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Burials
What is buried can return. Those who are dead can still speak. A witch can be burned, but not silenced. When the abattoir is opened, the dead will rise. Burials is the narrative of those whose voices have been taken away-murdered women, witches, ghosts. It's about speaking one's truth, and using magic to heal or to banish, even from beyond the grave.
"Jessica Drake-Thomas has a wealth of knowledge of things you've only tasted in shadows. In this collection of gothic poetry, she opens her palms to let some of these dark whispers free into the night -the freedom of a shared language etching itself into the history of the world, to become legend. As things do when they die and are buried. If you've ever heard the begging of the blood moon, pulling you from slumber to tiptoe through the darkness...if you've ever gnashed your teeth at a lover's neck...you will find wisps of your own darkness among these pages. With dark, romantic language, vengeful love spells, and the ghosts of old Salem wandering lost among the brittle paper, Burials is a haunting your soul won't soon forget."
- Mela Blust, author of Skeleton Parade
"Burials is at times fierce and at others keening, but most often it is both at once. Jessica Drake-Thomas writes macabre love poems with the dazzlingly morbid whimsy of a young Morticia Addams driving her "hearse in seafoam green," seeking her Gomez in this sad, lonely world. "I have learned that / love is cheap here, / and something is important / about the idea of // a nice girl," she tells us. But for the witch-hearted girl, Drake-Thomas gives us love spells that offer a kind of healing for the haunted, for the many ways love so often fails us."
- Lindsay Lusby, author of Catechesis, A Postpastoral
"This collection is a mass grave teeming with lovers as executioners, and the bodies left like corpses in their wake."
- Kristin Garth, author of Flutter: Southern Gothic Fever Dream and Candy Cigarette: Womanchild Noir
"Jessica Drake-Thomas has a wealth of knowledge of things you've only tasted in shadows. In this collection of gothic poetry, she opens her palms to let some of these dark whispers free into the night -the freedom of a shared language etching itself into the history of the world, to become legend. As things do when they die and are buried. If you've ever heard the begging of the blood moon, pulling you from slumber to tiptoe through the darkness...if you've ever gnashed your teeth at a lover's neck...you will find wisps of your own darkness among these pages. With dark, romantic language, vengeful love spells, and the ghosts of old Salem wandering lost among the brittle paper, Burials is a haunting your soul won't soon forget."
- Mela Blust, author of Skeleton Parade
"Burials is at times fierce and at others keening, but most often it is both at once. Jessica Drake-Thomas writes macabre love poems with the dazzlingly morbid whimsy of a young Morticia Addams driving her "hearse in seafoam green," seeking her Gomez in this sad, lonely world. "I have learned that / love is cheap here, / and something is important / about the idea of // a nice girl," she tells us. But for the witch-hearted girl, Drake-Thomas gives us love spells that offer a kind of healing for the haunted, for the many ways love so often fails us."
- Lindsay Lusby, author of Catechesis, A Postpastoral
"This collection is a mass grave teeming with lovers as executioners, and the bodies left like corpses in their wake."
- Kristin Garth, author of Flutter: Southern Gothic Fever Dream and Candy Cigarette: Womanchild Noir
69 pages, Paperback
First published October 6, 2020
3 people are currently reading
97 people want to read
About the author
Jessica Drake-Thomas
7 books29 followersJessica Drake-Thomas is a poet and PhD student. She's a poetry editor at Coffin Bell Journal. She's the author of Burials, a gothic horror poetry collection.
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October 29, 2020I've read about a dozen dark poetry collections between 2019-2020 and if there is one thing I have learned through practice, it's to go into the collection with eyes to see and ears to hear. I think as a rookie poetry reader, it's important for me to stay out of the text, at least on the first run. Later, as I browse through the poems again, I look for subtext, symbolism, and potential meanings. If I go into a collection with too much activity going on in my brain, I have a harder time engaging with the poetry.
That being said, BURIALS by Jessica Drake-Thomas is welcoming to everyone. These poems are accessible and relatable.
The first one, QUEEN OF STICKS, establishes a strong point of entry for the reader
"Meet my lover, / the executioner. / He kills people / for his bread." (30-33)
I loved that at the back of the book, there are some notes from the author about selected poems (pg. 67). For example, the poem, A KIND OF DYING, was written after reading, PERFUME: THE STORK OF A MURDERER by Patrick Süskind-one of my favorite books. It made that particular poem even more menacing the second time I read it. I paid closer attention to words like, "hunts", "smell", "scentless", "specimens".
This stood out like a neon sign:
"He wraps my body / in fat-soaked silks / to leech away the desire / pouring from my being." (94-98)
If you're familiar with the story of PERFUME, this poem brings everything right back and I just loved it!
I particularly liked the Love Spells.
The repeated words became a drumbeat. Organic things like roots, dirt, birds, smoke, bones, trees
But also inorganic things like texting, houses, carpets, windows, casket, trophy, dumpster
and the contrasts started becoming very noticeable-a sweet juxtaposition as organic things rotted, faded, decayed, spoiled...I'm not sure what it all means but all of it made for a rich, cohesive reading experience.
I truly enjoyed this.
I would say that a few times, I felt my age. There was a poem that mentioned formals, and I wondered if that was like a prom? And then I questioned if the poetry was for a younger audience...but then I dismissed all of that nonsense and just kept on reading. But that did disrupt my experience for a moment. I'm going to keep reading dark poetry-especially when it's as delicious as this collection.
That being said, BURIALS by Jessica Drake-Thomas is welcoming to everyone. These poems are accessible and relatable.
The first one, QUEEN OF STICKS, establishes a strong point of entry for the reader
"Meet my lover, / the executioner. / He kills people / for his bread." (30-33)
I loved that at the back of the book, there are some notes from the author about selected poems (pg. 67). For example, the poem, A KIND OF DYING, was written after reading, PERFUME: THE STORK OF A MURDERER by Patrick Süskind-one of my favorite books. It made that particular poem even more menacing the second time I read it. I paid closer attention to words like, "hunts", "smell", "scentless", "specimens".
This stood out like a neon sign:
"He wraps my body / in fat-soaked silks / to leech away the desire / pouring from my being." (94-98)
If you're familiar with the story of PERFUME, this poem brings everything right back and I just loved it!
I particularly liked the Love Spells.
The repeated words became a drumbeat. Organic things like roots, dirt, birds, smoke, bones, trees
But also inorganic things like texting, houses, carpets, windows, casket, trophy, dumpster
and the contrasts started becoming very noticeable-a sweet juxtaposition as organic things rotted, faded, decayed, spoiled...I'm not sure what it all means but all of it made for a rich, cohesive reading experience.
I truly enjoyed this.
I would say that a few times, I felt my age. There was a poem that mentioned formals, and I wondered if that was like a prom? And then I questioned if the poetry was for a younger audience...but then I dismissed all of that nonsense and just kept on reading. But that did disrupt my experience for a moment. I'm going to keep reading dark poetry-especially when it's as delicious as this collection.
October 7, 2020
Anytime that I see a new horror release from Clash Books, I sit up and take notice. I love that Clash is interested in taking on new and unique voices and they aren't afraid to publish things that are far, far away from the mainstream.
Burials is a dark poetry collection considering women whose voices and stories have been silenced—murdered women, ghosts, witches. I loved the opening poem, "Queen of Sticks," which really sets up the atmosphere and intention of the poems. The poems come from a place of pain but also from a place of hardened strength and durability; these women aren't going anywhere even when they are buried. Also, the tongue-in-cheek love spell poems offered a bit of levity in the midst of the lachrymosity and darkness of the rest, and I enjoyed that.
My thanks to Clash Books for my copy of this one to read and review.
Burials is a dark poetry collection considering women whose voices and stories have been silenced—murdered women, ghosts, witches. I loved the opening poem, "Queen of Sticks," which really sets up the atmosphere and intention of the poems. The poems come from a place of pain but also from a place of hardened strength and durability; these women aren't going anywhere even when they are buried. Also, the tongue-in-cheek love spell poems offered a bit of levity in the midst of the lachrymosity and darkness of the rest, and I enjoyed that.
My thanks to Clash Books for my copy of this one to read and review.
April 20, 2021
BURIALS by Jessica Drake-Thomas is a collection of dark poetry with so much emotion. Bringing together elements of witchcraft, ritual, relationships, and pain, one thing is certain: "you can't get rid of me or silence me!" While reading I am reminded of themes of resilience and strength in these poems and spells. There is a wide variety in this collection full of some sharp imagery linked to ashes, fire, bones, dirt, and all that Gothic goodness! I find that most of these poems cut deep and from a novice-poetry reader's perspective they are extremely relatable. This entire collection IS a whole mood, a complete aesthetic, and will continue to resonate with me!
August 27, 2020
Burials is a compelling dissection of the heart as the essence of witches. Some poems discuss spells, others the troubles with love, but whether divining animal bones or awaiting a text message, each page is soaked in ritual. Jessica Drake-Thomas treats both ancient witchcraft and modern relationship woes as timeless folklore sewn into our skin.
October 6, 2020
Resurrection is a favorite theme of mine when it comes to storytelling. I just love the intensity of it and how it pushes boundaries and bodies to shapeshift, to reinvent oneself. When it comes to poetry, I think of Sylvia Plath’s The Colossus and Anne Sexton’s collection Transformations, and so when I read the tagline to Burials by Jessica Drake-Thomas (“What is buried can return”), I knew I had to have this book in my hands.
Now usually when I read poetry, I like to take my time, savor each piece, let it move and live within me. But trust me when I tell you that I devoured this book. I literally could not put it down and I read through it not once, but twice in a sitting. Not only are these poems invocations and spells, but they celebrate the divinity within us all while focusing on the shadows, the ugly, the sad. It is a celebration of our fire and our water, our passions and our tears, and personally, I am here for that darkness like a phoenix covered in flames.
The collection starts off with the poem “Queen of Sticks,” which brilliantly sets the tone for the book because at its core, it’s a poem about resilience. The character sees death, experiences death, becomes death, and yet each time she resurrects, stares him in the face, warning him, daring him, letting him know that the forest is full of secrets, that women are born screaming and dripping with a magic that doesn’t dissolve. When I think of sticks, I think of the grittiness of earth, how we ground ourselves in our surroundings, in our graves, but I also think of wands and fire, and how there is this spiritual, impulsive energy bathing in it that speaks to queens and to mothers.
As I made my way through the book, I soaked in commentary about domestic horrors, all those chains we carry that bind us to our houses, our lineage, our families (chosen or otherwise). There are love spells within that let us drink to our desires, to our failures, to our immaturity, chaos, and complexity, and I smiled at the focus on hair and beauty and pain here because all the best spells (and poems) are intimate and messy. For instance, there is a line in “Love Spell Number Two” that reads: “You’ll need/ an entire bottle/ of wine./Drink this/out of a mug,/ and extra large one,/ which reads:/ I <3 MY DOG.”
Yes, I felt personally called out here because that is real, authentic magic. It’s not the Instagram aesthetic (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but this just felt more at home to me, and I think that speaks to that earthiness that I was talking about earlier in the review with “Queen of Sticks.”
Something else that I appreciated here was the vulnerability on the page. Woven throughout these poems are memories, bone shards, ashes, and doorways, and I felt the reoccurring images of horses, birds, and hunger echoing throughout as I moved through this graveyard of decaying bodies, trapped souls, and wandering girls. In some ways, this scared me because this book felt familiar, like I’ve lived some of these lives, dreamed some of these dreams, and it makes me laugh because I remember reading something years ago about how women wake and remember that they’re witches, and I feel like sisterhood, that camaraderie here, and it’s potent.
I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.
Now usually when I read poetry, I like to take my time, savor each piece, let it move and live within me. But trust me when I tell you that I devoured this book. I literally could not put it down and I read through it not once, but twice in a sitting. Not only are these poems invocations and spells, but they celebrate the divinity within us all while focusing on the shadows, the ugly, the sad. It is a celebration of our fire and our water, our passions and our tears, and personally, I am here for that darkness like a phoenix covered in flames.
The collection starts off with the poem “Queen of Sticks,” which brilliantly sets the tone for the book because at its core, it’s a poem about resilience. The character sees death, experiences death, becomes death, and yet each time she resurrects, stares him in the face, warning him, daring him, letting him know that the forest is full of secrets, that women are born screaming and dripping with a magic that doesn’t dissolve. When I think of sticks, I think of the grittiness of earth, how we ground ourselves in our surroundings, in our graves, but I also think of wands and fire, and how there is this spiritual, impulsive energy bathing in it that speaks to queens and to mothers.
As I made my way through the book, I soaked in commentary about domestic horrors, all those chains we carry that bind us to our houses, our lineage, our families (chosen or otherwise). There are love spells within that let us drink to our desires, to our failures, to our immaturity, chaos, and complexity, and I smiled at the focus on hair and beauty and pain here because all the best spells (and poems) are intimate and messy. For instance, there is a line in “Love Spell Number Two” that reads: “You’ll need/ an entire bottle/ of wine./Drink this/out of a mug,/ and extra large one,/ which reads:/ I <3 MY DOG.”
Yes, I felt personally called out here because that is real, authentic magic. It’s not the Instagram aesthetic (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but this just felt more at home to me, and I think that speaks to that earthiness that I was talking about earlier in the review with “Queen of Sticks.”
Something else that I appreciated here was the vulnerability on the page. Woven throughout these poems are memories, bone shards, ashes, and doorways, and I felt the reoccurring images of horses, birds, and hunger echoing throughout as I moved through this graveyard of decaying bodies, trapped souls, and wandering girls. In some ways, this scared me because this book felt familiar, like I’ve lived some of these lives, dreamed some of these dreams, and it makes me laugh because I remember reading something years ago about how women wake and remember that they’re witches, and I feel like sisterhood, that camaraderie here, and it’s potent.
I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.
October 26, 2020
I love the concept behind this poetry collection--giving murdered witches, wives, and other women the chance to tell their tales. I particularly enjoyed the three Love Spell poems.
January 20, 2023
“And something is important / about the idea of / a nice girl”
pg. 23, A Kind of Dying
This dark little poetry collection is going on my list of favorites, and I knew that within a few pages of starting it. I’d never read anything else by Jessica Drake-Thomas before, but I’ve been a big fan of CLASH Books for awhile. I got into ‘horror poetry’ a lot more recently than most of the other genres I read, and although this one could also be considered gothic in genre, it’s overall fantastic, so call it what you want and just read it!
A combination of relatable witchy spells to poems from beyond the grave, there’s a little bit here for the spooky girl in us all. The imagery in these poems brings to mind gruesome depictions of different women and their situations, from the characters in famous paintings to true crime victims, and more. The variety to the collection is pretty impressive, and I loved turning each page after reading, eager to see where Jessica would be taking me with her next poem.
“You / held me skewered / by a promise I kept / at my expense.”
pg. 43, Reasons Why I Had That Meltdown Last Fall, Or I Think You Might Be A Narcissist
From ghosts to graveyards, there’s a sort of romantic brutality to be found within the pages of this collection that I couldn’t get enough of. Despite being largely about the the dead or things that go bump in the night, there’s also so much that I found relatable in the author’s words, and I found myself marking pages with little colorful tabs as I went moreso than with some of my other books. Nearly every poem seemed to have a line or sentence that struck a chord with me, and I loved being able to relate these morbid, dark scenarios with things I myself am going through or experiencing, or have experienced in my life at some point.
I think one of the biggest strengths of this collection is its accessibility – this isn’t just for lovers of horror or dark poetry. This is for any woman really who has struggled with a crappy relationship, with a situation she couldn’t control, with a betrayal from a loved one, with an attack on her character. It’s for mothers, daughters, sisters, friends – everyone, anyone! There are a little over 20 poems here, and I found so much to love in so many of them – I have no doubts that other readers will find that this vengeful, macabre collection resonates with them as well.
“I wish I knew – / the secret to being graceful / under enemy fire”
pg. 47, Kindred
One of my favorite parts of this was the notes section at the back of the book, which tells the reader about the different things that inspired the author to write some of the poems in the collection. I thought it was a nice touch to add different informational bits and reference items to add context to poems that stand beautifully on their own, but seem to hold even more power somehow once you see the muses behind them.
BURIALS is out on October 6th, and I can’t recommend it highly enough! Grab a copy and give yourself over to the voices of the women calling from beyond the grave. They’re waiting for you!
pg. 23, A Kind of Dying
This dark little poetry collection is going on my list of favorites, and I knew that within a few pages of starting it. I’d never read anything else by Jessica Drake-Thomas before, but I’ve been a big fan of CLASH Books for awhile. I got into ‘horror poetry’ a lot more recently than most of the other genres I read, and although this one could also be considered gothic in genre, it’s overall fantastic, so call it what you want and just read it!
A combination of relatable witchy spells to poems from beyond the grave, there’s a little bit here for the spooky girl in us all. The imagery in these poems brings to mind gruesome depictions of different women and their situations, from the characters in famous paintings to true crime victims, and more. The variety to the collection is pretty impressive, and I loved turning each page after reading, eager to see where Jessica would be taking me with her next poem.
“You / held me skewered / by a promise I kept / at my expense.”
pg. 43, Reasons Why I Had That Meltdown Last Fall, Or I Think You Might Be A Narcissist
From ghosts to graveyards, there’s a sort of romantic brutality to be found within the pages of this collection that I couldn’t get enough of. Despite being largely about the the dead or things that go bump in the night, there’s also so much that I found relatable in the author’s words, and I found myself marking pages with little colorful tabs as I went moreso than with some of my other books. Nearly every poem seemed to have a line or sentence that struck a chord with me, and I loved being able to relate these morbid, dark scenarios with things I myself am going through or experiencing, or have experienced in my life at some point.
I think one of the biggest strengths of this collection is its accessibility – this isn’t just for lovers of horror or dark poetry. This is for any woman really who has struggled with a crappy relationship, with a situation she couldn’t control, with a betrayal from a loved one, with an attack on her character. It’s for mothers, daughters, sisters, friends – everyone, anyone! There are a little over 20 poems here, and I found so much to love in so many of them – I have no doubts that other readers will find that this vengeful, macabre collection resonates with them as well.
“I wish I knew – / the secret to being graceful / under enemy fire”
pg. 47, Kindred
One of my favorite parts of this was the notes section at the back of the book, which tells the reader about the different things that inspired the author to write some of the poems in the collection. I thought it was a nice touch to add different informational bits and reference items to add context to poems that stand beautifully on their own, but seem to hold even more power somehow once you see the muses behind them.
BURIALS is out on October 6th, and I can’t recommend it highly enough! Grab a copy and give yourself over to the voices of the women calling from beyond the grave. They’re waiting for you!
December 1, 2020
Full Disclosure: I attended Emerson College with Jessica Drake-Thomas. Bias aside, this is a great collection of gothic poetry. Well-crafted, compressed poetic language. I’m excited to read her next collection!
February 3, 2021
With eloquence and a tactfully paced sense of dread and unease, Jessica Drake Thomas’s poetry collection, Burials, is chilling in a manner I can only compare to one of the leading ladies of horror - Shirley Jackson
If you’re a fan of Gothic and dark poetry, I wholeheartedly recommend this wicked collection
If you’re a fan of Gothic and dark poetry, I wholeheartedly recommend this wicked collection
March 18, 2021
3.5 stars
March 15, 2023
Some great poems -- a nice mixture of darkness / horror and life. Like looking into the veil of someone seeing between two worlds.
December 7, 2020
Jessica Drake-Thomas is the newest entry to join the pantheon of dark poetry goddesses alongside Stephanie M. Wytovich, Christina Sng, Linda Addison, Sara Tantlinger, and many others.
Her poems seep under the skin and burst in a panoply of emotion that touches scars. I cannot possibly hope to do justice to describing why this is such an essential poetry book for all dark poetry lovers to devour if they haven't already. It is a stunning book. The poems are visceral and cut deep. Clash Books, which has been putting out fantastic releases for the past several years, really topped an exceptional level of excellence with this year's selection, including this book. I hope to see much more from this wickedly talented author.
Her poems seep under the skin and burst in a panoply of emotion that touches scars. I cannot possibly hope to do justice to describing why this is such an essential poetry book for all dark poetry lovers to devour if they haven't already. It is a stunning book. The poems are visceral and cut deep. Clash Books, which has been putting out fantastic releases for the past several years, really topped an exceptional level of excellence with this year's selection, including this book. I hope to see much more from this wickedly talented author.
November 11, 2020
Beautiful, haunting, and oh so very witchy.
July 12, 2021
I rarely read free verse poetry. My studies of the Ancient Greek, Latin, and Italian literature left a mark on me: poetry should use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or some kind of musicality and rhythm. Therefore, I usually approach free verse poetry as if it were prose with a redundancy of line breaks. I opened Burials with the Spoon River Anthology in mind, which is a book I loved, and my expectations were exceeded! Each poem drips with death, love, and witchery, and is permeated with a Gothic atmosphere that reaches the peaks of the classics, being incredibly modern at the same time. Deeply touching
January 24, 2021
“I want a necklace / made of the teeth / of my friends / so I can keep their bones close / against this pulse / at my throat.”
A lovely, haunting collection that casts its spell over the readers and lures them into history, ritual, love, grief, and more. I really enjoyed the imagery throughout the pieces; for example in "The Poisoning" -- "His antlers are trimmed in stars." Beautiful. Jessica Drake-Thomas has a strong writing voice, and I'm eager to read what she does next!
A lovely, haunting collection that casts its spell over the readers and lures them into history, ritual, love, grief, and more. I really enjoyed the imagery throughout the pieces; for example in "The Poisoning" -- "His antlers are trimmed in stars." Beautiful. Jessica Drake-Thomas has a strong writing voice, and I'm eager to read what she does next!
January 31, 2022
I'm so glad I read this book! I don't typically read horror, but I love poetry and witchcraft. I especially love the way Drake-Thomas describes the scenes, people, and behavior.
October 6, 2023
Absolutely gorgeous collection of speculative poems!
March 5, 2024
poetry about love, loss, darkness & death. i didn't have strong feelings about this in either direction, really. i didn't dislike it but i didn't find any of it particularly moving. 3/5.
August 17, 2025
Pocketful made me cry 😭 Can't wait to read more of her stuff!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews