Bleeding Saffron

by David E. Cowen

Cowen emerges from chaos in his latest book, Bleeding Saffron. Following in the gothic tradition of poetry, this fierce collection weaves together twisted paths leaving readers lost in the darkness. Enter cautiously, you may not want to leave once you have.

136 pages, Paperback

First published June 12, 2018

Reviews

[Marge Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very seldom have I taken more than a month to read a poetry collection, but Cowen’s book is an exception. I was both astonished and captivated to find such timely, yet out-of-time poems as “Death of the Border Children” and “The Time Keepers” –profoundly striking images of what effect death has or has not on the nurse, the orderly and the dying. But beyond a doubt, “Lessons I Learned from Catechism” is so sharply poignant that I stopped reading more just to think about it, how its lines resonated like the cold tolling of a bell from past to future present. Cowen is a student not only of history, but the dark side of human nature. He is also a visionary, with short poems like “scorpion in a ring of fire” – “/its useless armor/reflects the indifferent red ../the circle leaves no exists/…/in the center of the ring/a venomous tail rises defiantly/and plunges into its own soft skin.”

I can’t praise this book more highly. It belongs on your bookshelf with the best collections you own.

[Sara Tantlinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cowen's latest collection is delightfully beautiful and twisted. The vocabulary is excellently chosen, creating a life within each piece that weaves a unique story throughout the collection, yet there are powerful ties in these poems that bind Bleeding Saffron together in a wonderfully, dark way. Some of my favorite pieces included "My crimson lover", "the homeless deaths"and "Pretty Polly Judges Her Suitors" -- a collection you don't want to miss this year.

[Steven Withrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

The strongest, tightest poems in Cowen’s eerie Bleeding Saffron—and there are several—leave me wishing this collection were half its 136 pages, yielding twice the return.

Poetry is an art of selection and compression, and the author might have applied greater pressure to individual poems and to the book as a whole. Many poems sprawl, both on the page and in their dark materials. Each still might benefit from some judicious trimming and line-gathering down to a half-page, or a page-and-a-half at most.

The longer pieces quickly become uncentered and at times stumble on awkward phrases and transitions, showing a lapse in control. While there are interesting local effects, they do not feel as unified and mind-striking as the provocative titles and opening lines promise.

Other poems justify their unsettling spreading momentum through cohesive design and precise pacing. My favorites are “Faust Waiting for Midnite,” “a single lamp on a foggy street,” “Death of the Border Children,” “The Good Inside,” “Timekeepers,” “Pretty Polly Judges Her Suitors,” “scorpion in a ring of fire,” and “Prometheus on the Rocks.”

Also excellent are “A Weird Defense of William Carlos Williams,” “dog with mouth foaming,” and “did God weep.”

A worthwhile read overall, and more than a few poems here merit revisiting, reading aloud, and even memorizing.

[DO · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the top books of poetry that I have had a chance to open up this year. If you have already read David E. Cowen's _The Madness of Empty Spaces_ or his much-praised _Seven Yards..._, that won't be much a surprise. For poems that capture the dark history of a place, display physical acts arising from an overflow of intense emotion, and meditate on dramatic character (even Godzilla's), this is the volume to order.