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An Exhalation of Dead Things
AN EXHALATION OF DEAD THINGS is a poetry collection that explores the intersections of mental illness, poverty, queerness, sexual assault, and resilience.
PRAISE FOR AN EXHALATION OF DEAD THINGS
"In a world quick to paper over its cracks and rot, AN EXHALATION OF DEAD THINGS stands in stark contrast, boldly and courageously balancing the beautiful, the abject, and the knowledge that everyone on earth will someday decay and disappear into the grinning void. These poems bring to mind Joseph Campbell’s sage words of advice: 'the cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.' Take a read and enter that cave!"
— FRANKIE SHAW, DIRECTOR, SCREENWRITER, ACTOR
"An Exhalation of Dead Things, is an unflinching portrayal of identity and survival. These poems embody a constant state of becoming that is tied to the death and rebirth of self. Through intricate and piercing language, Savannah Slone confronts what is both personal and pivotal—moments that shape who we are despite what we have lost. An Exhalation of Dead Things will challenge readers to contemplate their various selves to ultimately become 'flowers from rust'."
—DENISE NICHOLE ANDREWS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF THE HELLEBORE PRESS
Each poem in Savannah Slone’s An Exhalation of Dead Things feels like its own world, with its own nature and religion and laws. And in each new world, the speaker must adapt, must perform multiple “interstellar / breakdowns of Self” in order to survive. This is a book that reimagines and defamiliarizes the human form. Reading An Exhalation of Dead Things feels like watching a John Carpenter movie through your fingers.
— PAIGE LEWIS, AUTHOR OF SPACE STRUCK
"This new collection by Savannah Slone speaks of loss, identity, and grief; of love and bones and bodies; of 'ruined histories' and 'private pathologies.' An Exhalation of Dead Things is a deeply felt and exquisitely crafted work. Sit with these poems, breathe them in, for they are aimed and necessary and unforgettable."
— KATHY FISH, AUTHOR OF WILD LIFE: COLLECTED WORKS FROM 2003-2018
"With incandescent language and an unflinching honesty, An Exhalation of Dead Things performs an excavation of the self's existence in the body and the body's existence in the world. In these poems, we see the self as its 'misplaced fragments': unlit sparklers, trap doors, blank canvases. But just as a blank canvas nonetheless holds the promise of art, so too do these poems by the electric power of their language promise that through excavation one can find if not resolution then understanding, a laying bare of all that is longing, the 'science of urgency' with which the self moves through the world."
— EMMA BOLDEN, AUTHOR OF HOUSE IS AN ENIGMA
PRAISE FOR AN EXHALATION OF DEAD THINGS
"In a world quick to paper over its cracks and rot, AN EXHALATION OF DEAD THINGS stands in stark contrast, boldly and courageously balancing the beautiful, the abject, and the knowledge that everyone on earth will someday decay and disappear into the grinning void. These poems bring to mind Joseph Campbell’s sage words of advice: 'the cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.' Take a read and enter that cave!"
— FRANKIE SHAW, DIRECTOR, SCREENWRITER, ACTOR
"An Exhalation of Dead Things, is an unflinching portrayal of identity and survival. These poems embody a constant state of becoming that is tied to the death and rebirth of self. Through intricate and piercing language, Savannah Slone confronts what is both personal and pivotal—moments that shape who we are despite what we have lost. An Exhalation of Dead Things will challenge readers to contemplate their various selves to ultimately become 'flowers from rust'."
—DENISE NICHOLE ANDREWS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF THE HELLEBORE PRESS
Each poem in Savannah Slone’s An Exhalation of Dead Things feels like its own world, with its own nature and religion and laws. And in each new world, the speaker must adapt, must perform multiple “interstellar / breakdowns of Self” in order to survive. This is a book that reimagines and defamiliarizes the human form. Reading An Exhalation of Dead Things feels like watching a John Carpenter movie through your fingers.
— PAIGE LEWIS, AUTHOR OF SPACE STRUCK
"This new collection by Savannah Slone speaks of loss, identity, and grief; of love and bones and bodies; of 'ruined histories' and 'private pathologies.' An Exhalation of Dead Things is a deeply felt and exquisitely crafted work. Sit with these poems, breathe them in, for they are aimed and necessary and unforgettable."
— KATHY FISH, AUTHOR OF WILD LIFE: COLLECTED WORKS FROM 2003-2018
"With incandescent language and an unflinching honesty, An Exhalation of Dead Things performs an excavation of the self's existence in the body and the body's existence in the world. In these poems, we see the self as its 'misplaced fragments': unlit sparklers, trap doors, blank canvases. But just as a blank canvas nonetheless holds the promise of art, so too do these poems by the electric power of their language promise that through excavation one can find if not resolution then understanding, a laying bare of all that is longing, the 'science of urgency' with which the self moves through the world."
— EMMA BOLDEN, AUTHOR OF HOUSE IS AN ENIGMA
- GenresPoetry
138 pages, Paperback
First published June 29, 2021
151 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 15, 2022
”I am a flashlit trash heap,
wading in a swell of crumbs,
a fog of untethered organs
I am the anti-inflammatories I can’t take.”
I’m not usually the type that picks up poetry. I’ll read some occasionally but it’s not my go to. I enjoy ones that pack an emotional punch or ones that’ll scare me enough to sleep with the lights on. I’m picky like with everything in my life. Just ask my husband.
This was an okay collection. I thought it was going to be a lot darker and straight punches to the gut. *sigh* Most of them weren’t. There were a few that really got me and had me sit and ponder.
An Exhalation of Dead Things has a great title and a beautiful cover. The poems were okay. I will definitely check out other things released by this author. She has a lot of strong lines and I feel as if she has a lot more to offer.
wading in a swell of crumbs,
a fog of untethered organs
I am the anti-inflammatories I can’t take.”
