{"id":16891,"date":"2022-05-10T07:00:18","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T11:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=16891"},"modified":"2022-05-01T13:24:43","modified_gmt":"2022-05-01T17:24:43","slug":"review-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Spirit by Helle Gade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"16892\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-spirit\/spirit\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/spirit.jpg?fit=297%2C475&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"297,475\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"spirit\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/spirit.jpg?fit=297%2C475&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-16892\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/spirit.jpg?resize=219%2C350&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"cover of Spirit\" width=\"219\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/spirit.jpg?resize=219%2C350&amp;ssl=1 219w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/spirit.jpg?w=297&amp;ssl=1 297w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 219px) 85vw, 219px\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Spirit-Helle-Gade-ebook\/dp\/B09RQZVNVC\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1HR4ZBUDODU0T&amp;keywords=Spirit+by+Helle+Gade&amp;qid=1647192447&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=spirit+by+helle+gade%2Cstripbooks%2C1705&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Spirit <\/i>by Helle Gade<\/a><br \/>\nButterdragons Publishing (May 10, 2022)<br \/>\n94 pages; $14.99 hardcover; $3.99 e-book<br \/>\nReviewed by Joshua Gage<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Helle Gade lives in Denmark. She is a book blogger, poet, photographer, nocturnal creature, avid reader and chocolate addict. She has been writing poetry since 2011 and published four poetry collections since then. She has been fortunate to work with a bunch of brilliant authors and photographers on The Mind&#8217;s Eye series. Her book <em>Nocturnal Embers<\/em> won the Best Poetry Collection with eFestival of Words. Her newest collection is <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Spirit<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a series of dark and painful poems about feeling lost.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gade\u2019s poetry taps into some dark themes, striking back at those who would threaten or oppress their speaker. For example, the poem \u201cSin\u201d reads<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I am not a sin that<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can contain within<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I am out there<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For all to see<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A painful reminder<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of things best forgotten<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While there is a sense of pain in the alienation experienced in these poems, there\u2019s a resilience, as well. Gade\u2019s speakers tend to lash out with their words and celebrate their uniqueness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gade also taps into some darker horror imagery in her poems to drive forward the painful feelings. For example, the poem \u201cChild of the Abyss\u201d begins<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Demons in the flames<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Licking my heart<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With fiery tongues<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Demanding my surrender<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Images like these use various horror tropes to create a tone for the reader that\u2019s at once rebellious and painful, tying into the themes of Gade\u2019s other poems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clearly, as exampled above, Gade writes from an enthusiastic emotional point, but her craft leaves a lot to be desired. The poems in this collection struggle with basic craft issues and presentation. They are all formatted with center justification and capital letters beginning each line, which is an outdated format that most poets and editors eschew. The poems themselves suffer from vague and abstract images or clich\u00e9s, and do very little that\u2019s unique or innovative with the forms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Overall, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Spirit<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by Helle Gade is one of those collections that only enthusiasts will want to pursue. Fans of horror might like some of the images or tropes, but horror poetry fans will be left wanting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spirit by Helle Gade Butterdragons Publishing (May 10, 2022) 94 pages; $14.99 hardcover; $3.99 e-book Reviewed by Joshua Gage Helle Gade lives in Denmark. She is a book blogger, poet, photographer, nocturnal creature, avid reader and chocolate addict. She has been writing poetry since 2011 and published four poetry collections since then. She has been &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-spirit\/\" class=\"more-link button bg-gold white\">Continue Reading!<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Review: Spirit by Helle Gade&#8221;<\/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":[38],"tags":[2620,506,2083,79,2619],"class_list":["post-16891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breakingnews","tag-helle-gade","tag-joshua-gage","tag-poetry","tag-reviews","tag-spirit"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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