Daniel Sluman's the terrible (Nine Arches, 2015)

I was reading this book to provide a blurb and couldn't help underlining favourite passages--a good sign, to be sure. Here they are:


                                     their heads
full of yes      each night   a heaved dice

& we're driving further through it each year

*

                                              the faces

from our life   passing   like boarded-up doors

from "1991-2006"

the smell of motor oil & sawdust

& the moon threaded through

opening stanza of "confession"

                             & we're here again

passing the whiskey that started the fire

in our throats    watching the town

lights wash slowly   into darkness

end of "matches"

                                ...these

morning-breakers    rubbing

their hands   & checking the mirror

each with their own nightmare

tensed like a razor over

the skin of another morning

facing the exhaustion

of ever-thickening snow

second half of "winter"

I'll keep this lightning trapped in my hip

my strange weather    the dent I sank into

will rise from the sofa in a mist

of cologne & possibilities

end of "doppelganger"

                        where we sit & empty

glass after glass into the night   your son asleep

the walls creeping closer to the ghostly down

on his neck

*

the roof dreaming its only dream

of the weight of rain

from "the cottage"

tonight is a rope we can burn & burn

opening line of "affair"

              she tried to shake the terrible

from me    until the bed glittered like the sea

from "the terrible"

the gaping o of you

from "L O V E"

in dreams

I have two legs   my mother stays

& childhood is a single house

*

with a gin in hand I drink

myself to perfection each night

rather obviously, from "in dreams"

glittering with laughter in the sheets beside you

from "phantom"

You can pre-order the terrible directly from Nine Arches Press here. 

Daniel Sluman's Absence has a weight of its own (Nine Arches, 2012)

Some favourite passages:


                   When you wake

to find a tube hanging from your chest
your ears will swarm with bees,

the doctor will catch you

just before you hit the tiles.

*

                              The tumour on the x-ray

tells you life is a fistful of cobwebs.

from "Letter"

I have adored your ankles,

snaffled the fine hairs that crisp

the small of your back,

& now, after I've licked

the soap-traces from the underside

of your knees, we find ourselves

stalled in the marriage bed;

your maiden name

a peppercorn crushed

in my mouth.

from "After the Wedding"

                                                                       I think 

of you, sealing yourself in a lead coffin where

the faces of the men you shot burst like poppy seeds.

end of "Your Limp Breath Slides off the Hospital Walls"

& the shadows we nailed

to

the floor

start to stir. 

end of "Snow/Swinging #2"

You stare until the letters tremble

like needles on a pine tree.

opening lines of "Ambition & the Individual Talent"

I have pulled apart

the machinery of that night

for the last ten years....

from "Scenes from a Film"

We'll return where we left, forgetting

when we started; each breath

binding us tighter to the past.

end of "When Our Pupils Swallowed the Irises Black"

                  You could tighten

this world in inky loops,

tourniquet this moment
before it bleeds out.

end of "When Lightning Switchblades"

I'm aware of my breath--the push & pull

of this fine wire....

*

When the doctor brought in my scan

my liver had bloomed a Rorschach test,

& we all stared, seeing only one thing.

from "My Death"

The last time we spoke

I was smearing the red flag

of myself around the tub....

*

                      God sees me

as a tiny pink coffin, wandering

from place to place, waiting

to fall into the open earth.

beginning and ending of "Dear Samaritans,

I'm Writing This to Let  You Know Everything's Okay Now"

Last night can't escape your kitchen....

from "The Aftermath"

Violins eased from speakers 

& hovered around our gestures

as a whole summer bled into that night,

a shoddy polaroid.

opening of "Kiss"

 You can buy Absence directly from the publisher here.