Dragons

by Matthew Francis

With this second collection Matthew Francis fulfilled all the promise of his first, Blizzard. His teasing out of the bizarre or esoteric leads to a world populated with dragons, devils, butterflies, and a whole ocean full of creatures from whales and cuttlefish to the denizens of deep-sea hydrothermal vents. But strangest of all are the human beings - the ecstasies and indignities of their sexual rites of passage, the routine craziness of their dream lives, the frantic and sometimes terrible adventures of recent and not-so-recent history.

Genres: Poetry

73 pages, Paperback

First published February 19, 2001

Reviews

[Caitlin Bean Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

My second attempt at reading poetry. From what I gathered, the author aims to find the mystical and extraordinary in everyday encounters. Mundane dragons.
Some poems really resonated with me, to the point where I highlighted lines. Me, deface a book? SHOCKING
others I did not really understand, I haven’t unlocked the full potential of the poetry part of my brain… yet.

Special mentions;
Oceans - a real adventure of exploring the ocean from shallows to the deep trenches
What’s underneath - captures the eerie experiences of churches and crypts
By the forge - perfectly captures how I feel about autumn
Nest of devils - about a family of foxes, perception verses reality.
Twentieth century dream - very clever, capturing standout evens of each decade 1900-1999, without being obvious.

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Francis is a structural genius but I didn’t connect with all of the topics. Fave poem was Ocean.