{"id":11192,"date":"2018-01-10T08:00:12","date_gmt":"2018-01-10T13:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=11192"},"modified":"2018-01-07T23:05:31","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T04:05:31","slug":"review-diary-of-a-sorceress-by-ashley-dioses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-diary-of-a-sorceress-by-ashley-dioses\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Diary of a Sorceress by Ashley Dioses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Diary of a Sorceress<\/em>\u00a0by Ashley Dioses<\/a>
\nHippocampus Press (October 2017)<\/strong>
\n170 pages, $15 paperback<\/strong>
\nReviewed by\u00a0Joshua Gage<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ashley Dioses has established herself as one of the leading voices in contemporary weird poetry. Known for her meticulous use of rhyme and meter and her melding of the strange and the romantic, Dioses has gathered some of her recent poetry into her first collection—a scintillating assemblage of nearly 100 poems short and long, published and unpublished. Titled <\/span>Diary of a Sorceress<\/span><\/i>, it is a really exciting collection of weird and dark fantasy poetry sure to appeal to any reader.<\/span><\/p>\n

Diary of a Sorceress<\/span><\/i> is broken up into four sections: \u201cAtop the Crystal Moon,\u201d \u201cKiss the Stars,\u201d \u201cStar Lightning\u201d and \u201cOn a Dreamland\u2019s Moon.\u201d Each section reads like its own chapbook of poetry, focused around one particular theme. \u201cAtop the Crystal Moon\u201d seems to be focused on fantasy poetry. \u201cKiss the Stars\u201d seems to be focused on more nature-based poetry. \u201cStar Lightning\u201d is a chapter of love and romance poems. \u201cOn a Dreamlands Moon\u201d is the darkest, and more horrific, collection of poems. Each section propels the reader forward into the next, creating a very complex tome of poetry.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAtop the Crystal Moon\u201d is the most fantastic of the four chapters. It contains poems about creatures like unicorns, Pegasus, gorgons, selkies, satyrs, etc. It really covers a lot of classical western fantasy tropes. However, these poems are not the trite and clich\u00e9 offerings that one might expect from a new poet, especially one dealing with formal poetry. These poems are rich in imagery and narrative, and create clear pictures in the minds of the reader. The eponymous poem of this section is an eight=page poem that leads the reader through a fantasy-soaked journey. It is an impressive undertaking, both in length as well as in craft, and it really serves to catch the reader\u2019s attention and enrapt them in Dioses\u2019s language.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cKiss the Stars\u201d continues the dark fantasy ideas from \u201cAtop the Crystal Moon,\u201d but focuses on more natural images and subjects. This is a chapter of plants and gardens, though Dioses still manages to make them dark. For example, her poem \u201cGraveyard Blossom\u201d begins:<\/span><\/p>\n

The scent of roses sweetens all behind
\n<\/span>The graveyard gates, yet graves so far away
\n<\/span>Could not send forth a fragrance so refined
\n<\/span>Like phantom rich perfumes, without decay.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This olfactory imagery juxtaposed against the setting of a graveyard serves to pull the reader into the poem and really helps to evoke the scene that Dioses is trying to create. Readers of this section will be caught up in the imagery and the dark spells that Dioses weaves.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStar Lightning\u201d takes a shift and moves into more romantic poetry. Dioses continues with some of the imagery from the previous chapter, but it\u2019s now set in a more romantic setting. For example, in the poem \u201cLover\u2019s Witch,\u201d we get this image:<\/span><\/p>\n

Her love, a spell, is wound around
\n<\/span>My soul, like lingering perfumes
\n<\/span>That emanate from floral crowns
\n<\/span>Of belladonna all abloom.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When the poems in this section work, they work well; however, there are many poems in this section that seem too personal, and take the reader out of the fantasy realm that Dioses has created. As such, this is the weakest section of the book, and fortunately not the last.<\/span><\/p>\n

The final section of this collection, \u201cOn a Dreamland\u2019s Moon,\u201d is probably the most horror oriented of the four. Dioses moves between traditional horror tropes to the explicitly raw and grisly, as in the poem \u201cThe Rotting Goddess\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n

Her reddened fingertips pluck at the strings
\n<\/span>Of the intestines strung throughout her loom.
\n<\/span>She weaves the fates of fighting men and kings
\n<\/span>While severed heads are hanging in the gloom.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is an excellent section to end the book on, a horror-driven selection of poems with tributes to some of the great names in horror literature.<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, <\/span>Diary of a Sorceress<\/span><\/i> is an excellent initial effort by a promising young poet. While the book has its weak spots and could have been curated more, it stands as a solid first book by a poet who has a lot to add to horror poetry.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diary of a Sorceress\u00a0by Ashley Dioses Hippocampus Press (October 2017) 170 pages, $15 paperback Reviewed by\u00a0Joshua Gage Ashley Dioses has established herself as one of the leading voices in contemporary weird poetry. Known for her meticulous use of rhyme and meter and her melding of the strange and the romantic, Dioses has gathered some of … Continue Reading! “Review: Diary of a Sorceress by Ashley Dioses”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[80],"tags":[1365,1364,1366,506,79],"class_list":["post-11192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-ashley-dioses","tag-diary-of-a-sorceress","tag-hippocampus-press","tag-joshua-gage","tag-reviews"],"yoast_head":"\nReview: Diary of a 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