Knock by Melissa Atkinson Mercer Published by Half Mystic Press on March 1st 2018
Genres: Poetry
Pages: 70
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
In this fiercely musical, highly anticipated debut release from Half Mystic Press, Melissa Atkinson Mercer interrogates the width, weight, and wholeness of depression, calling out to a self reflected back as monster, as myth, as song and water and tongue. Knock asks us to consider the complications of gender and voice: who gets to speak, who gets listened to, whose stories turn to fact and whose to fiction. Unflinching and tender, this book reminds us what it takes to navigate the mind's dark seas and come out alive.
The incantatory poems in Melissa Atkinson Mercer's Knock "speak miracle and rage," insistent as daybreak or high tide. These poems are reclamation spells that celebrate and reassemble the untamed, the "witch heart," the "undarkened bell" of speech: where "mountains are the tongues of women buried for the sin of lust" and "the sea is the tongue of the woman who loved kings." As elegiac as it is visionary, this collection invokes a "matriarchal oath" to bless the darkness inside and around us. --Emari DiGiorgio, author of The Things a Body Might Become and Girl Torpedo
Melissa Atkinson Mercer's Knock is a stunning and startling exploration of sorrow and of strength. This book is both the myth of creation and of apocalypse, of how we are built and how we are destroyed. The stakes are high in these poems: "which story will you believe," we're asked, "the one where they died / or the one where they died differently." Mercer gives us both, but in a new language, the language of dismissed goddesses hoping to find homes for their silenced tongues, and her poems refuse to choose for us. These poems sing as they disturb, they fly while they allow their speakers to drown, and they call us to make sense of a senseless world while reminding us it didn't have to be so senseless. "what use is a tongue like mine" - one need only read Knock to find the answer, and what a glorious and impressive answer it is. --Anthony Frame, author of Where Wind Meets Wing and editor of Glass Poetry Press
The haunting and lucid speakers in Melissa Atkinson Mercer's Knock are at once testimonial, song and portent to the psyche's anguished interiors, "We woke in the wet black heat / to the sad song our mother knew." Mercer deftly crafts this maternal lineage with an authentic connection to all the vernaculars of language, palpably casting a light on the impediments of the mind. Mercer's incantations are arresting at every turn--as the poet confronts each threshold with an uncanny sense of observation, so pristinely rendering the dualities of our enigmatic natures, "The world was a small, dark shape & we entered it." Artful, fierce and lyrical, these poems cast a spell on the reader indelibly. This book took me hostage, released me more alive and enlightened. --Cynthia Atkins, author of In the Event of Full Disclosure
I was originally due to post the other day but unfortunately I had a couple complications and this needed to wait. Until now, that is!
I am so excited to be doing my first blog tour and review for a poetry book. When I was asked to join the blog tour for Melissa Atkinson Mercer’s Knock, I said yes without any hesitation. I’ve been reading more poetry over the past six months and jumped at the chance to read a yet-to-be-published book. So without further ado, here is information, the review and a little chance to win a copy!
~Review~
Let me first put a disclaimer here to say I received an e-copy of this book via the publisher for a blog tour and it affects my opinion in no way.
I am happy to review Knock for my first poetry book review. When I began Knock, I wasn’t sure what to expect. For such a small book, it took me away on a surprise journey.
Metaphors and figurative language explode from the pages as it goes through depression, gender and the deepest parts of ourselves.
If I were to compare Knock to another poetry book, I would compare it to The Princess Saves Herself In This One and The Witch Doesn’t Burn In This One By Amanda Lovelace. They follow a dark, magical sort of telling.
As the first chapter begins we learn of an apocalypse beginning and the power and removal of tongues. This grabbed my attention immediately with how often, even more so today that women’s voices are policed and demanded. The imagery doesn’t stop there as we hear of witch hunts, trees, ghosts, a whale mother, mice skeletons and monsters all describing this character’s life.
The title, Knock May be taken from s self-titled poem describing a girl’s hopeful knock for just a little opening and teaches others to knock as well.
Knock is a beautiful haunting story told in poetry. I believe it may be best with repeated readings as I know I will most certainly be doing. I’ll be following along Melissa’s future poetic works as well.
Here is the lovely giveaway to win a copy of Knock!
Do you usually read poetry? What draws you to poetry?
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