I’m not usually the type that picks up poetry. I’ll read some occasionally but it’s not my go to. I enjoy ones that pack an emotional punch or ones that’ll scare me enough to sleep with the lights on. I’m picky like with everything in my life. Just ask my husband.
This was an okay collection. I thought it was going to be a lot darker and straight punches to the gut. *sigh* Most of them weren’t. There were a few that really got me and had me sit and ponder.
An Exhalation of Dead Things has a great title and a beautiful cover. The poems were okay. I will definitely check out other things released by this author. She has a lot of strong lines and I feel as if she has a lot more to offer.
October 13, 2021
"our lungs still beating
pave over our transparent
roots, our opaque
inheritances, our
sheltering unsanctuaries
you pronounce our names wrong
your tongue flicking
backwards, tripping over
itself, you rewinding
VHS player, you
we climb elastic fences
we are the inevitable
moles, earth worms,
other small creatures
that find their way
back to the surface
we are the slow motion
plurals, the widowed
virgins, the whores of your
dreams, we are the red
thread at your grandmother's hem
we are the christened aftermath
the conjured bodies
we are the housewives
hiding the knives
oil that slips through your grip
that you can never quite unfeel."
// bury us alive
Slone is "a transient on the sidewalk of my own story", the poems are "an ode to / my misplaced fragments". Stanzas are where she builds little homes for herself. She eschews the tamed violence of a syntactically sound sentences and unleashes language in a flurry of fragmentary phrases, like breathy exhalations that appear a discordant arrangement of punchy utterances but they follow a sense of their own, aligned with internal rhythms of the poems they inhabit. Slone addresses human mutability, our cycles of birth death rebirth, rot and decay, through furious and electric imagery.
I must admit that I wasn't completely sold on the collection. Some poems felt too close to insta poetry and many did not have enough meat on the bone. They also have a tendency to bleed into each other, unable to assume a unique identity and resembling the rest of the collection. Word choices can be jarring a lot, heavy-duty words become a mouthful, seem out of place. That being said, Slone ably explores "mental illness, poverty, queerness, sexual assault, and resilience."
"we, a collective
biopic, a dissolvable
blue, thawed
tongues
blur / eulogy /sleepwalking teeth
flightless transcriptions
carnage, conspiring
medicinal lunacy
a bleak worship
a moth chewed ellipses
filmy throats, biting deep
we, untethered
submerged in double
edged lust
framed episiotomies
molecular punctuation
a mystic alignment
a chaos that glows
a naked reverence
an eventual aftertaste"
// we, an insinuated hum
pave over our transparent
roots, our opaque
inheritances, our
sheltering unsanctuaries
you pronounce our names wrong
your tongue flicking
backwards, tripping over
itself, you rewinding
VHS player, you
we climb elastic fences
we are the inevitable
moles, earth worms,
other small creatures
that find their way
back to the surface
we are the slow motion
plurals, the widowed
virgins, the whores of your
dreams, we are the red
thread at your grandmother's hem
we are the christened aftermath
the conjured bodies
we are the housewives
hiding the knives
oil that slips through your grip
that you can never quite unfeel."
// bury us alive
Slone is "a transient on the sidewalk of my own story", the poems are "an ode to / my misplaced fragments". Stanzas are where she builds little homes for herself. She eschews the tamed violence of a syntactically sound sentences and unleashes language in a flurry of fragmentary phrases, like breathy exhalations that appear a discordant arrangement of punchy utterances but they follow a sense of their own, aligned with internal rhythms of the poems they inhabit. Slone addresses human mutability, our cycles of birth death rebirth, rot and decay, through furious and electric imagery.
I must admit that I wasn't completely sold on the collection. Some poems felt too close to insta poetry and many did not have enough meat on the bone. They also have a tendency to bleed into each other, unable to assume a unique identity and resembling the rest of the collection. Word choices can be jarring a lot, heavy-duty words become a mouthful, seem out of place. That being said, Slone ably explores "mental illness, poverty, queerness, sexual assault, and resilience."
"we, a collective
biopic, a dissolvable
blue, thawed
tongues
blur / eulogy /sleepwalking teeth
flightless transcriptions
carnage, conspiring
medicinal lunacy
a bleak worship
a moth chewed ellipses
filmy throats, biting deep
we, untethered
submerged in double
edged lust
framed episiotomies
molecular punctuation
a mystic alignment
a chaos that glows
a naked reverence
an eventual aftertaste"
// we, an insinuated hum
July 7, 2021
This collection was rough. It had a lot of really raw and amazing metaphors. I liked a few of the poems in the beginning but this wasn't one of my favorites.
December 19, 2021
It was decent
August 30, 2022
It took me a few pages to really settle into the rhythm of AN EXHALATION OF DEAD THINGS, but once I did I truly enjoyed it.
These poems are raw dissections of grief, loss, and identity. They dig deep into the uncomfortable and find a home in the taboo, utterly refusing to shy away from the harsh realities while maintaining an undercurrent of hope, infusing every line with love, and shining light on the beauty within the dark, the morbid, the weird.
If you’re interested in horror and horror-adjacent poetry, this is an excellent place to start, and I’m glad to have kicked off #NationalPoetryMonth with this book.
These poems are raw dissections of grief, loss, and identity. They dig deep into the uncomfortable and find a home in the taboo, utterly refusing to shy away from the harsh realities while maintaining an undercurrent of hope, infusing every line with love, and shining light on the beauty within the dark, the morbid, the weird.
If you’re interested in horror and horror-adjacent poetry, this is an excellent place to start, and I’m glad to have kicked off #NationalPoetryMonth with this book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews