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the castration of a minor god
In the castration of a minor god, john compton cracks open a deep, raw, inner dialogue, one that demands discourse with the world’s “pyramid scheme of love,” even if standing “in front of closed doors,” even if that demand to be heard feels like “ingesting wings from birds / hoping to learn flight.” What does it mean to be a gay man, inhabiting a body, in a “claustrophobic landscape of ghost shapes?” What does it mean to be human, inevitably faced with disappointments, prejudices, violence, desire? These poems are truths alight, brave in their endurance and unflinching in their questions, unafraid to burn brightly as we watch.
— Joan Kwon Glass, author of NIGHT SWIM
john compton has the expert view of heterosexual violence with poems you will not forget in their economy of beauty! Poems that refuse to live by harsh penalties of religious tyrants, there is an abundance of queer joy ringing throughout these fast-turning pages! Whatever troubles you woke with today, this book is a lantern through our new dark age.
— CAConrad, author of Amanda Paradise
The poems in john compton’s castration of a minor god are dreamy and bedeviled and profane, the verse reading like some cross between spell-casting and texts lifted from the verdicts of witch trials. However, this time it’s the witch speaking her indictment, though not really a witch; instead, the speaker is just a man who dares to love other men, and who dares to throw the language of holiness back into the faces of those who would condemn him. The result is heresy and incineration and desire. The brilliant result, tempered by the restraint of craft, burns like outrage kept under control by compton’s careful poetics.
— Sonia Greenfield, author of All Possible Histories
the castration of a minor god is a wild & unapologetic journey. Its pages unreel into images of stark beauty & uncompromising ferocity. They bustle with necessary rage & rebel against the institutions that condemn men for loving men. john compton’s voice is astounding.
— Aldo Amparán, author of Brother Sleep
the castration of a minor god is full of spare yet unsparing poems—I’m reminded of C.P. Cavafy’s concise passions and Randall Mann’s sharp carnalities. Such hunger lives in this collection, bodily hungers as well as spiritual. Family is a site of grief and unspoken loves, unspeakable pains. The throat is a site of pleasure and wound, sometimes simultaneously. Speech is an erotic act, and sex—unmistakably gay sex—is a relief, a joy, and a deep complication of its own. Here is a poet committed to bold language and true emotion, however unsettling. Here are poems willing to look at both violence and beauty, purposefully unsure which is the looking that burns the most.
— Chen Chen, author of Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency
— Joan Kwon Glass, author of NIGHT SWIM
john compton has the expert view of heterosexual violence with poems you will not forget in their economy of beauty! Poems that refuse to live by harsh penalties of religious tyrants, there is an abundance of queer joy ringing throughout these fast-turning pages! Whatever troubles you woke with today, this book is a lantern through our new dark age.
— CAConrad, author of Amanda Paradise
The poems in john compton’s castration of a minor god are dreamy and bedeviled and profane, the verse reading like some cross between spell-casting and texts lifted from the verdicts of witch trials. However, this time it’s the witch speaking her indictment, though not really a witch; instead, the speaker is just a man who dares to love other men, and who dares to throw the language of holiness back into the faces of those who would condemn him. The result is heresy and incineration and desire. The brilliant result, tempered by the restraint of craft, burns like outrage kept under control by compton’s careful poetics.
— Sonia Greenfield, author of All Possible Histories
the castration of a minor god is a wild & unapologetic journey. Its pages unreel into images of stark beauty & uncompromising ferocity. They bustle with necessary rage & rebel against the institutions that condemn men for loving men. john compton’s voice is astounding.
— Aldo Amparán, author of Brother Sleep
the castration of a minor god is full of spare yet unsparing poems—I’m reminded of C.P. Cavafy’s concise passions and Randall Mann’s sharp carnalities. Such hunger lives in this collection, bodily hungers as well as spiritual. Family is a site of grief and unspoken loves, unspeakable pains. The throat is a site of pleasure and wound, sometimes simultaneously. Speech is an erotic act, and sex—unmistakably gay sex—is a relief, a joy, and a deep complication of its own. Here is a poet committed to bold language and true emotion, however unsettling. Here are poems willing to look at both violence and beauty, purposefully unsure which is the looking that burns the most.
— Chen Chen, author of Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency
70 pages, Paperback
Published December 9, 2022
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47 people want to read
About the author
John Compton
14 books18 followersjohn compton is a gay poet in kentucky who lives with his husband josh and their dogs and cats. his newest full length is "the castration of a minor god" from ghost city press. his latest chapbooks are "i saw god cooking children/paint their bones" from blood pudding press; "the scalpel calms the grief" from the grindstone; and "to wash all the pretty things off your skin" from ethel zine and micro press.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 1, 2024
These short poems are easy to understand. There are messages about the intense pressure of religion on being gay, with the accusers never looking in a mirror. The parents that live in their own unchanging ways. And there is love and jouissance (pleasure). Many of these take my breath away immediately, while others, still clear in their message, have me reflect.
These concise poems differ from some of the dense collections I have on my shelves. I appreciate this change. They can inspire your own thoughts to put pen down on paper.
Part I feu (feu: fire)
Writing about the sin of being gay...
"the waltz; or, how one becomes more clean"
surround me with barbedwire.
love me with prods: jesus & god.
they have named me homosexual—
enunciating ways to cleanse me.
i fancy how many more women
they’ve tasted than i have men.
i marvel at their hands
& how many stones
they’ll be able to throw
before the first one
hits me with ease.
let’s mix mud & blood & meat.
their smiles will be gorgeous.
Part II nom (nom: exclamation. an exclamation indicating enjoyment of delicious food. ravenous eating)
"Mary"
wife & children escape her teeth
trying to catch me. she cannot understand
i don’t want either,
that i am not gay because i choose to be
but simply: i am.
Writing about parents...
"john, 2"
i am damaged, less like my father
& more like mother. no,
i have collected brokenness
from both.
father’s is hard to find.
he hides it inside his chest
but if you’re patient you’ll see
the indifference, the indignity.
mother’s sits on her whole self.
it is vulnerable & loud:
thunder & bombs & the crying child
left until touch becomes a stranger & hurts.
i am the hybrid of many generations.
Writing on love... (author's husband is named Josh)
"josh"
you catch something inside me
& release it: a wild animal, a dragon:
fire burns & we are burning.
"tyrant"
your tongue implodes with fire
to crater the surface of my heart.
Part III jouissance
Dictonary: jouissance: noun; physical or intellectual pleasure, delight, or ecstasy.
I have to leave you no examples here, but rather encourage you to find this book.
Part IV eaux
I'm glad these are at the end of this collection. These are deeper and it is good to be inside the mind of the author as I read them.
Short enough collection to read in one sitting.
I'm glad I took a chance and ordered this from Ghost City Press, as I was on their site getting some more poetry by Chen Chen.
I'll add this to my list of gay poetry to recommend.
4.5*
These concise poems differ from some of the dense collections I have on my shelves. I appreciate this change. They can inspire your own thoughts to put pen down on paper.
Part I feu (feu: fire)
Writing about the sin of being gay...
"the waltz; or, how one becomes more clean"
surround me with barbedwire.
love me with prods: jesus & god.
they have named me homosexual—
enunciating ways to cleanse me.
i fancy how many more women
they’ve tasted than i have men.
i marvel at their hands
& how many stones
they’ll be able to throw
before the first one
hits me with ease.
let’s mix mud & blood & meat.
their smiles will be gorgeous.
Part II nom (nom: exclamation. an exclamation indicating enjoyment of delicious food. ravenous eating)
"Mary"
wife & children escape her teeth
trying to catch me. she cannot understand
i don’t want either,
that i am not gay because i choose to be
but simply: i am.
Writing about parents...
"john, 2"
i am damaged, less like my father
& more like mother. no,
i have collected brokenness
from both.
father’s is hard to find.
he hides it inside his chest
but if you’re patient you’ll see
the indifference, the indignity.
mother’s sits on her whole self.
it is vulnerable & loud:
thunder & bombs & the crying child
left until touch becomes a stranger & hurts.
i am the hybrid of many generations.
Writing on love... (author's husband is named Josh)
"josh"
you catch something inside me
& release it: a wild animal, a dragon:
fire burns & we are burning.
"tyrant"
your tongue implodes with fire
to crater the surface of my heart.
Part III jouissance
Dictonary: jouissance: noun; physical or intellectual pleasure, delight, or ecstasy.
I have to leave you no examples here, but rather encourage you to find this book.
Part IV eaux
I'm glad these are at the end of this collection. These are deeper and it is good to be inside the mind of the author as I read them.
Short enough collection to read in one sitting.
I'm glad I took a chance and ordered this from Ghost City Press, as I was on their site getting some more poetry by Chen Chen.
I'll add this to my list of gay poetry to recommend.
