The Nightgown & Other Poems

by Taisia Kitaiskaia

The Nightgown is a mythic, mystic, and hungry collection of poems, a roiling landscape wandered over by wild swerves of language, creatures of all sorts, and mysterious beings such as The Folklore, The Hurt Opera, The Eunuch, and the titular angry Nightgown. Haunted by the magic and transformations of Slavic and Western European fairy tales, the symbolism of the Tarot, the medieval world, feminism, and a mythology all its own, The Nightgown bears an immigrant’s fascination with the alien syrup of the English language’s first stratum, that merciless Anglo-Saxon word-hoard preserving an ancient consciousness of human, beast, and earth. Funny and loud, the poems are strangely accessible in their animal awareness of mortality and urgency for contact with the unknown. The Nightgown is the debut book of poetry from renowned writer Taisia Kitaiskaia (Literary A Celebration of Magical Women Writers).

Genres: Poetry, Fantasy, Retellings

88 pages, Paperback

First published September 22, 2020

Reviews

[Barrita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Estos poemas son caóticos, graciosos y aún así a veces evocan escenas que llegan profundamente.

Creo que me gusta la más la prosa de Kitaiskaia pero aún así fue interesante explorar su poesía. Aprecio la variedad de temas y la sensación de una mente que está constantemente flotando sobre diferentes ideas y sintiendo profundamente acerca de muchas cosas.

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This playful poetry collection takes fairy tales and folklore as a theme, but -- as in those tales -- it makes magical leaps, refusing to be restrained. Amid poems that meander in a fun but stream-of-conscious way, denying the reader literal meaning, there are lines that -- like Zen koan -- slap the reader in the face for trying to rationally calculate a meaning. (An example that stuck with me is, “candles are dying to see me naked.”)

The poetess is clearly a word-lover, and occasionally makes bold choices of verbiage, sending me to the dictionary for words like “oubliette.” Though I must say there was always a nice pay-off. These weren’t words chosen solely for sound quality, they invariably represented evocative or profound ideas. (e.g. The aforementioned example, “oubliette” is “a secret dungeon with access only via a trapdoor in the ceiling.”)

Lest I make the collection sound impenetrable (if fun,) I’d say it just requires a certain surrender to whatever it kindles in the reader.

I immensely enjoyed reading this collection. It’s fun. Even when it’s taking on serious topics, which it does, it doesn’t take itself too seriously and it’s all the more effective fore it.

I’d highly recommend poetry readers give this one a try.

[Stephanie M. Wytovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first discovered Taisia Kitaiskaia when I read her book Literary Witches: A Celebration of Magical Women Writers. It completely opened my eyes to looking at witches through a different lens, and I started seeing writers like Octavia Butler, Sylvia Plath, and Flannery O’Connor in a new, exciting, and occult light. It wasn’t long after that I picked up its companion piece, The Literary Witches Oracle, her Ask Baba Yaga series, which is an advice column where she takes on the persona of Baba Yaga—how cool, right?—and then finally, her magical poetry collection The Nightgown and Other Poems.

The cover alone is stunning, and I was immediately pulled in by the bright blue, boil-covered frog with the long pink tongue that ran through the title. It reminded me of myths I heard about as a kid like frogs were a witch’s familiar or if you kiss a frog, you’ll get a prince, or that touching a frog would give you warts similar to what you’d find on a witch’s face. Plus, the fact that the frog is blue also felt exciting and fantastical, kind of like it would be something found in wonderland, so the vibes that I got right off the bat with this book were enchanting and, in some ways, almost nostalgic, both of which I greatly appreciated.

The first poem in the collection is titled “The Folklore,” and it’s one I find myself revisiting often. In it, readers are swept into the world of myth, storytelling, and fairytales. Kitaiskaia shows us how our relationship with folklore changes and evolves as we go through life, and yet she does so in a way where she marries cycles to solstices, and daily rituals to the mundane. She ends the poem by giving readers a visceral, almost breathless image of folklore attaching itself to us and reshaping our identity, which becomes a theme throughout the collection as a whole. She writes: “When you, the folklore, fist swam towards me, / You grabbed my ankles, you heaved yourself/ Onto the banks, onto me. Dripping, we began.”

Some of my favorite pieces from this collection were: “Hour of Monks,” “The Nightgown,” “High Priestess,” and “Then Always the Sea.” While reading, I really enjoyed how Kitaiskaia tackled unconventional pairings, magical creatures, and surreal landscapes and actions, and if you’ve read Leonora Carrington, or looked at any of her artwork, there are some similarities between the two, which personally, I absolutely loved. Something else Kitaiskaia does is incorporate food and drink, which speaks to a lot of mythology (Hades and Persephone anymore?) and it felt at times domestic and otherworldly, like being summoned to a forbidden cottage for dinner…under the sea…where a fish and a sea horse are your host.

Overall, I can’t recommend this collection enough. It was such a fun journey to go on, and the spells and incantations that live within these poems are ones that I’ll certainly revisit many times throughout my life. It also got me to think about my relationship with the symbol of a nightgown, and how it’s something that we typically put on at night to sleep in and how we don’t really walk around in it in public or show it off to other people, and in a lot of ways, it makes me think about this second skin that we live in at night, how we become a different version of ourselves when the moon comes out and the stars are our compass. That identity we carry in darkness becomes a powerful statement about femininity, the shadow self, and even how we connect with the witch, the animal, and the weird.

So take this as your official invitation to light some candles, put on your nightgown, grab your best toad, and tuck in for the night. These poems will enchant you, bewitch you, and if you’re lucky, maybe even help you unravel the folklore that’s buried inside your tongue.

[Savanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dreamy and lyrical but without ever straying from clear images. I’m so impressed by Kitaiskaia’s ability to play with language and generously use adjectives while staying so poignant. I was also delighted with moments of plainer-language, personal directness that occasionally appear in this tale-y and surreal collection and never seem out of place. Moving and delightful!

PS: The cover design is also wonderful.

[Mindy Rose · Rating 1 out of 5]

this read as a bunch of feverish nonsense thrown at a wall. i couldn't even finish the last few pages, and i'm super bummed about it because her 'ask baba yaga' series is so beautiful.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this collection of poems - and there were certain phrases I found compelling - but there was too much random wordplay that felt like word-soup. Many came across as random drug-fueled ramblings of a swindling fortune teller.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished reading the book “THE NIGHTGOWN AND OTHER POEMS” by TAISIA KITAISKAIA. The Nightgown is a mythic, mystic, and hungry collection of poems, a roiling landscape wandered over by wild swerves of language, creatures of all sorts, and mysterious beings such as The Folklore, The Hurt Opera, The Eunuch, and the titular angry Nightgown. Haunted by the magic and transformations of Slavic and Western European fairy tales, the symbolism of the Tarot, the medieval world, feminism, and a mythology all its own, The Nightgown bears an immigrant's fascination with the black, alien syrup of the English language's first stratum, that merciless Anglo-Saxon word-hoard preserving an ancient consciousness of human, beast, and earth. Funny and loud, the poems are strangely accessible in their animal awareness of mortality and urgency for contact with the unknown. Very strange but fun poetry!

[rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

This just seems like lot of pretty, big words that the author strung together because they sounded nice but ultimately have no real meaning beyond that. The end result of most of these poems is nonsensical; at first I thought maybe I just didn't understand, but the more I tried to parse out exactly WHAT the author was trying to say, I realized that it was too abstract to really have any meaning at all. There's a feeling that many of these poems are supposed to be a metaphor for.... something, but it's completely unclear what that something is. Just not for me, I guess.

[cc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whatever the earth is,
It is much better to eat dark bread
And think on what it was.

It is enough to make the brain dark.
-- "Hour of Monks"

I saw everything
Is a sheep standing in pasture, sunwarm and rank.
Straw. The good grass people. Whirrings in wood.
-- "High Priestess"

I know my heart is the shape
Of the devil's tongue. That he wants to plunge
His tongue into my chest I know.
-- "Rabbitcatcher of My Moods"

My youth is a severed hand! It bleeds
Gloriously, then shovels its own grave!
I've given up the mood

And the window is dull as porridge.
You see.

I have made a career of mishearings
And sink my most precious statues
In the bog.
-- "Blood Hare"

All I ever wanted was to be a thing on fire
You could put out in the sink.
-- "Husband, I Am a Scary Cauldron"

[Madi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can definitely say I've never read anything like this collection! The poems are all surreal, almost fairy-tale like. So strange. My favorite line was: "It's itching out, my feet are raining."

That said, it felt a bit repetitive at times and I almost felt like it was too long that few of the poems were memorable to me. But it is definitely a collection I will be returning back to and ruminating on.

[Carlie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wish I enjoyed this collection! I can appreciate the author’s mystical approach in her writing and loved it in her book “Ask Baba Yaga”, but these poems seemed like random mystical flailings that were too abstract and ungrounded to really connect with. It was definitely the most unique collection I’ve ever read! I had to speed read through it to get it over with. I’m done!

[Laura B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

dreamy and luscious and fairy-tale-y in the gross and creepy way of lewis carroll as much as the brothers grimm. had a lot of fun with the imagination and weird verbing in these, though also got a little lost and tangled in a way that seemed intentional, if a little annoying. love a book that's just aiming for something otherworldly entirely.

[Nora · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m trying to read more poetry, but this overall just wasn’t for me. BUT there were moments in here that I loved. Her imagery is powerful, and she’s funny, and I think others will connect more fully with the book as a whole.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A playful book of strange poems, full of striking metaphors and powerful magical images. Probably not for everyone, but for adventurous readers, this is a haunting, humorous, and intriguing collection .

[Alexandria]

Weird & great. “Fairytales”

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neat use of language but I'm not sure I really understood most of these. Kind of interesting but mostly very strange.

[Adrian Alvarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some nice pieces here and there, and I admit I probably missed something, but to me these works felt small and without ambition. At times they even felt aimless.

[Jen Sangiovanni · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really want to love this book but I truthfully am struggling with how it is written. The poems are extremely imaginative but I find myself incapable of understanding them. The writing format too is weird for me, and making it even harder to understand. I heard about her poems on a podcast I love, and even when they read them out loud, I was captivated, but in written form it's just not clicking for me... It feels more like random words, out of context, and aren't actually descriptive or poetic.

[Samuel Moss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Playful, imaginative. Always surprising.
Fun stuff.

[Sarah Rubí · Rating 5 out of 5]

So weird. Loved every piece of it.

[Megan Strahl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I honestly just didn’t understand the majority of the poetry. Perhaps this is a book to read more than once in order to parse its meaning.

[Jessica]

poetry isn’t for me, it seems

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Graphic, surreal, and visceral persona and narrative poems. This collection was hard for me to read cover to cover because of the intensity, but I did appreciate some of the poems that are really bold and beautiful in their strangeness.

[Amps210 · Rating 3 out of 5]

not for me

[Susa Schwalbe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poems are confusing but raw and magical, it reads like reading actual spells. Not everyone's cup of tea but definitely mine.

[Rosie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of these poems struck me, others read like word salads. Bonus points for excellent cover.

[Nori Hubert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very creative collection of folkloric poems!

[Raven]

"candles everywhere are dying/
To see me naked."

"Call the Hobbler, that crude hive, spilked/
Large in hoard and deed, heath hoared/
And shoveled, hair bathed in gravel, mead."

"The sea full of rings, the sea full of itself and other people's hair,/
And the worms in the earth watching us, the sound turned off;"

"Your beauty is catching,/
All my antelopes are on fire and ruined."

[Lucilla · Rating 1 out of 5]

Loved the cover, but not my kind of poetry.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed a lot of the imagery in this collection. I would rec for fans of Florence and the Machine.