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Knock
In this fiercely musical, highly anticipated debut release from Half Mystic Press, Melissa Atkinson Mercer interrogates the width, weight, and wholeness of depression, calling out to a self reflected back as monster, as myth, as song and water and tongue. Knock asks us to consider the complications of gender and voice: who gets to speak, who gets listened to, whose stories turn to fact and whose to fiction. Unflinching and tender, this book reminds us what it takes to navigate the mind’s dark seas and come out alive.
- GenresPoetry
70 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2018
93 people want to read
About the author
Melissa Atkinson Mercer
11 books10 followersMelissa Atkinson Mercer's work has appeared in Tinderbox Poetry Journal; Moon City Review; A Portrait in Blues: An Anthology of Identity, Gender, and Bodies; and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from West Virginia University, where she won the Russell MacDonald Creative Writing Award in Poetry. She currently writes and teaches at Lees-McRae College.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 6, 2018
I won this book in a giveaway. This does not affect my opinion in any way, and all words below are my honest thoughts on this book.
The cover is so freaking gorgeous.
I went into this book not knowing what to expect - I've read a lot of "tumblr poetry", but the poems in this book are so different from the ones I usually read. The writing is so beautiful, so dark, so mysterious, and the poems reflect how, in society, women are silenced and looked down upon.
This is my first time reading a book of poetry that tells a story, and Knock did not disappoint.
The cover is so freaking gorgeous.
I went into this book not knowing what to expect - I've read a lot of "tumblr poetry", but the poems in this book are so different from the ones I usually read. The writing is so beautiful, so dark, so mysterious, and the poems reflect how, in society, women are silenced and looked down upon.
This is my first time reading a book of poetry that tells a story, and Knock did not disappoint.
December 6, 2018
This book is incredible. The language is haunting and beautiful, the imagery was fantastic and overall it had this mystical, dreamy quality that I adored. I sulked excessively over the writing in this book because I felt super inferior! So that's fun. But seriously, it's beautifully written, it has this amazing ethereal feel and I really loved it.
March 1, 2018
Let me first put a disclaimer here to say I received an e-copy of this book via the publisher for a blog tour and it affects my opinion in no way.
I am happy to review Knock for my first poetry book review. When I began Knock, I wasn’t sure what to expect. For such a small book, it took me away on a surprise journey.
Metaphors and figurative language explode from the pages as it goes through depression, gender and the deepest parts of ourselves.
If I were to compare Knock to another poetry book, I would compare it to The Princess Saves Herself In This One and The Witch Doesn’t Burn In This One By Amanda Lovelace. They follow a dark, magical sort of telling.
As the first chapter begins we learn of an apocalypse beginning and the power and removal of tongues. This grabbed my attention immediately with how often, even more so today that women’s voices are policed and demanded. The imagery doesn’t stop there as we hear of witch hunts, trees, ghosts, a whale mother, mice skeletons and monsters all describing this character’s life.
The title, Knock May be taken from s self-titled poem describing a girl’s hopeful knock for just a little opening and teaches others to knock as well.
Knock is a beautiful haunting story told in poetry. I believe it may be best with repeated readings as I know I will most certainly be doing. I’ll be following along Melissa’s future poetic works as well.
I am happy to review Knock for my first poetry book review. When I began Knock, I wasn’t sure what to expect. For such a small book, it took me away on a surprise journey.
Metaphors and figurative language explode from the pages as it goes through depression, gender and the deepest parts of ourselves.
If I were to compare Knock to another poetry book, I would compare it to The Princess Saves Herself In This One and The Witch Doesn’t Burn In This One By Amanda Lovelace. They follow a dark, magical sort of telling.
As the first chapter begins we learn of an apocalypse beginning and the power and removal of tongues. This grabbed my attention immediately with how often, even more so today that women’s voices are policed and demanded. The imagery doesn’t stop there as we hear of witch hunts, trees, ghosts, a whale mother, mice skeletons and monsters all describing this character’s life.
The title, Knock May be taken from s self-titled poem describing a girl’s hopeful knock for just a little opening and teaches others to knock as well.
Knock is a beautiful haunting story told in poetry. I believe it may be best with repeated readings as I know I will most certainly be doing. I’ll be following along Melissa’s future poetic works as well.
February 28, 2018
(Disclaimer: I received this free book from the tour company. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
This collection is rich with imagery and phrases that are borderline eerie. But they have this mysterious quality about it, like a wise sage, where the wisdom of the words have yet to fully leave the room. It's almost as if the collection rings an ominous gong and leaves you to your reflections as it echoes.
full review: https://utopia-state-of-mind.com/knoc...
This collection is rich with imagery and phrases that are borderline eerie. But they have this mysterious quality about it, like a wise sage, where the wisdom of the words have yet to fully leave the room. It's almost as if the collection rings an ominous gong and leaves you to your reflections as it echoes.
full review: https://utopia-state-of-mind.com/knoc...
March 6, 2018
** this review first appeared in Alternating Current's review column The Coil **
Press close, little criminal, & mark
this: you have no claim to the womb, to the born body.
All I have is what I stole.
(“too swift,” p. 9)
Words can be simultaneously soft and biting, as Mercer’s Knock, the debut publication from Half Mystic Press, demonstrates. Here, one will find poems that are constantly aware of their voice and reach, enticing the reader rather than requisitioning them. It is a collection that never demands anything, neither time nor attention, willing to keep giving constantly until it has laid its poetic heart bare for examination and critical scrutiny.
While the unnamed protagonist often invokes the trope of a young girl growing up and going through new experiences, Mercer’s poems remind the reader that youth is a relative term. One of the collection’s strengths is how seamlessly the poems move across time and work with the theme of age. Similarly, Mercer’s concerns and invocations are much larger than our limited, compartmentalized understanding of topics such as gender and love, surpassing these categories and speaking directly to the human soul, in lines like:
what happened to the boy you loved
he crawled inside my face & made it bleed; he cut out my
bones & sold them in his mother’s yard
(“why do you say you are alone,” p. 47).
While it may be tempting to read such passages through a specific literary and personal lens, there is no instinctive urge to. The very structure and flow of Knock influences the process of reading and literary reception. It no longer matters whether one can identify the speaker or the individuals involved, whether the cast of characters presented in a gradation of vagueness is formally introduced to the reader or not. Mercer’s response to questions is to ask more of them, the right kinds of questions, the kind one might still be afraid to ask.
It would be unjust to speak of the thematic and emotional powers of this collection without similarly addressing its linguistic charms. I use the term specifically, for while the language is alluring and easy to get swept away in, there are times when poking one’s head out of this literary stream results in an abrupt awakening. Knock will find its audience and will be appealing even to those for whom poetry lies within the immaterial rather than linguistic realm. However, it is a bit like a rich cake, where too much of its own goodness can be overwhelming if taken in immediately. A notable example is the following passage:
The river yard smelled small and black
where we hung out scarves over the stout dirt
and foxes carried the moon
in their fur.
(“standing at dawn with my mother,” p. 17).
The use of the senses in these lines is an example of one such moment of awakening, where it felt like the poem got too caught up in its own magic to ensure that it was woven as tightly as possible. However, such cases are so few they can be counted on one hand, and there were far more moments when the imagery and words made me pause and reflect, reconstructing them in my mind and savoring each line individually. A personal favorite was the following, from the titular poem “knock”:
I knocked on the
clawfoot tub, shimmered with lavender & salt, so that I
could even then be clean. In the night heat, I knocked on
cedars to summon owls. On the moon for rapture.
(p. 18).
In the large scheme of things, the above criticism is more of a personal preference and comment rather than a judgment on Mercer’s work. If anything, it only emphasizes what I believe is the best way of reading and enjoying this collection: slowly, carefully, where each poem is unwrapped and examined through the act of reading and rereading it. Mercer is skilled in making simplicity work to her advantage, beginning with the brilliant structure of the collection and extending to the way repetition is turned into a strength and stylistic staple. Knock is moving, melancholy, honest, and above all: genuine.
Press close, little criminal, & mark
this: you have no claim to the womb, to the born body.
All I have is what I stole.
(“too swift,” p. 9)
Words can be simultaneously soft and biting, as Mercer’s Knock, the debut publication from Half Mystic Press, demonstrates. Here, one will find poems that are constantly aware of their voice and reach, enticing the reader rather than requisitioning them. It is a collection that never demands anything, neither time nor attention, willing to keep giving constantly until it has laid its poetic heart bare for examination and critical scrutiny.
While the unnamed protagonist often invokes the trope of a young girl growing up and going through new experiences, Mercer’s poems remind the reader that youth is a relative term. One of the collection’s strengths is how seamlessly the poems move across time and work with the theme of age. Similarly, Mercer’s concerns and invocations are much larger than our limited, compartmentalized understanding of topics such as gender and love, surpassing these categories and speaking directly to the human soul, in lines like:
what happened to the boy you loved
he crawled inside my face & made it bleed; he cut out my
bones & sold them in his mother’s yard
(“why do you say you are alone,” p. 47).
While it may be tempting to read such passages through a specific literary and personal lens, there is no instinctive urge to. The very structure and flow of Knock influences the process of reading and literary reception. It no longer matters whether one can identify the speaker or the individuals involved, whether the cast of characters presented in a gradation of vagueness is formally introduced to the reader or not. Mercer’s response to questions is to ask more of them, the right kinds of questions, the kind one might still be afraid to ask.
It would be unjust to speak of the thematic and emotional powers of this collection without similarly addressing its linguistic charms. I use the term specifically, for while the language is alluring and easy to get swept away in, there are times when poking one’s head out of this literary stream results in an abrupt awakening. Knock will find its audience and will be appealing even to those for whom poetry lies within the immaterial rather than linguistic realm. However, it is a bit like a rich cake, where too much of its own goodness can be overwhelming if taken in immediately. A notable example is the following passage:
The river yard smelled small and black
where we hung out scarves over the stout dirt
and foxes carried the moon
in their fur.