4.5*
December 28, 2022
absolutely excellent. a devastating, revelatory, raw, perhaps voyeuristic peek into the intimate life of a queer individual challenged by the equal and opposite forces of love and hate, and of the embers which burn beneath each of them. i really had a hard time putting this book down.
January 20, 2023
This is the first of Compton’s collections that I have read thus far which sticks to and develops a theme, which I find a helpful way both to collect my own poetry and to occasionally read others. But that said, it was the least interesting in terms of the word choice and writing. Very few of the poems had that surprising turn of phrase I’ve come to expect from Compton. And there is nothing surprising in the arc of the theme either. It felt like Compton was crowd-pleasing here.
The best poem is the last one in the book. It showcased those characteristics of Compton’s works I most enjoy and have come to expect. A little happy flourish at the end.
That said, I’m over the moon with most of what I have read by Compton so far. And he has several concepts forthcoming. So I look forward to those new chapbooks, etc.
January 23, 2023
John’s best book yet! A stunning collection of poems that will leave you reeling and energized in your life.
December 9, 2022
A gorgeously written, moving book of poetry, which you'll want to savor again and again. Highly recommended.
August 19, 2023
the castration of a minor god, by john compton, has Herbert A. French's photograph "Boy Crying," on the cover (1920). The pain of this school boy embodies this book written by a gay man who writes his history from birth. He survived bullying, rape, and into adulthood living with parents who are strangers. Divided into four sections: feu, nom, jouissance, and eaux, the book feels foreign, yet when I looked these words up they have meanings in both English and French: fire, name, ecstasy, water or again a way of ending a name.
The first three poems in the section "feu," are a series named, "his hair went up like a wick." In the first one he writes, "lost in the atmosphere/wanting the flames/to undress my body & ashes/cover my mother's face./ i want her to remember/a beautiful son." In the poem "the root of the fire," we read these powerful words, "you blame me as your children trudge/in the footsteps of the devil/created by your own imagination." There is violence, men being dragged from their bed and burned, "made them women in orange dresses,/dancing." The evils of how society treats gay men is blatant in his words.
your fear becomes holy, 2
amen. let me turn your heads:
jesus never married, had disciples: men.
judas turned against him. jealousy
comes from the bed. if i can't have you
no one can.
The second section, nom, he names: witch, his mother (aelena), his father (rowland), himself (john), his partner, a dog, a tyrant, and the rapist with no name. This is a blatant poem filled with exact actions, it is a speaking out what he was silent through.
Moving into the third section, jouissance, he writes of sex: in public restrooms, and of pleasure. In the poem "saint," he writes, "we are fish/out of water, exhausted:/we crawl across our bodies like braille." Here we find a mix of erotic with the danger of emotional waters, "...hostage stare.//their dark maneuvered like a room full of water,/ sloshing. rising & falling.//their grief stampedes your heart/& displaces your perception." You must be aware, watch out for the goodness of sex, it is dangerous. In the poem "in bed i begin to peel you," there is a warning, "we gave each other death" He writes, "you should agree with what dean young said/about why we created god. there is a need/to call people liars. you reader are a liar." Addressing the reader like this is a message the book is meant to shake us up, to examine our own lives.
The boy who loves his body is the castrated god. These are brazen poems with grit, raw. There are no capitalizations, meaning it is a book of poems written in a particular way to fit together and Compton does this well. He has a poem referring to poet Stephen Sandy.
In the final section, eaux, he brings us back to the womb, to a dead fish, to his mother dying, to his remembrances "of when she was a functioning/alcoholic, or when it makes a poem//more interesting. my mother/is dying."
i hope that you are listening
we linger. we are transparent.
we are rain. we've sent
one million letters to the wrong
god & now someone is punishing us.
we touch to acknowledge
our existence
our skin is a dying flower.
Compton ends this book with a long poem, "the every tree," birth, fire, hell, dissoluton: he writes "he found the surface/of hell/through the heavy/smokescreen//of diluted eyes." The boy on the cover crying is wipping his eye, his eyes clouded with tears. This book is a strong book, consistant in no capitalization, repeated imagery, and emotion for the characters. Slow down to read. Find the lines that inspire. I found a mess of lines that inspired and moved me towards these characters and ghosts in a world where no boy gods are protected and most are castrated at birth and by society.
The first three poems in the section "feu," are a series named, "his hair went up like a wick." In the first one he writes, "lost in the atmosphere/wanting the flames/to undress my body & ashes/cover my mother's face./ i want her to remember/a beautiful son." In the poem "the root of the fire," we read these powerful words, "you blame me as your children trudge/in the footsteps of the devil/created by your own imagination." There is violence, men being dragged from their bed and burned, "made them women in orange dresses,/dancing." The evils of how society treats gay men is blatant in his words.
your fear becomes holy, 2
amen. let me turn your heads:
jesus never married, had disciples: men.
judas turned against him. jealousy
comes from the bed. if i can't have you
no one can.
The second section, nom, he names: witch, his mother (aelena), his father (rowland), himself (john), his partner, a dog, a tyrant, and the rapist with no name. This is a blatant poem filled with exact actions, it is a speaking out what he was silent through.
Moving into the third section, jouissance, he writes of sex: in public restrooms, and of pleasure. In the poem "saint," he writes, "we are fish/out of water, exhausted:/we crawl across our bodies like braille." Here we find a mix of erotic with the danger of emotional waters, "...hostage stare.//their dark maneuvered like a room full of water,/ sloshing. rising & falling.//their grief stampedes your heart/& displaces your perception." You must be aware, watch out for the goodness of sex, it is dangerous. In the poem "in bed i begin to peel you," there is a warning, "we gave each other death" He writes, "you should agree with what dean young said/about why we created god. there is a need/to call people liars. you reader are a liar." Addressing the reader like this is a message the book is meant to shake us up, to examine our own lives.
The boy who loves his body is the castrated god. These are brazen poems with grit, raw. There are no capitalizations, meaning it is a book of poems written in a particular way to fit together and Compton does this well. He has a poem referring to poet Stephen Sandy.
In the final section, eaux, he brings us back to the womb, to a dead fish, to his mother dying, to his remembrances "of when she was a functioning/alcoholic, or when it makes a poem//more interesting. my mother/is dying."
i hope that you are listening
we linger. we are transparent.
we are rain. we've sent
one million letters to the wrong
god & now someone is punishing us.
we touch to acknowledge
our existence
our skin is a dying flower.
Compton ends this book with a long poem, "the every tree," birth, fire, hell, dissoluton: he writes "he found the surface/of hell/through the heavy/smokescreen//of diluted eyes." The boy on the cover crying is wipping his eye, his eyes clouded with tears. This book is a strong book, consistant in no capitalization, repeated imagery, and emotion for the characters. Slow down to read. Find the lines that inspire. I found a mess of lines that inspired and moved me towards these characters and ghosts in a world where no boy gods are protected and most are castrated at birth and by society.
August 16, 2024
I have no words. What a wonderful collection of poems. These poems are raw and visceral. When I think of the word vulnerable, I think of opening wounds and looking to see if the person you're showing your wounds to was going to flinch. The voice in these poems is confident enough to open a wound without that worry. It's vulnerable and immensely so courageous in that act.
Before I read the book, I thought I'd end up writing analyses about the poems I would come to love but now, I think of what Franz Kappus says in his introduction to Letters to a Young Poet: And where a great and unique person speaks, the rest of us should be silent.
Before I read the book, I thought I'd end up writing analyses about the poems I would come to love but now, I think of what Franz Kappus says in his introduction to Letters to a Young Poet: And where a great and unique person speaks, the rest of us should be silent.
February 7, 2023
This minor god just got a castration by cannonball. Compton’s poems are terse and powerful. 4 sections full of mourning, eroticism, and ballads. Wasn’t expecting such shocking moments in poetry for my first read. Certainly will be reading more.
December 5, 2023
My heart squeezed as I felt the tingles in this collection. Queer & necessary.
December 2, 2023
Such, SUCH striking words and images.
December 27, 2022
When two men are burned in the night for their love, and their cries echo as so many gunshots in the water, the secound bullet a mercy... but can mercy be love when a father can't say a simple three words?
This book is poignant look into being queer in the Bible Belt, but also a exploration of how our experiences can convoless into a greater whole. I wish I had more words to describe how deeply this text resonates with me and how greatful I am for its exsitance.
This book is poignant look into being queer in the Bible Belt, but also a exploration of how our experiences can convoless into a greater whole. I wish I had more words to describe how deeply this text resonates with me and how greatful I am for its exsitance.
