Some Disassembly Required

by David C Kopaska-Merkel

David C. Kopaska-Merkel is an exceptional poet who uses precise language and twisted speculation to forge a different, more nuanced world-view. In this book he takes those normal extremes of human imagery and... disassembles them, putting them back together in a Picasso-like state where some bits are offset, discolored, or too sharply in or out of focus. Perfect images in dark and light become speckled, tarnished, and imperfect. His works here, from poems about post-apocalyptic mutations to pieces dealing with shapeshifters and space travelers, are filled with creatures who are not so much extremes, or bigger than life, but are instead totally accessible because of the ordinariness of their cruelties, the normality of their mistakes and desires, and the pettiness of their wide-spread destruction. These are the small beings who do huge damage, the powerful divinities who act out of their small-mindedness, greed, and ignorance.

Genres: Poetry

118 pages, Paperback

Published July 31, 2022

Reviews

[Mary Soon Lee]

This is a book of speculative poetry, encompassing SF, fantasy, and horror, which skews toward the darker, weirder end of the pool. Indeed the collection is darker than my own reading preferences. So it speaks well of it that many of the poems still entertained me. There's humor at these gravesides, plus compassion for the underdog and undermonster.

The following six poems particularly stood out to me. I suspect, if I were more of a horror afficiando, that number would easily double.

The Laws of Robotics With Benefits - a darkly funny twist on Asimov's Laws of Robotics.

Stirrings - a lyrical and sad peek into the after-death of a zombie-like creature being used as cheap labor.

Sling Shot - a moving poem from the perspective of an unspecified presumed monster. No happy ending here either.

The Brown-Paper Princess - I think this one's my favorite, partly because it ends hopefully, partly because I like the voice:

Never gets to go for walks in the rain,
must be very careful with her quill pen,
isn't allowed to eat anything sticky,
or soup, only biscuits and dry toast...

Medusa's Tale - I'm a sucker for retellings that are sympathetic to Medusa, and this one is no exception.

Persephone Makes Her Move - and I'm also a sucker for Persephone retellings, of which this is a good example. I like how it lets Persephone get the upper hand. And I love the near-perfect final stanza:

Meanwhile, Hades is sinking still,
Farther and farther from what passes for light
in the Underworld,
Or maybe he has reached
That inaccessible, desolate land,
Where Gods go to die.

About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. In the case of poetry books, for various reasons, I often omit an overall star rating.

[Timons Esaias · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been in Kopaska-Merkel's gravitational field for decades, but I finally got to meet him last year at WorldCon in Chicago. I learned of this volume on that occasion, and picked it up, which I'm glad I did.

Putting my spec-fic-poetry glasses on, I can observe that these poems are concretely imaginative, and frequently humorous. In a dripping gore kinda way. I especially laughed at "Amoeba Girl as Teen" which convincingly explains how Amoeba Girl became the Amorphous Avenger.

My favorite in this collection is "The Brown-Paper Princess," which tells the sad tale of her concerns, and how she is "ostracized by the bleached-paper girls" and doesn't seem to care. She escapes, in the end. I liked that.

One of K-M's standard devices is to change the perspective, the POV, in the middle of the piece. Sometimes more than once. This works well most of the time, but on several occasions I just got lost. "Pattern of Response" and "Irreconcilable Differences" were two of those.

The unexpected elements remind me very much of Mike Arnzen. And that makes me suggest this volume as a spur to your own imagination, if you're writing spec-fic poetry.

[Bryan Worra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can see why it was nominated for an SFPA Elgin Award as an example of speculative verse by one of its grand masters.