NEW POETRY
Every and No by Joshua Alan Sturgill
Groundhog Day by Linda Lobmeyer
The Craving to Scream: We had just rushed down the water-chute at Earl’s Court together—I have seldom experienced a more disagreeable sensation—and drew my attention to the screams and shrieks which rent the air as the boats swept down that horrible descent and struck the water with a sickening bang.
Dale Nelson begins an in-depth exploration of Coventry Patomore’s Religio Poetae and its influence upon Arthur Machen: “Numerous Machen readers seek traces of the Golden Dawn, which Machen outgrew and repeatedly disparaged, but evidently don’t read Patmore, whose works received Machen’s mature, forthright approval, expressed publicly and privately.”
NEW POETRY
New by Joshua Alan Sturgill
An Irish Leader of Yesterday: “Home Rule, depend upon it, is not far off. It will be granted with the consent of the Conservative party, with the general good will of England.” … I pointed out that Mr. Gladstone had gone to the country demanding a majority against the combined forces of Ireland and Conservatism. He failed to obtain it, and became a Home Ruler.
NEW POETRY
The Wreath of Silence by Joshua Alan Sturgill
Audubon Bird Calendar 2023 by Benjamin Rozonoyer
A Drive Through Belfast: For in Belfast a nut is not a young gentleman of extreme fashion. It is a bit of metal punched out of the ship’s plates in the rivetting process, and as another Belfast enthusiast told me, “it has nice jagged edges.” And these nuts are used, with the stone kidneys, in the expression of one’s political and religious opinions; which means in Belfast pelting the police.
Dale Nelson takes issue with Arthur Machen’s opinion of Charlotte Yonge’s The Daisy Chain.
Belfast’s View of Home Rule: “But it’s no good saying that things are going on just as they are in Ireland: something has got to be done. Only, the North is not going to pay for the fun of the South; that’s all. The Belfast man has a profound and stubborn belief in himself and his city and his fellows.”
NEW POETRY
The Image by Joshua Alan Sturgill
In Belfast To-Day: And then there were sudden silences; a man might be speaking his mind freely, when he would catch a certain hint of caution in his friend’s eyes, and would lower his voice or say no more. Someone was present who did not possess the masonic countersign.
—wrote Arthur Machen on January 2, 1927. Yes, the retailers have jettisoned their facade of joy and the radio stations have stopped playing seasonal songs, but it is still Christmas. The Festival has just begun. The Incarnation never ends.
Away from the Shop: All orders received between December 23 and January 1 will be processed and shipped after the New Year. Merry Christmas!
NEW POETRY
The Appearance of Wisdom by Joshua Alan Sturgill
The Joy of the Circus: Has the circus quite vanished from the English highway and the country fair and the waste place and the village green?
Away from the Shop: All orders received between December 23 and January 1 will be processed and shipped after the New Year. Merry Christmas!
Following a tradition of Yuletide ghost stories, we offer a great tale for the season: A Light in the Dormitory by W. J. Wintle
NEW POETRY
New Delhi, 1958. Page 105 by Joshua Alan Sturgill
The Child in Fairyland: For we must consider that to the child, and more especially to the poor child who dwells amidst hard and unlovely circumstances and surroundings, a doll is the figure on which its owner drapes all the garments of fantasy.
BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT
“Butler’s poems are thoughtful, well-crafted, and a pleasure to read.” — A.M. Juster
Darkly Bright Press is pleased to announce The Living Law, the first poetry collection from Jesse Keith Butler. Butler is an awarding-winning poet from Canada.
The book is scheduled for an early 2024 release. However, his work can be explored here.
NEW POETRY
Home by Joshua Alan Sturgill
A Pecksniff Picture: The scene is illustrated by a picture showing Miss Pecksniff and Moddle on one side of the shop and Tom Pinch and his sister Ruth on the other. And I have always been puzzled by one of the inscriptions over the shop, which describes the proprietor as an “Upholder.”
BOOK UPDATE: WHAT DO WE KNOW? BY ARTHUR MACHEN – SOLD OUT
Douglas A. Anderson, the editor of Tales Before Tolkien and The Annotated Hobbit, has reviewed Mist and Mystery.
Jesse Keith Butler recently appeared on a podcast to speak about poetry and his upcoming volume from Darkly Bright Press.
NEW POETRY
The Self of the Myth-Made Man by Joshua Alan Sturgill
A Recipe for the Historical Novel: Consider the purpose of the novel or romance called historical. Surely it is simply this: to give the reader the most vivid impression of the old times; to ravish him by a potent literary spell from the present into the past; to make him feel, if but for a moment, that the heavy weight of the centuries has been rolled away.
As of this posting, only three copies remain of the limited edition of What Do We Know? by Arthur Machen. The discounted preorder price has been extended through December 6th.
NEW POETRY
A Metaphor by Joshua Alan Sturgill
How Should We Spend Christmas?: Let us above all be unlike that wretched “Board of Guardians”—Guardians of the Poor, so strangely named—who cut off, or threatened to cut off the breakfast egg of the Workhouse children on Christmas Day last year, to help the children, as they said, to realise the gravity of the situation. By all means let us conceal the gravity of the situation from the children; we are no flaming angels to shut out little Adam and little Eve from Paradise.
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