October 11, 2023
"& build a church from poems
so god will understand
how religion can congregate
into a manuscript & be written
by men who have no reason
to worship him"
5/5 Stars
Wow. This collection hit me hard. This collection is dripping with religious sin which is everything I love in a poetry collection. This poetry is like a dance to your senses. This collection gives me the feeling of listening to Hozier in the woods with a glass of red wine. This book is a Holy Tome of poetry. It is absolutely fantastic in every way, even the formatting is new and fresh.
I highly recommend this queer, sacred text. This book is one that I know will end up being timeless one day. This work was truly an honor to review.
so god will understand
how religion can congregate
into a manuscript & be written
by men who have no reason
to worship him"
5/5 Stars
Wow. This collection hit me hard. This collection is dripping with religious sin which is everything I love in a poetry collection. This poetry is like a dance to your senses. This collection gives me the feeling of listening to Hozier in the woods with a glass of red wine. This book is a Holy Tome of poetry. It is absolutely fantastic in every way, even the formatting is new and fresh.
I highly recommend this queer, sacred text. This book is one that I know will end up being timeless one day. This work was truly an honor to review.
September 19, 2024
Loved the cover art, the title of the collection, and many of the poems within the collection.
One thing that bothered me a bit is that I'd previously read more than a handful of the poems in this collection in other sources (literary magazines, anthologies, and so on ) and it most certainly doesn't bother me at all that some of the poems were previously published, but it bothers me that there was no indication of such, no previous publication credits noted, no acknowledgements. Maybe I'm a bit nitpicky or obsessive about that sort of stuff, but...
I enjoyed reading many the poems. Some of my favorites were "the men who made bonfires", "the waltz...", "mary", "somehow the hips love wildly", "the church of christ" and "map (of) rust".
One thing that bothered me a bit is that I'd previously read more than a handful of the poems in this collection in other sources (literary magazines, anthologies, and so on ) and it most certainly doesn't bother me at all that some of the poems were previously published, but it bothers me that there was no indication of such, no previous publication credits noted, no acknowledgements. Maybe I'm a bit nitpicky or obsessive about that sort of stuff, but...
I enjoyed reading many the poems. Some of my favorites were "the men who made bonfires", "the waltz...", "mary", "somehow the hips love wildly", "the church of christ" and "map (of) rust".
April 7, 2023
The Castration of a Minor God is a collection that fearlessly stands up and holds the mirror to hypocrites. Compton’s voice is beautiful, terse, strong, and honest. These poems walk through some of the deepest hurt and betrayal, lust and love, with language that reflects the sacramental nature of our lives. It makes holy the intimate, while shining light on the false. By the end, one finds divinity in the love between two people, the holy is found in the liminal space between bodies. John Compton is a talented poet, intelligent and accessible. His work will challenge you, confronting you with reality in its beauty, but also it’s long and very dark shadow.
April 16, 2023
First line: "i felt her ribs, loose & tarnished," and last line: "& i'm afraid i'll be miscarried."
— "aelena" p. 20
"it has taken several million years / to perfect the sky."
— "somehow the hips move wildly" p. 36
"we linger. we are transparent. / we are rain. we've sent / one million letters to the wrong / god & now someone is punishing us."
— "i hope that you are a listening" p. 53
— "aelena" p. 20
"it has taken several million years / to perfect the sky."
— "somehow the hips move wildly" p. 36
"we linger. we are transparent. / we are rain. we've sent / one million letters to the wrong / god & now someone is punishing us."
— "i hope that you are a listening" p. 53
October 14, 2024
The language, swaying from intense with imagery to straightforward in thought. drives home the struggles of being gay in a world where discrimination abounds. The title says it all and holds a mirror to many (but not all) religious sects' roles in such discrimination, a hypocrisy in the face of what God with a capital "G" really stands for: love of all; "the castration of a minor god" exposes lashes on the body of that greater God, effected with the weapons of unfounded fear and hate.
April 4, 2023
Stunning work, I was really impressed with this book! I can see why it is getting so much attention now. It's spare, smart, raw, moving, exciting and unfettered! I love the organization of the book into sections, the language and the deep honesty. Poet to watch!
August 8, 2023
A collection that brings to mind the words unflinching, sincere, and vulnerable. It is apparent the poet pulls no punches, even when laying himself, his experiences, and his feelings bare, which I appreciated immensely!
January 7, 2025
This is fantastic I was very impressed with the gut this man had for writing about sensitive topics. the poems were amazing in every way. They had connections to many things, and I personally love that in poems. I recommend this to read you will like it.
August 18, 2024
Compton undoes worlds and writes in their dust.
Just gorgeous.
Just gorgeous.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews