Katabatic Circus Volume 2

This is the first time I have ever reviewed a book of poetry.  But a friend recommended it, and I decided to give it a try.  This is a collection of speculative poems.  Some of the poems I really liked, and some I did not understand or found boring.  In the "like" column, there is "No Matter What Shade or Shape of Darkness" by Kurt Newton.  The poem wonders if the lights never came back on and we lived in total darkness, what would that be like?  The lines, "I would become one with the night.  I'd /pull down the stars and wear them like/ a negligee." were rather evocotive, magical, and romantic.  Later, he talks about how if that person were the stars, he would be the moon caught in a maelstrom, crashing into them.  Another poem I liked was "Unanswered Prayer" by H.V. Patterson, which tells the story of a mother with "laundry-scented hands tremble/ around her cooling tea," while she prays for the safety of her son who is off fighting a war.  Sadness, with a little dash of hope, pours out of this poem as she prays to never get that knock on the door with the worst news of her life.  By the same author, "Resurrection Plant: Selaginella lepidophylla," this poem is about being born anew.  How "your hands were the gentle rain/ your lips the softening soil/ your voice the spirit which/ breathed into me/ and called me back to myself."  

Pixie Bruner wrote five great poems.  The first, "The Kaboom," brings to mind Robert Frost's poem, "Fire and Ice."  "You were awaiting,/ like Marvin the Martian,/ an Earth-shattering 'kaboom'./There is not even a satisfying 'boom'/ 'smash' 'crash' or explosion./ Instead, there is merely a disappointing sizzle." The other three form the Dreamfruit Series.  Dreamfruit is another name for our nightly dreams.  In the first poem of the series, we are harvesting the dreamfruit, "...making soporifics and potions./ Made into lozenges and communion wafers/ to dissolve underneath eager tongues of the wordsmiths, the lost, and the dreamless."   However, "Timing is essential./ A day too late, they become grenades./ Seeds become steel shrapnel." Three more poems deal with Lilth and the Dreamfruit, packaging the Dreamfruit, and the overconsumption of the Dreamfruit.  

I really didn't understand "Scoring Performance 9" by Regolith Crosser, CA, 32,000,000 Hours Past Michael Hessel-Mial.  It starts with a "Not found" error, then goes to lines that talk about a singer and a "Limb and Payload game". It seemed like so much convoluted nonsense.  It just drones on, line after line that don't reveal a storyline, message, or anything that makes sense.  I also found that David Huntington's poem "A Briefing From Command" goes on a bit too long.  I also liked the poetry of Ariya Brandy, C.M. Ellis, especially Elpis, and Ace Boggess. Overall, it is a good book and worth taking a look at.

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=katabatic+circus+volume+2&crid=35FJ892VAZ7FO&sprefix=katabatic+circus%2Caps%2C117&ref=nb_sb_ss_p13n-expert-pd-ops-ranker_2_16