Adam Bolivar

As Hippocampus Press's award-winning weird poetry journal Spectral Realms completes its ninth year of publication, it continues to feature some of the best poems of terror and the supernatural by leading contemporary poets. Ann K. Schwader, Adam Bolivar, D. L. Myers, Wade German, and others grace this issue. Carole Abourjeili writes on vampires, Christian Dickinson in banshees, Steven Withrow on ghosts, and Scott J. Couturier on ghouls. David Barker continues his revisioning of Lovecraft's Fungi from Yuggoth, while Carl E. Reed writes a vibrant tribute to Clark Ashton Smith. Ngo Binh Anh Khoa uses a Vietnamese verse form to cosmic terror and grue; master versifier Frank Coffman conveys weirdness in a quaternelle; and Joshua Gage utilizes the ghazal to speak of the "old gods." The classic reprints include an anonymous poem dating to 1823 and James F. Morton's "Haunted Houses." Reviews by Leigh Blackmore, Katherine Kerestman, and Steven Withrow of recent books of weird poetry complete a bountiful issue.

In this scintillating follow-up to the acclaimed volume The Lay of Old Hex (2017), Adam Bolivar demonstrates why he is one of the most accomplished and readable weird poets of our time. As a balladeer Bolivar has no peer among his contemporaries, and his many eloquent poems about the enigmatic Jack-musician, lover, and warrior against supernatural enemies-evoke the centuries-long tradition of balladry extending back to the Middle Ages. These ballads comprise miniature tales of terror, as Jack ventures into haunted house, battles against legions of demonic cats, and matches wits with seductive sorceresses. In the long poem Hellbound Jack, the "Scarlet Balladress" spins her own tale about Jack A distinctive subset of works in this volume is a series of short plays that Bolivar himself has frequently presented, in public and private, with marionettes of his own design. Here we find such baleful characters as the Devil, Betty Crow ("a formless apparition"), and other sinister figures. Adam Bolivar draws upon the ancient heritage of balladry but revitalizes it in his own distinctive fashion, endowing it with renewed vitality by infusing it with his own dark vision of a world where terrors lurk unseen around every corner.

This issue of Spectral Realms is dedicated to the late Richard L. Tierney (1936-2022), one of the pioneering weird poets of our time. Included is an unpublished poem by Tierney and poetic tributes to him by Leigh Blackmore and Charles Lovecraft. As always, the issue contains scintillating work by some of the leading weird versifiers of the present day, including Wade German, Frank Coffman, Ian Futter, and Scott J. Couturier. John Shirley, Darrell Schweitzer, Don Webb, and Geoffrey Reiter demonstrate that they are masters of terror in poetry as well as in prose fiction. Lori I. Lopez explores the strangeness of cats in "La Gata," while LindaAnn LoSchiavo tells of the grim fate of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's wife. David Barker and Ngo Binh Anh Khoa write evocative poetry in the Lovecraftian mode, and Josh Maybrook contributes an acrostic sonnet on Poe. Adam Bolivar continues his work in Anglo-Saxon meter, while Carl E. Reed sends in a "ghoulish tale" in verse. Prose poems by Maxwell I. Gold and Manuel Arenas also enliven the issue. Among the classic reprints is a poem, "Vampire," by Bertrande Harry Snell, from a 1929 issue of Weird Tales, as well as a poem by veteran fantasy poet Lilith Lorraine. Marcos Legaria contributes an essay on R. H. Barlow's early poetry.

JOURNEY ONCE AGAIN TO THE DARKNESS AT SUMMER'S END... In this brilliant follow-up to Past the Glad and Sunlit Season, K. A. OPPERMAN takes us to an enchanted autumnal land overflowing with candy-sometimes sweet, sometimes cursed by witches. Jack-o'-lanterns keep watch as we travel through Pumpkin Country, questing for the rich rewards that are to be found in contemplation of October's pastoral and many-colored tapestry. These stories told in rhyme, and melancholy hearthside meditations, are sure to rekindle a yearning for the Halloween season in hearts young and old. Open this book, and chase October ghosts through a realm of autumn dreams. The author has provided an extensive notes section which delves into his inspiration and creative process-and Halloween obsession-plus a brief essay on Halloween symbols, "Trick-or-Treat as Initiatory Rite, and Attendant Symbolism. With an insightful foreword by Adam Bolivar and loaded with atmospheric full-page black and white illustrations by Dan Sauer.

Come, take a walk in a darker wood with us. Join us in a haunted place where Pan walks free, where the Dark Mother holds her shadow children close, and where the full moon rides high in the night, whispering secrets of a forgotten past into the wind. Come closer and listen to these tales of a darker nature from the minds of ...-Manuel Arenas-Chelsea Arrington-Hayley Arrington-David Barker-Adam Bolivar-Phil Breach-Scott J. Couturier-Ashley Dioses- S. L. Edwards -Maxwell I. Gold-John Linwood Grant-Jill Hand-John H. Howard-Maquel Jacob-Shayne K. Keen-David Myers- K. A. Opperman -Duane Pesice-Rachel E. Robinson- A. P. Sessler -William Tea-Russell Smeaton-Michael Walker-Sarah Walker - Gordon B. White -Can Wiggins-Ivan ZoricWith a forward by Sarah Walker, Scott J. Couturier and Shayne Keen and artwork byDan Sauer, Sarah Walker, Alan Sessler and Kai Bryan, this book is sure to satisfy. Come walk with us...we are waiting for you....