A Throat Full of Forest-Dirt
by Bri Stokes
Bottlecap Press, 24pp, $10.00 (print)
The poems in Bri Stokes’ 2023 chapbook A Throat Full of Forest-Dirt largely exist outside of time. The speakers in “Desire” and “An Old, Unconquerable Well” think in fairy tale logic, interacting with ancient pagan deities and mythical creatures, grappling “God / and Kronos / and fury / and magick / and hunger”. In Stokes’ pocket universe, there is no social media where the self-declared artist of “Afterbirth” constantly self-promotes, and readers don’t have to imagine a griffin stubbornly pecking away at an iPhone, caught up in a group text. Modernity’s anxiety is present, but not the condition’s endless apps or its perception of a rapidly accelerating existence.
The opening poem, “Birth (Or-The Genesis of Envy)” wrestles with aging and the contradictory implications of new parenthood. The speaker, “your de-fanged Mother,” addresses a “Strange imp:” the baby growing within. They know that to love your child selflessly– unconditionally– is “weaponized folklore,” and they fear what the birth will mean for their own existence:
Who will I be once you’re here?
Where will I go?
What will become of my
goldenness as it’s
ground down to
sand and
cast on the wind?
In Forest-Dirt, vulnerability and insecurity are often sublimated through mystical imagery, and Stokes’ first acknowledgement is “To the Divine.” The book description from the publisher says that the author wrote these pieces “in the liminality of the Covid-19 pandemic,” and it shows. The poem “Three of Wands” is named for a tarot card associated with foresight and vision. Yet the speaker is filled with doubt, even over the simple action of taking a breath. The poem’s syntax even resembles exhalation and inhalation:
The truth lies
in the longing-
in the weight of it. The rattling of it.
In my favorite poem of the chapbook, “Afterbirth,” the personified character of Silence is transformed into a “red-fanged beast,” a force of Moloch-esque control and malevolence that would halt the speaker’s quest of “seeking / freedom from consumption.” What fills this Silence? Not mere speech or defiance, but the “holy water” of devotion, love:
love for Self; love for Brown skin
and Brown eyes and dark,
shellacked curls and prisms of Divinity
The short chapbook is riddled with memorable, vibrant lines and phrases that linger in the back of the mind: “murmurings / feathering out,” “We circle each other like suns.” Unfortunately, with only 16 pages of poetry, Forest-Dirt’s flaws and offbeat lines stick out more than they would in a larger collection. The speaker of “Three of Wands” asks “How does one disrupt the aching?” and repeats “The aching of it”, but the lines feel more self-serious than fraught or tormented.
A lack of wordplay poses another problem for this collection. Stokes is so concerned with the reader reaching a profound place– trying to inspire feelings of greater transcendence– that the poems can feel repetitive, even dry. The sublime place that the writer wants to reach exists, and they are nearly there. However, as the Medievalists and old Buddhist storytellers understood, the way to true nirvana or understanding is paved with jokes, juxtaposition, and mischief. More of these poems would be memorable if they carried more contradictions and tensions: between the mundane and the extraordinary, between modernity and myth, or simply between the sacred and the profane.
Stokes succeeds in the final poem, “YHVH,” in which its speaker assumes divine heights, as indicated by the title, a biblical reference to the Judeo-Christian God. As the speaker waits for a Jericho rose to unfold, we read,
I wove together
the pearls of an old dream: to return to theogony,
to drink water from the flower’s
center and anoint myself to New Moons.
The poem builds up into fleshier, stranger ideas and visions compared to the previous pieces, before finishing on an image of personal mythology and belief as a path toward eternal recurrence: “again and again / and after.” If all of Stokes’ poems drew from the same eerie, numinous source as “YHVH”, this review might be less mixed.
Author Bio
C.M. Crockford is a writer and editor originally from New Hampshire. He’s the author of two chapbooks of poetry, Adore and Mark The Place, and his debut full-length, Birdsongs, was published in March 2024 by Alien Buddha Press. Crockford lives in Philadelphia with his cat Wally.
Find out more at cmcrockford.net.
A Throat Full of Forest-Dirt, by Bri Stokes product page
Bri Stokes Author page
Contents
New Poetry Titles (2/27/24)
Check out new poetry books published the week of 2/27 from Alien Buddha Press, GASHER Press, Bottlecap Press, University of Arizona Press, Omnidawn, Signal Editions, Guernica Editions, The Backwaters Press, University of Nebraska Press, Caitlin Press Inc, Autumn House Press, Georgia Review Books, The University of Kentucky Press, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Brick Books, Changes Press, Tupelo Press, Black Lawrence Press, and MoonPath Press.
March ‘24: Welcome to Issue 2
Read a note from editor Aiden Hunt about our second bimonthly issue, contributor accomplishments, and things to come.
New Poetry Titles (3/5/24)
Check out new poetry books published the week of 3/5 from Graywolf Press, Knopf, Bottlecap Press, powerHouse Books, Milkweed Editions, Acre Books, Seagull Books, The University Press of Kentucky, Yale University Press, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Penguin Books, Able Muse Press, Button Poetry, Miami University Press, Eyewear Publishing, Black Ocean, Seren, MoonPath Press, and Book*Hub Press. Editor’s picks from Diane Seuss and Cindy Juyoung Ok.
Contributor Poem of the Month: The Plan
Read the Contributor Poem of the Month for March 2024, “The Plan” by C.M. Crockford, along with a few words from the poet.
New Poetry Titles (3/12/24)
Check out new poetry books published in the week of 3/12 from Belle Point Press, Bottlecap Press, Black Lawrence Press, Haymarket Books, Ecco, Milkweed Editions, Seagull Books, Hub City Press, Nightboat Books, Signature Books, Four Way Books, Curbstone Books, Kaya Press, Kith Books, Saturnalia Books, Ohio University Press, University of Wisconsin Press, Jackleg Press, Semiotext(e) and Brick Books.
