HSTQ: Spring 2021

HSTQ #17

by Arthur Graham, John Tustin, Donna Dallas

horror, adj. inspiring or creating loathing, aversion, etc.

sleaze, adj. contemptibly low, mean, or disreputable

trash, n. literary or artistic material of poor or inferior quality

Welcome to HST Quarterly, the curated collection from Horror, Sleaze and Trash.

Genres: Poetry

28 pages

Published April 1, 2021

About the author

Arthur Graham writes and edits for a living. Cofounder and former head editor of Rooster Republic Press. Current Editor in Chief of Horror Sleaze Trash.

Reviews

[Janie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good, cool adult word beverage mixed with emotions and wry wisdom to beat this post-spring heat. Drink up.

[A. Blumer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a minute since I've read one of these quarterlies, but yet another brutally honest opening from Graham though not in a foreword. It was nice to see a lot of new names in this collection too.

I enjoyed all of these poems but some favorites:

"Eyes Stuck Open" John Tustin, "Fascination Hallucination" Donna Dallas, "No More Room For Monsters" James Reitter, "Baseball Before The Apocalypse" Leah Mueller, "The Devil is a Woman" Alan Catlin, "The Death Days" John Sweet, "High on More Than One Thing" Noel Negele, "Boredom is a Terrible Way to Die" Casey Renee Kiser

[Arthur Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Free ebook HERE

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Guru known as Arthur Graham is back in this release, providing us with the opening poem, he advises us not to write poetry cos nobody wants to know what is going on inside a poets head, go live your life instead, ya can't help but smile at his suggestions.

There are a couple of crackers from Paul Tanner, not heard of this guy before but now I'm a fan, a nice bit of poetry about sexual experimentation. Another new poet for me was Daniel S. Irwin, "Life Lessons" gave me a good laugh as it had a proper good punchline.

"Boredom is a pathetic way to die" by Casey Renee Kiser was the best in this collection, I really like the beat to this one, it almost felt like the words had been spat onto the page.

[Kent Winward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Per the initial poem -- stands true of the collection:

Poetry is
3 parts wankery
1 part substance
and 2 parts style
(on a good day)

[Paige Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd issue: Opens w/ a plea not to do poetry & live life instead--even if it's as sad as enjoying a joint over Crash Bandicoot. Human taxidermy next, lots of silt, missent mail. "Dog-ended" is my fav poem because it's less vaguely existential: quoted roleplay of CNC, pretending you're pregnant or abusive, cheating w/ your heel kicked into somebody's ballbag. Like the poem about what would happen in Johnny Cash really shot coke. To nobody's surprise, William Taylor Jr. writes about North Beach again. Others write of razor-slit dresses and a more youthful Wrigley Field you rode your bike to w/ secret snacks and avoided the body search. "This Is The Jacket" by David J. Thompson is cool, about stealing Warhol's jacket from a nursing home and screwing in it before a soup dinner. "The Performance Poet" is funny at the end, even if I saw the twist coming from the jump.

[Joe Surkiewicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd like it better if I knew what the fuck poetry is. Five stars if it had been even shorter.