The latest Arthur Machen collection from Darkly Bright Press has returned to print. What Do We Know? Observations of the Strange and Unusual sold out quickly when it was released late last year in a limited hardcover edition. The trade paperback is now available for purchase. Read excerpts.

POETRY

For Salad And For Wine by Joshua Alan Sturgill

The Living Law by Jesse Keith Butler has been highlighted on the Kingdom Poets blog by D. S. Martin.

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

“Love and Unrest”: There certainly are novels which confine themselves strictly to the action without wasting time over descriptive passages; they are mostly tenth-rate stories about detectives. But this new rule—that a novel is to be concerned only with “action”—must be squashed with all convenient firmness and despatch.

This is a very fine book. Jesse Butler has put his mastery of traditional poetic form to good use in these varied reflections on faith, personal tragedy, encounters with nature, life in the modern Canadian suburbs and many other things. These poems reveal a mind expansively curious about the world and deeply attentive to it.

—Burl Horniachek, editor of To Heaven’s Rim: The Kingdom Poets Book of World Christian Poetry

BOOKS AROUND MACHEN

Religio Poetae, Part 4: Dale Nelson delivers another fine study on Patmore’s classic and its influence upon Arthur Machen.

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

New Books of 1914: Roosevelt takes an interest in prize-fighters, Roosevelt can climb high cliffs; all his achievements of this sort are here set down, together with his part in the Spanish War, and the comfortable doctrines of the Big Stick and the Square Deal. It is all splendid if you happen to be a professing member of the Roosevelt faith; to dissenters from that crude credo it is perhaps a little excessive and superabundant.

An Arthur Machen Calender: On Simnel Cakes

The Living Law by Jesse Keith Butler is now available for purchase. Read some of Butler’s award-winning work.

NEW POETRY

Congratulations to Joshua Alan Sturgill as he celebrates his 300th post with And Of All Things. Explore his wonderful poetry and essays.

MACHEN STUDY No. 47

Machen, the Pilgrim: For St. David’s Day, we examine Arthur Machen’s pilgrimage to Wales and the confluence of Celtic Saints with the Grail Legends in his work.

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

Remembrance Day Address: This was one of the most terrible and tremendous things that have happened in the history of the world. It was terrible for us because it meant that tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of Englishmen, Scotchmen, Irishmen, and Welshmen were to be killed in fighting. It was tremendous; because it was bound to alter the whole history of the world for ages and ages yet to come.

Available March 1^st: The Living Law by Jesse Keith Butler.

Darkly Bright Press is pleased to announce The Living Law, the first poetry collection from Jesse Keith Butler. An awarding-winning poet from Canada, Butler promises to be a leading voice in contemporary formalism. Collecting meditations on theology, family life and culture, Butler’s debut presents the poet as a confident and hopeful voice. Explore the poet’s work.

Speaking of poetry… Prayers of Ignorance by Joshua Alan Sturgill

BOOKS AROUND MACHEN

Religio Poetae, Part 3 by Dale Nelson

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

The Immortal Story of Captain Scott’s Expedition: You are to hear about five great men. Their names are: Captain Scott, who was their leader, Captain Oates, Lieutenant Bowers, Dr. Wilson, and Petty-Officer Evans. These men are all dead, and they died after dreadful pain, in a dreadful place, called the Antarctic Region. You can find it on the maps and on the globes; it is the very bottom of the world.

AN ARTHUR MACHEN CALENDAR

On Valentines and Other Things: I think some substitute should be found for the vanished Valentine and its observances. Suppose we made February 14 a day on which we could do what we liked—of course without malice or injury to our neighbours. Suppose we made a regular wild day of it, and insisted on buying chocolate creams—and why not bullseyes?—at 8.15 p.m.; on having another glass of small beer after ten, on buying cigarettes openly at eleven.

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

The Piper: “My effort has always been to preserve what is good in the old traditions and to blend them with the more modern, natural method. I found when I became a manager that the old ways had crystallised into a kind of ritual—into a formula; while, on the other hand, the ‘natural’ people seemed to have forgotten that Shakespeare wrote poetry.

BOOKS AROUND MACHEN

Religio Poetae, Part 2: Dale Nelson continues his investigation into the spiritual legacy of Coventry Patmore and his influence upon Arthur Machen.

NEW POETRY

Hypothermia by Joshua Alan Sturgill

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

The Problem of Tom: Now Tom, of course, had not learnt Latin and Greek; he had pretended to learn those languages, and his master had pretended had pretended to teach him. But if Tom had learnt Latin to such purpose … it would still have profited him nothing with that Canadian bank manager. But it must clearly be stated that a classical education is not to be blamed because it does not fit a man to earn his living by being a bank clerk.

NEW POETRY

Every and No by Joshua Alan Sturgill

Groundhog Day by Linda Lobmeyer

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

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.

BOOKS AROUND MACHEN

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

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

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

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

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.

BOOKS AROUND MACHEN

Dale Nelson takes issue with Arthur Machen’s opinion of Charlotte Yonge’s The Daisy Chain.

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

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.”