(“standing at dawn with my mother,” p. 17).
The use of the senses in these lines is an example of one such moment of awakening, where it felt like the poem got too caught up in its own magic to ensure that it was woven as tightly as possible. However, such cases are so few they can be counted on one hand, and there were far more moments when the imagery and words made me pause and reflect, reconstructing them in my mind and savoring each line individually. A personal favorite was the following, from the titular poem “knock”:
I knocked on the
clawfoot tub, shimmered with lavender & salt, so that I
could even then be clean. In the night heat, I knocked on
cedars to summon owls. On the moon for rapture.
(p. 18).
In the large scheme of things, the above criticism is more of a personal preference and comment rather than a judgment on Mercer’s work. If anything, it only emphasizes what I believe is the best way of reading and enjoying this collection: slowly, carefully, where each poem is unwrapped and examined through the act of reading and rereading it. Mercer is skilled in making simplicity work to her advantage, beginning with the brilliant structure of the collection and extending to the way repetition is turned into a strength and stylistic staple. Knock is moving, melancholy, honest, and above all: genuine.
May 23, 2018
As if named by, or for, a shape, Melissa Atkinson Mercer’s Knock extracts myth from the clinically elusive and gives oath an otherness that is unanswerable and local. Ritual is not routine, here, and voice not theft. With creatures unperceived by human brevity, Mercer not only honors the bodies that move from story to story but grants the before-life of their speaking an expanse in which to lead footprint by the mouth away from tightrope’s shadow. A stilling testimony of mobile cessations, Knock is exit music for silence.
February 24, 2018
Going into Knock, I had little idea of what to expect and so I went in completely fresh and let myself be swept along by the words on the page. Soon, I was whisked into a world that hinted of something magical and otherworldly, yet was rooted in plumbing the depths of the human mind with all its urgency and melancholy.
The collection has an air of simmering tension around it, creeping notes of something haunting yet wildly mesmerising. The pages are home to an abundance of imagery, sometimes confusing and requiring second reading but mostly rich and evocative. The words sing from the page, loudly, firmly. They sing of suffering and healing and truth. Each word carefully selected and arranged, imploring you to listen, just listen.
Reading was simultaneously like trying to stay afloat, gulping down mouthfuls of water, and then: a breath of fresh air, a sigh of relief. Here I am, this is who I am and what I have to say, the voices in the book whisper, like a bird breaking free of its chains, shaking its wings and finding flight, soaring into the sky.
The collection maintains a steady pace, gathering momentum and crescendoing in the third section – my absolute favourite – which is aptly named ‘v. to collide’. Here, the poetry is lucid and sharp, breaking down and reconciling. It becomes a relentless dialogue: persistent questioning answered by a voice that is stronger, more insistent. A worthy, emphatic finale.
Ultimately, the words deftly threaded together transcend out of the shadowy depths into something light and almost free and hopeful. They come together into a collection of poetry that is shrouded in a sense of urgency, constantly pushing and pulling, giving and resisting.
The collection has an air of simmering tension around it, creeping notes of something haunting yet wildly mesmerising. The pages are home to an abundance of imagery, sometimes confusing and requiring second reading but mostly rich and evocative. The words sing from the page, loudly, firmly. They sing of suffering and healing and truth. Each word carefully selected and arranged, imploring you to listen, just listen.
Reading was simultaneously like trying to stay afloat, gulping down mouthfuls of water, and then: a breath of fresh air, a sigh of relief. Here I am, this is who I am and what I have to say, the voices in the book whisper, like a bird breaking free of its chains, shaking its wings and finding flight, soaring into the sky.
The collection maintains a steady pace, gathering momentum and crescendoing in the third section – my absolute favourite – which is aptly named ‘v. to collide’. Here, the poetry is lucid and sharp, breaking down and reconciling. It becomes a relentless dialogue: persistent questioning answered by a voice that is stronger, more insistent. A worthy, emphatic finale.
Ultimately, the words deftly threaded together transcend out of the shadowy depths into something light and almost free and hopeful. They come together into a collection of poetry that is shrouded in a sense of urgency, constantly pushing and pulling, giving and resisting.
Read
October 7, 2018An absolutely stunning work. Knock is myth and nature and music intertwined into something so beautiful that it lingers with you long after reading. "Our souls paused like kites in the salt-grass & I'm sorry but what you said about me was always about you." I mean come ON.
July 15, 2020
Note: I received an e-copy of this book from the publisher as part of a blog tour.
Here's my review on L'Éphémère Review: http://www.ephemerereview.com/blog/sp...
Here's my review on L'Éphémère Review: http://www.ephemerereview.com/blog/sp...
March 11, 2023
highly underrated poetry. this is honestly fresh and original yet lacks the “try hard” some poetry falls into. the wording makes me feel inspired and creative, and i love how this book needs to be read fully since everything comes back together. i’ve read this book multiple times and am always saddened on how it doesn’t have that many fans
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews