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After Sunstone
Dustin Cole's finest work of poetry yet, in a modern, powerful expression of the beatifying vision of the everyday.
Includes thirty-six poems and author's postscript.
Includes thirty-six poems and author's postscript.
- GenresPoetry
68 pages, Paperback
First published March 18, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 31, 2025
Fantastic little book of poetry. The book's cool cover and crisp design add to the presentation of this eclectic assortment of poems. To me, there is a feeling here of being a little frayed, or a little faded, sometimes a little bloodstained. Some of the poems are warm, close to idyllic, while others are cold and mysterious. There's a lot to take in here, and I particularly loved the lengthier poems "Outing," and "Memory's Neon," the book's closer.
June 2, 2025
From the very onset, the book After Sunstone by Dustin Cole presents a hazy view of the world. The cover features a lone house amidst a field viewed through a circular lens. The cover sets the story straight; this book is about seeing things from a disoriented and meditative point of view. It is about looking at the intersection of past and present with a confused sigh, wondering where you even are. Cole’s abstract imagery and meditative diction lends an eye to the reader, allowing them to peer into worlds of past and present.
Dustin Cole is a Vancouver, BC, poet and author who was previously published in Heavy Feather Review, Apocalypse Confidential, The British Columbia Review, and now Farthest Heaven, among others, compiled After Sunstone from a series of poems published in Version (9) Magazine titled Stone Sequence and others he had written in the span of ten years. Stone Sequence was accompanied by an essay that elaborated upon Cole’s ‘poetics of disorientation.’ The ‘poetics of disorientation’ are very important when seeking to understand After Sunstone. ‘Poetics of disorientation’ is built on the idea of instilling a sense of unease, or disorientation, in the reader by means of fragmented structure and shifting perspective and time. These modes can be seen all throughout the poems of After Sunstone.
In a world of increasing globalization and atomization, it can be hard to understand the place one occupies. The world around us is ever changing and shifting. The past 10 years ago is a foreign place, a world lost to time. After Sunstone is a nook in the old crumbling stone wall, which when looked through one sees visions of another world, a world familiar yet distant. Being a collection of poems written in the span of a decade, it is no wonder that they would give off this feeling of looking through time, and they are all the better for it.
A poem that stands out in this regard is Summary for 20 years. “I run into you at the liquor store / I haven’t seen you in 20 years / sometimes the past spits out a human being.” (lines 1-3) Often, you’ll meet people from your past in the most unexpected places. Having moved around in my youth, I know this feeling all too well. People will leave and you will grow accustomed to their absence, and just then they will be spat back out at you. How do you react to that? Do you pretend that there hasn’t been that absence? You put on a smile and say, “Nothing special / or Just working / a generic line that might be true” (lines 6-8) Summary for 20 years perfectly encapsulates the disorienting feeling one gets when past and present collide, left on autopilot throughout the interaction and only consciously seeing it in the proper context later. The meditative and matter of fact way of telling the story mimics the inauthentic conversation had with the acquaintance, it is brief and lacking substance, yet that lack of substance shows more than it intends to.
After Sunstone is a great piece of literature and could stand to be Cole’s magnum opus, of poetry at least. The feelings that exude from Cole’s poems can be hard to describe, but those feelings are very real and powerful. From nostalgia, to wonder, to confusion to sadness, After Sunstone by Dustin Cole covers all these feelings and more, through the medium of Cole’s excellent poetry.
Dustin Cole is a Vancouver, BC, poet and author who was previously published in Heavy Feather Review, Apocalypse Confidential, The British Columbia Review, and now Farthest Heaven, among others, compiled After Sunstone from a series of poems published in Version (9) Magazine titled Stone Sequence and others he had written in the span of ten years. Stone Sequence was accompanied by an essay that elaborated upon Cole’s ‘poetics of disorientation.’ The ‘poetics of disorientation’ are very important when seeking to understand After Sunstone. ‘Poetics of disorientation’ is built on the idea of instilling a sense of unease, or disorientation, in the reader by means of fragmented structure and shifting perspective and time. These modes can be seen all throughout the poems of After Sunstone.
In a world of increasing globalization and atomization, it can be hard to understand the place one occupies. The world around us is ever changing and shifting. The past 10 years ago is a foreign place, a world lost to time. After Sunstone is a nook in the old crumbling stone wall, which when looked through one sees visions of another world, a world familiar yet distant. Being a collection of poems written in the span of a decade, it is no wonder that they would give off this feeling of looking through time, and they are all the better for it.
A poem that stands out in this regard is Summary for 20 years. “I run into you at the liquor store / I haven’t seen you in 20 years / sometimes the past spits out a human being.” (lines 1-3) Often, you’ll meet people from your past in the most unexpected places. Having moved around in my youth, I know this feeling all too well. People will leave and you will grow accustomed to their absence, and just then they will be spat back out at you. How do you react to that? Do you pretend that there hasn’t been that absence? You put on a smile and say, “Nothing special / or Just working / a generic line that might be true” (lines 6-8) Summary for 20 years perfectly encapsulates the disorienting feeling one gets when past and present collide, left on autopilot throughout the interaction and only consciously seeing it in the proper context later. The meditative and matter of fact way of telling the story mimics the inauthentic conversation had with the acquaintance, it is brief and lacking substance, yet that lack of substance shows more than it intends to.
After Sunstone is a great piece of literature and could stand to be Cole’s magnum opus, of poetry at least. The feelings that exude from Cole’s poems can be hard to describe, but those feelings are very real and powerful. From nostalgia, to wonder, to confusion to sadness, After Sunstone by Dustin Cole covers all these feelings and more, through the medium of Cole’s excellent poetry.
July 6, 2025
better than 90% of the poetry in the paris review
January 25, 2026
Dustin Cole's cellular alignment rings light for the grime crystals to collapse into forged integrity that fluids toward bond. He surveys with masonic reverb the gloss of visualization, bringing it closer to objective personalization. These are ekphrastics that reveal the beyond direct, the new face of abstraction that supersedes the hidden paradox. Many are drinking from the angular faucet, but Dustin alone might know how to fully dissolve this tilt. Buy this book or receive it with gracious fingertips for a symphonic crush of psychoactive strata. Many thanks to the writer for going into rooms, someday I might forget how to go into rooms.
June 1, 2025
Most beautiful and evocative front and back cover in my poetry collection. Outing, Summary for 20 Years, Songs from the 1980's and Discreet Footage are standouts.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews