not access. They also sing into the future, as a voice proclaims, “And I will sing from my belly to Mary, Queen of Heaven, our life, our sweetness, our hope, Mother of Mercy, whose name means both ‘bitter’ and ‘strong.’” I want to tell everyone, Hockett's words are made of that strong, life-giving Midwest balance of earth and sky seeking to reclaim Kansas, reclaim Dorothy, reclaim the beloved, and reclaim the very ground only a Kansas witch can make holy again. Just as the title poems asks, “Beloveds, take courage, jump, dare to stretch,” this chapbook holds an invocation for us all to find a way to emerge new."--Dennis Etzel, Jr. author of The Sum of Two Mothers
46 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 29, 2025
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