
A Death Ritual
‘A Death Ritual’ charts my progress through a prolonged period of severe depression and out again, a process which I came to think of as coming back to life. The sequence is an imitation of C A Conrad. I chose Conrad because I felt drawn to their magical-poetical principles of ritual healing, and their direct and confronting style.
'GO OUT AND PICK WILDFLOWERS FOR ART' was published in The White Review Online, and can be read here. 'I feel so sorry for poetry' was published on The Osmosis Press Blog, and can be read here. 'I want to be worshiped, you know, like a god' was published in Butcher's Dog, read it below.
I want to be worshiped, you know, like a god
this poem has a curse on it
whoever reads it will die
happily
our elbows like two lemons
at a birthday party
hip hip hooray
red flame on the tip of each
hair of my body
falling away
into the glorious blaze
of a positively
enlightened world
that has stopped asking why
I’m not better yet
be more sorry than you are
the storm
spanking the mountains
raw
tell it
I never wanted a childhood
anyway