Confirmation of Life by Westley Penland

There are few books I open with stating you need to read this book, but you need to read this book. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Filled with deeply moving pieces that will make you feel, make you cry and hurt with the author, this is one of those collections that needs to be on every shelf.

Released in December of 2024 through Alien Buddha Press, Confirmation of Life is the debut collection from Westley Penland and goddamn it hits with a bang, from the very first piece to the last, you will be feeling every emotion possible.

This is Westley’s journey, discussing things we should be acknowledging, should be talking about, but instead turn a blind eye to. From life as a Transman in America to discussing childhood trauma, rape and abuse, you can feel the pain, the fear and concern pouring out of every word. This is a very powerful, very raw collection of poems.

To me, the best piece within this was Don’t Meet Your Childhood Homes and I Am Visible Because of how they resonated with me personally, the entire collection is one that demands-no, screams to be heard from the tops of every rooftop. And I urge you to listen, to read and absorb it, let yourself feel with the author.

Other poems well worth a mention were Unfazed, Death of a Hellman and Light Sources. Again, I cannot possibly bring together the gravity of this collection by pinpointing a handful of incredible pieces. The best gift you could give to yourself this year, as we near the very end of 2024, is buying, and reading, this book.

You can find a copy of Confirmation of Life here https://a.co/d/5fRkNz8

Distant Yet Always Heard by Peter Kaczmarczyk

The best books are the ones where you open them and within the first couple pages, you’re transported to a different place outside yourself, and that is exactly what Distant Yet Always Heard does. It’s beautiful, and also sad in it’s truth, where longing runs hand in hand with loss and you find yourself reminiscing over days past with the author.

Released in 2023, this is the debut chapbook from Peter Kaczmarczyk, through Alien Buddha Press. Peter’s voice here is unique, focusing largely on self-reflection, he writes in a way that pulls you in and causes you to reflect on the words themselves and thinking of your own experiences as you read.

I found Journey Into Winter and My Own Wind to be the standout poems of the collection, but also feel Distant Yet Always Heard, At Your Funeral and Sunday Vest worthy of note, the entire chapbook well worth a read. It’s well written, with each piece going together and flowing smoothly, the book is exceptional; and at 35 pages, you could easily read it in one sitting, if you so chose.

You can find a copy of Distant Yet Always Heard here https://a.co/d/gPDaXrR

Damaged by Jimmy Broccoli

Evocative, dark, filled with the pain of more than one fresh loss. You can feel it, on nearly every page.

Damaged, released independently in 2021 is the debut collection by Jimmy Broccoli, the first in a line of many great books. As a reader who started on his latest release Failure before skipping back to the beginning, I have to say this is a perfect introduction to Jimmy’s work.

My typical wish from shorter collections (this book comes in at just 89 pages) is that I wish they were longer, but I’m starting to really appreciate the brevity of some collections, and in fact I think Damaged is perfect exactly as is.

Separated into four parts; Earth, Air, Fire and Water, each new part opens with a quote and a single letter that, when combined, spells out a word (you must read the book to learn the word!).

To say that the book is singularly on loss would do it and the author a huge injustice, it does contain many pieces on loss as he grapples with grief, as well as love, mental health and addiction. Cellar Door is a stunningly sweet poem that I very much enjoyed reading. And Overthinking Like a Motherfucker has one of the best opening lines that perfectly expresses the title without directly quoting it, ever.

I have to also add that I have a habit, when too tired to actually read, of simply flipping through books and scanning the titles, yes I know there’s a thing called table of contents, and I promptly ignore it unless I want to remember the exact page something is on.

That being said, Jimmy is a true expert at giving interesting titles that will entice you to want to read the piece, I wish my titles were as colorful as some of his! I personally found I Think it Means “Vagina”, But I’m Too Lazy to Look it Up one of the best titles I’ve ever read, without any context to the poem or its subject. And another thing about titles, if you think you can guess the theme of a piece based off one of his titles, you’d be mistaken and I love that.

Two other poems, both on addiction that stood out, were Kill the Methamphetamine Dealer and Disabling the Airbag. They were both incredibly powerful pieces. This collection also contains a twisted, poetic short story called The Door Was Never Locked that was very well done, I am a fan of mixed media works, short stories and poems are a favorite combo of mine.

You can find a copy of Damaged here: https://a.co/d/9GXACch

Ramblings of a Recovering Poet by Michael E. Duckwall

Haunting. If there could be a single word to describe the short yet powerful collection of poetry that is Ramblings of a Recovering Poet, it would have to be haunting.

Released in 2023 through Pure Sleeze Press, it is the debut chapbook from Michael E. Duckwall, and it is a true masterpiece. It serves as a snapshot into the mind of someone who fights a daily battle, a darkness all too many of us are familiar with.

It greets you with the first piece The Hesitation, a very real take on the way we’re not always honest with how we’re feeling, and sets the tone for the rest of the book. The words immediately pulls you in and refuses to loosen their hold on you until it’s over.

The best poems in my opinion were both Formation of Words and Pocket Full of Change, the second I found highly relatable. A Red Mona Lisa was also an incredible piece.

With a total of just 43 pages, Michael’s book is short but impactful. It will leave its mark. Michael writes with at times brutal honesty that is raw and leaves a mark, one that will leave you eagerly awaiting his next release.

You can find Ramblings of a Recovering Poet here: https://a.co/d/5mDj1PZ

TAPPING MY OWN PHONE by Ron Whitehead

U.S. National Lifetime Beat Poet Laureate Ron Whitehead is a force unlike any other, both the thunder and the one who brings it, his words like the wind of a hurricane, powerful and not easily forgotten.

TAPPING MY OWN PHONE, released in May through the National Beat Poetry Foundation Inc, as the first in the New Generation Beat Poets Laureate Series; it is an impressive collection of poems, interviews, thoughts and calls to not give up or give in for anyone, or anything.

I could list all the poems that stood out, the ones that lingered in my head long after I’d read them, but if I am honest, it would not do justice to it. I cannot actually make you feel the way I felt when reading it.

This book contains some of the best written words and contains one of my favorite poems I’ve ever read; Music Saved My Life and Bob Dylan Saved My Soul. I had the fortune of seeing this read live, reading it here it’s still so powerful. I wish I could make you feel the way I felt when I first read it, and how now, many months after I first saw this poem, it’s still one of my favorite poems I’ve ever read.

From incredible pieces like Deliver Me, I Refuse and Tapping My Own Phone, to one of the sweetest poems (and, I will add, another on my favorite poems overall list), In The Window of Light, this book is filled with amazing poems I strongly encourage everyone to look into.

You can find a copy of TAPPING MY OWN PHONE here: https://a.co/d/0998ZGAk

Failure by Jimmy Broccoli

There are books (or, music) you hear about, whispered along the metaphorical hallways or along the pages of social media. The ones you eagerly await in the mail, watching every day until it finally arrives.

This is that book. I was so excited for this that I read it within a two day window and then reread it, slowly, absorbing the words on every page. Failure is a best of collection of poetry independently published in May by Jimmy Broccoli; containing pieces from his previous books Damaged, Rabbits and Boy.

I have read numerous pieces posted to social media of Jimmy’s work, but this was my first introduction to a collection of his. And what a collection it is! Having not yet read his past works, I can’t say which piece went where originally, only that it flows wonderfully together in this collection. It tells a story of addiction, pain, struggling, loss, grief and hope. More than one poem left me speechless, Jimmy’s story is a true one of finding your way out of the dark and sharing it with the world in a touching and heartfelt way.

Separated into four chapters, Purple, Grey, Red and Yellow, much of it details the pain of both grief from losing someone close and battling addiction. With the very first poem Close I could feel the longing, the unrequited love on the page, like it was my own. And that’s the true beauty in story telling, being able to tell our stories in a way that others feel like they’re theirs while reading them. That’s exactly what Jimmy does.

From beautifully touching pieces like He Sits on a Metal Chair, Like a Man, in My Dining Room to the absolute devastation that is A Shepherd Tied to a Fence and Left to Die, this collection evokes every emotion from joy to despair and everything in between.

From the pain of loving someone slowly dying to finding ways to continue living after a horrible loss, each and every piece is masterfully crafted and wonderfully written. A Shampoo Bottle - A Motherfucking Shampoo Bottle, and It Never Really Leaves You are two of the most relatable poems I’ve ever read (It Never Really Leaves You is not about loss), and the poem The Mother and The Child was one of the stand out poems, which as a reader who felt each and every piece was absolutely brilliant, was hard to determine which ones to list. It was so very raw, and sad but also touching that it stayed with me after reading it.

Jimmy Broccoli is a true artist, his words are raw, real, and very powerful. They will make you feel, and at times may make you cry but you will not regret reading this book.

Letting someone into your innermost thoughts and struggles is not an easy task, yet he does it with grace and vulnerability.

This is truly a wonderfully touching, and very real, collection of poems told in a brilliant way by a master storyteller. You will not find another poet who writes quite the same way Jimmy Broccoli does and I mean that in the best way. This is one of those must have books, I promise you’ll be happy you read it.

You can find a copy of Failure here https://a.co/d/09ZlV02h

Between These Walls by JD Phillips

A building with a nefarious past

Two people in dire need of a place to live

A deal too good to be true

Desperate spirits hungry to be heard

I’m intrigued before I open the cover and flip through the first couple pages, before I even finish reading the description on the back of the book.

Between These Walls is an independently published book by author JD Phillips, that tells the story of Ryan, a down on his luck musician desperately in need of a place to stay, and Embry, a young girl running from a troubled past. Both find themselves in room 222 of a rundown, old building called the Oxmorn, inhabiting the same place seemingly separate from one another, yet somehow aware of each other’s presence just the same.

From strange, terrifying screams in the night to the song Crimson and Clover playing at the same time each evening, to old rumors that it had once been inhabited by a cult, this book is filled with ghostly tales that could have each filled a separate book themselves (and as a reader, I hope, perhaps one day, they will).

I found myself unable to put this down for long without wandering back to it, desperate to know what becomes of Ryan and Embry, who this strange person simply called The Doll Maker is and why people keep leaving them offerings. I wanted, no, I needed to know the Oxmorn’s secrets as much as the characters did. To know its secrets, what compels this decrepit, aged, forgotten building to remain so haunted, and just as importantly, what first caused the spirits to linger there in the first place.

I strongly urge anyone in the mood for a good, suspenseful ghost story to pick up a copy of this. It was well written and so deeply compelling I had dreams after reading it late into the evening, trying to put together all the pieces.

This is more than just your typical ghost story. It’s a story of love, longing, pain, connection, and hope. Each turn of the page reveals something new, either within the characters, or the Oxmorn’s tragic history that will leave you flipping through the pages, over and over.

You can find a copy of Between These Walls on Amazon here: https://a.co/d/58Pw0pU as well as some of her others; this story is tied to her Touching Spirits series.

In Memory of Exoskeletons by Rebecca Cuthbert

In Memory of Exoskeletons is a poetry chapbook by Rebecca Cuthbert, released through Alien Buddha Press. It is separated into three parts, Dwellings, Fervors and Anatomies, and with the very first piece, Turnkey I was hooked.

My personal favorites include My father has a rack of keys in his kitchen, Stations and Unlisted. These are of course only a few of several well written pieces. From finding witches, to ruminating over “no dogs allowed in the cemetery” to a love that will withstand anything, even turning to stone, Rebecca Cuthbert’s work is as beautiful as it is dark, taking even the smallest act and making it feel like art.

The collection spans across a woman’s seemingly everyday life, with a touch of dark, surrealism mixed in, touching on love, death, and feminism to name a few. Despite it only being 53 pages in length, it’s filled with work that will keep you thinking on the topic long after you’ve finished reading.

You can find In Memory of Exoskeletons here, https://a.co/d/heJTC7O as well as on her website, rebeccacuthbert.com