{"id":18973,"date":"2024-07-03T07:00:15","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T11:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=18973"},"modified":"2024-06-29T19:43:37","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T23:43:37","slug":"review-unwelcome-guests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-unwelcome-guests\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Unwelcome Guests by David Kopaska-Merkel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"18974\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-unwelcome-guests\/unwelcomeguests\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/UnwelcomeGuests.webp?fit=900%2C1350&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"900,1350\" 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=\"UnwelcomeGuests\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/UnwelcomeGuests.webp?fit=683%2C1024&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-18974\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/UnwelcomeGuests.webp?resize=233%2C350&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"cover of Unwelcome Guests\" width=\"233\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/UnwelcomeGuests.webp?resize=233%2C350&amp;ssl=1 233w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/UnwelcomeGuests.webp?resize=683%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 683w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/UnwelcomeGuests.webp?resize=768%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/UnwelcomeGuests.webp?w=900&amp;ssl=1 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 233px) 85vw, 233px\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/weirdhousepress.com\/products\/unwelcome-guests-by-david-c-kopaska-merkel?_pos=1&amp;_psq=Unwelcome+Guests+by+David+Kopaska-Merkl&amp;_ss=e&amp;_v=1.0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Unwelcome Guests<\/i> by David Kopaska-Merkel<\/a><br \/>\nWeird House Books (June 2024)<br \/>\nReviewed by Joshua Gage<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">David C. Kopaska-Merkel is the editor and publisher of <a href=\"http:\/\/dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Dreams and Nightmares<\/em><\/a> magazine, and was for six years the editor of Star*Line, the journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Thirty-two books and thousands of poems and stories have been published in over a thousand venues since the early 1980s. The latest poetry collection is <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unwelcome Guests.<\/span><\/i><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everything about the book, from the cover to the poems themselves, implies a comedic horror element. This comedy is not limited in scope, though. Kopaska-Merkl is equally adept at writing humorous science fiction horror senryu:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">we don\u2019t celebrate<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">landing day up here<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the crater\u2019s too fresh<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">or body horror senryu<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">head in one hand<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">plastic sack in another<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">doorbell rings<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">or even longer poems of science fiction political horror, like \u201cWe\u2019re Begging You,\u201d which includes the lines<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, Galactic Union,<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">or whoever\u2019s out there,<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">come help us soon<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">unless you\u2019re psycho<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cannibal slavers<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and we can negotiate<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">on the cannibal part,<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">we\u2019re fed up with psycho<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clearly, Kopaska-Merkel is using poetry as a vehicle for humor, not taking his subjects too seriously, and encouraging his readers to do the same.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Overall, the book is effective as a clever collection of humorous speculative poetry. There is everything from puns and slapstick to wit and satire. Nothing in this collection is too dark or scary, and none of the subjects are given the seriousness which one might expect from a horror collection. Within that, this is a very successful poetry collection, and part of the joy and surprise of the book, part of the humor, is that readers are expecting just that &#8212; dark and Weird poems &#8212; and receiving that, but with a clever humorous that many readers will find very entertaining. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unwelcome Guests by David Kopaska-Merkel Weird House Books (June 2024) Reviewed by Joshua Gage David C. Kopaska-Merkel is the editor and publisher of Dreams and Nightmares magazine, and was for six years the editor of Star*Line, the journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Thirty-two books and thousands of poems and stories have been published &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-unwelcome-guests\/\" class=\"more-link button bg-gold white\">Continue Reading!<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Review: Unwelcome Guests by David Kopaska-Merkel&#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_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[80],"tags":[3182,506,79,3181,3183],"class_list":["post-18973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-david-kopaska-merkel","tag-joshua-gage","tag-reviews","tag-unwelcome-guests","tag-weird-house"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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