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More God Than Dead
More God Than Dead is the debut poetry collection from Rock Hill, SC Poet Laureate Angelo Geter. The collection centers on the death of the poet’s late wife and contends with learning how to find language, joy and identity in the midst of unexpected and crippling loss. These poems will make you cry, laugh, scream and exhale all at once.
More God Than Dead is the fourth book in the Laureate Series initiated by Muddy Ford Press in which South Carolina poets laureate work with state poets as editors of their first books of poetry. Ed Madden, poet laureate of the city of Columbia, SC edited More God Than Dead.
More God Than Dead is the fourth book in the Laureate Series initiated by Muddy Ford Press in which South Carolina poets laureate work with state poets as editors of their first books of poetry. Ed Madden, poet laureate of the city of Columbia, SC edited More God Than Dead.
75 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 16, 2022
I went into this knowing it was going to be heavy, but I wasn't expecting to be brought to tears. These poems are absolutely in your face in terms of Angelo's grief and rage. My favorites were the black out poems he created using his wedding vows. Each one was a punch to the gut and they emphasize just how acute and severe his loss is. I appreciated that we got poems about his wife that gave us a sense of who she was and how their love grew. This is a very powerful, raw collection of poems that needs to be read slowly and savored. I highly recommend it.
August 20, 2022
Such an exceptional collection of poems. Each one will give you all the feels. He writes this as a guide to the process of grief and it’s helpful to anyone that knows pain. Some of the best metaphors I’ve ever read. Highly recommend.
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August 10, 2022Each poem has such depth that conveys strong emotion while weaving together a profound journey of grief. The difference in their rhythm and visible structure only adds to their astounding nature. If you are looking for poetry that will leave an imprint on you in some way, look no more. You have arrived.
October 22, 2022
This was just the most beautiful thing I've read in a while. Found myself teary-eyed multiple times. Particular favorites of mine are "A Few Things Jasmine Taught Me", "Definition" and "Ritual". Beautiful imagery. So incredibly honest.
quotes i love:
"emergency room chairs hold / fear better than flesh"
"God owes me. i.e., God should repay me for the / life he took wid him and away from me"
and my ABSOLUTE favorite
"Bargaining is asking the cemetery / to unswallow the body, / begging the bullet to undo / the skull it made into mausoleum"
quotes i love:
"emergency room chairs hold / fear better than flesh"
"God owes me. i.e., God should repay me for the / life he took wid him and away from me"
and my ABSOLUTE favorite
"Bargaining is asking the cemetery / to unswallow the body, / begging the bullet to undo / the skull it made into mausoleum"
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 5, 2024
More God Than Dead by Angelo Geter (Muddy Ford Press 2022)
Sometimes raw, sometimes hopeful, this first book moves from loss to faith, where “fear plays a sonata/ in the key of disbelief//remember/there is gospel in your grief.” The title poem “My Wife is Dead” shuffles a rolodex: wife, dead, God, living, until “My wife is god/More God than dead” affirms there is “a place where my wife’s smile still lives.” The rituals of death described in “Black Grief is a Seance” moves to “Praise”, a list of gratitudes that devolves into erasures resembling classified document redactions: unspeakable grief. The celebrative boasting in “Black Girl Fly”, sardonic humor of “What Not to Say to a Widower”, and the pathos and hope in “one voicemail I listen to religiously/to remind me of the heaven in her voice” creates a brilliant collection where the laureate of Rock Hill voices “a freedom song in the key of survival.”
Sometimes raw, sometimes hopeful, this first book moves from loss to faith, where “fear plays a sonata/ in the key of disbelief//remember/there is gospel in your grief.” The title poem “My Wife is Dead” shuffles a rolodex: wife, dead, God, living, until “My wife is god/More God than dead” affirms there is “a place where my wife’s smile still lives.” The rituals of death described in “Black Grief is a Seance” moves to “Praise”, a list of gratitudes that devolves into erasures resembling classified document redactions: unspeakable grief. The celebrative boasting in “Black Girl Fly”, sardonic humor of “What Not to Say to a Widower”, and the pathos and hope in “one voicemail I listen to religiously/to remind me of the heaven in her voice” creates a brilliant collection where the laureate of Rock Hill voices “a freedom song in the key of survival.”
April 26, 2024
Thank you to the author for providing me with a copy of this book for my review.
Reading this collection of poems was like being privy to a close friend's deepest emotions in their time of grief. Geter masterfully weaves the imagery of a pain so deep it's impossible to comprehend or process. The unfathomable weight of realizing that one's life has been altered drastically suffocates the reader along with the grieving husband. And still, we persist.
Diving into these words, my expectation was to feel raw emotions such as sadness, anger or loneliness. I was pleasantly surprised by the outpouring amount of love. You can find the author's love for their partner in every page of this collection. Under all the rage and all the sorrow we find longing. We are invited to bask in their joyful memories.
More God Than Dead is a short collection of poems everyone should read.
Reading this collection of poems was like being privy to a close friend's deepest emotions in their time of grief. Geter masterfully weaves the imagery of a pain so deep it's impossible to comprehend or process. The unfathomable weight of realizing that one's life has been altered drastically suffocates the reader along with the grieving husband. And still, we persist.
Diving into these words, my expectation was to feel raw emotions such as sadness, anger or loneliness. I was pleasantly surprised by the outpouring amount of love. You can find the author's love for their partner in every page of this collection. Under all the rage and all the sorrow we find longing. We are invited to bask in their joyful memories.
More God Than Dead is a short collection of poems everyone should read.
November 2, 2022
focus almost completely on the lose of a spouse; because this is not something i've experienced, it made the poetry slightly hard to relate to, but i do not believe that took away from the experience of reading the poetry at all. the emotion was completely there the entire time, & it was accessible to the point that you could feel geter's grief & love despite what the poem was actually saying. the only reason i give three stars is just because i felt some of the images themselves were bordering on the cliche, which doesn't seem fair to say considering the nature of the poetry, but i feel there were just moments where hesitation from geter was pretty obvious.
January 17, 2023
Geter’s consistent vulnerability and talent are present on every page of this often heartbreaking collection of poems. We the reader witness, or so it feels, the experience and pain of his wife’s illness and passing as he struggles but ultimately lives through it. What a fine example of excellent writing but also an example of what grief can look like and how complicated it can be-tears, heart ache , surviving the unthinkable. I can’t wait to read more.
September 1, 2023
With this collection, the reader is pulled into the depths of grief, sharing a small piece of what the author carries. Each poem shows the layers and nuance of such a tragic experience, somehow finding glimpses of beauty in the process, mainly through the memories the narrator recalls with his late wife.
The creativity of the forms explored in these pages guide the reader in seeing things from countless angles, processing heartache through all lenses.
The tragedy at the heart of this book is held with deep respect. But it’s also balanced with some light touches sparked by humor through wordplay and the inescapable healing power of knowing that grief this intense can only come from a love so profound that even in the worst of the pain, we can still “choose breath.”
I recommend this poetry collection to anyone who has lost loved ones and/or could use a reminder to live fully in every moment we get with the loves who are still with us.
Five stars.
The creativity of the forms explored in these pages guide the reader in seeing things from countless angles, processing heartache through all lenses.
The tragedy at the heart of this book is held with deep respect. But it’s also balanced with some light touches sparked by humor through wordplay and the inescapable healing power of knowing that grief this intense can only come from a love so profound that even in the worst of the pain, we can still “choose breath.”
I recommend this poetry collection to anyone who has lost loved ones and/or could use a reminder to live fully in every moment we get with the loves who are still with us.
Five stars.
August 17, 2022
Read in two sittings, part one and then part two, because they take you to a place of extreme loss and grief. The writer’s use of extended metaphor does an excellent job of trying to help us fathom the unimaginable loss of his wife—-grief is something that ties us all together and yet is so individual to the griever. All we can do is listen.
August 21, 2022
A heartfelt collection of poems! You could feel the emotions in every page and that speaks volumes!
January 12, 2023
Full of love and grief and beauty and loss.
August 17, 2022
Was very privileged my book club was able to meet and discuss these lovely haunting poems with the Author. I loved this book of poems that are one persons road map of intense grief after the loss of a spouse. Anyone who has experienced loss can find something of their journey in these words. Geter makes such beauty out of his rock bottom and gives us all hope that redemption and love are on the other side. Highly recommend for anyone that is looking for a little beauty in the darkness.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews