Songs of the Dead by Dawn Colclasure

(I actually read and reviewed this some time ago on another blog, but since I am de-cluttering, I wanted to move it here.)

Dawn Colclasure’s dark poetry collection, Songs of the Dead, is not only dark, but passionate. Anger, fear, hurt and betrayal run under the skin of this work and shine through especially bright in poems such as No Turning Back, Deep Within and I am Madness. Colclasure examines the dark side of human nature; murder, drug use, violence, insanity and isolation. But, beyond the tales of death and darkness there’s also a message of empowerment; the voice of someone who has taken too much, for too long and has finally had enough.

Songs of the Dead is a re-release of the chapbook originally published in 2003 and, with more than twenty-seven new poems, it has more than earned the title “expanded”. Colclasure has a flair for prose, with lines such as “walk on the moon and hear the stars breathe,” (from Death shows my Pain) and different poetry forms stop the reader from falling into a sing song rhythm of sameness and help to keep the collection fresh and interesting, page after page.

From poems of death and surrender, to fury and revenge, this is a poetry book to enjoy in the darkest of moods and one that anyone who’s ever “been there” will instantly empathize with.

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