Chapbook Poem of the Month: Collection
Read the featured Chapbook Poem of the Month for March 2024, “Collection” from Dreamsoak by Will Russo, along with a few words from the poet.
Meet Our Contributor: C.M. Crockford
Meet our contributor, C.M. Crockford, a writer and editor originally from New Hampshire, now living in Philadelphia with his cat, Wally.
New Poetry Titles (3/19/24)
Check out new poetry books published the week of 3/19 from Bottlecap Press, Autumn House Press, Knopf, Guernica Editions, Tin House Books, Milkweed Editions, University of Wisconsin Press and Book*Hug Press.
Meet Our Contributor: Mike Bagwell
Meet our contributor, Mike Bagwell, a writer, poet, and software engineer in Philly. He’s published two poetry chapbooks and has a full-length collection forthcoming in 2024.
New Poetry Titles (3/26/24)
Check out new poetry books for the week of 3/26 from Bottlecap Press, Nightwood Editions, Harbour Publishing, McClellan & Stewart, Carcanet Press, University of Regina Press, At Bay Press, Guernica Editions, Beltway Editions, University of Georgia Press, Lost Horse Press, University of New Mexico Press, University of Massachusetts Press, Book*Hug Books, Haymarket Books, Archipelago, Autumn House Press, Hat & Beard Press, Tigerlily Press, and GASHER Press.
Meet Our Contributor: Francesca Leader
Meet our contributor, Francesca Leader, a Montanan living elsewhere who writes poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. Read about her writing life in her Contributor Q&A.
April ‘24: Of SPD, Genocide, and Book Reviews
Editor Aiden Hunt writes about distribution woes, the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and what we have coming during April in the Editor’s Note.
New Poetry Titles (4/2/24)
Check out new poetry books published the week of 4/2 from Bottlecap Press, Green Linden Press, Stanchion Books, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Small Harbor Publishing, Milkweed Editions, Graywolf Press, Wave Books, Arsenal Pulp Press, New Directions, Invisible Publishing, Brick Books, Sixteen Rivers Press, Penguin Books, City Lights Publishers, And Other Stories, BOA Editions Ltd, OR Books, Not a Cult, Copper Canyon Press, McGill-Queen’s University Press, Beacon Press, Biblioasis, Nightboat Books, Amistad, House of Anansi Press, Hub City Press, Seagull Books, Fordham University Press, Iron Pen, Persea Books, Central Avenue Publishing, CavanKerry Press, W. W. Norton & Company, University of Akron Press and Red Hen Press.
Contributor Poem of the Month: Self Portrait
Read the Contributor Poem of the Month for April 2024, “Self Portrait” by Mike Bagwell, along with a few words from the poet.
On Cindy Juyoung Ok’s ‘House Work’: A Review Essay
Editor Aiden Hunt’s essay reviews Cindy Juyoung Ok’s poetry chapbook, ‘House Work’, published by Ugly Duckling Presse in March 2023.
New Poetry Titles (4/9/24)
Check out new poetry books published the week of 4/9 from Faber & Faber, Small Harbor Publishing, Bottlecap Press, University of Pittsburgh Press, Green Writers Press, Loom Press, Paraclete Press, Able Muse Press, Caitlin Press Inc., Stephen F. Austin University Press, University of North Texas Press, McGill-Queen’s University Press, University of New Mexico Press, Curbstone Books, Milkweed Editions, Red Hen Press, Wave Books, Alice James Books, Paul Dry Books, Copper Canyon Press, Coffee House Press, powerHouse Books, Dial Press, Knopf, Nightboat Books, SUNY Press, Belle Point Press, White Stag Publishing, and Anhinga Press.
New Poetry Titles (4/16/24)
Check out new poetry books published the week of 4/16 from Bottlecap Press, Knopf, HarperOne, Small Harbor Publishing, Red Hen Press, Copper Canyon Press, Nightwood Editions, Southern Illinois University Press, Seren, Sarabande Books, Phoneme Media, BOA Editions Ltd., W. W. Norton & Company, JBE Books, White Stag Publishing, ECW Press, knife | fork | book and McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Chapbook Poem of the Month: Study of Daylight
Read the featured Chapbook Poem of the Month for April 2024, “Study of Daylight” from Love Letters from a Burning Planet by MJ Gomez, along with a few words from the poet.
Review: And Yet Held by T. De Los Reyes
As if an exploding star: T. De Los Reyes’s love-poems of self-discovery in the ordinary magic of the everyday. Read the review by new PCR contributor, Drishya.
New Poetry Titles (4/23/24)
Check out new poetry books for the week of 4/23 from Bottlecap Press, Biblioasis, Copper Canyon Press, Red Hen Press, Milkweed Editions, University of Arkansas Press, Seren, Carcanet Press Ltd., Talonbooks, Unbound Edition Press and BOA Editions Ltd.
On ‘A Throat Full of Forest-Dirt’ by Bri Stokes
C.M. Crockford reviews “A Throat Full of Forest-Dirt” by Bri Stokes, a poetry chapbook published by Bottlecap Press in November, 2023, in this essay.
New Poetry Titles (4/30/24)
Check out new poetry books for the week of 4/30 from Bottlecap Press, Ugly Duckling Presse, University of Iowa Press, Copper Canyon Press, David R. Godine, Caitlin Press Inc, Seagull Books, Tupelo Press, Guernica Editions, Southern Illinois University Press, University of Nevada Press, University of Utah Press, University of Calgary Press, Salmon Poetry, Deep Vellum Publishing and Bauhan Publishing.