"A Throat Full of Forest-Dirt" is an enigmatic snapshot of the complex relationship between envy and desire, how the two mirror each other, and how the artist endlessly toes the line between both. Through a mounting, hazy tale of fear and longing, Stokes examines her own (often fraught) relationship with desire—as a woman, an artist, and a citizen of a very-unwell America—through reflections on an ill-fated romance with a childhood friend. The author explores desire as a shadow, as a soulmate, and as a means of self-discovery, through a series of poems written in the liminality of the Covid-19 pandemic.
With every piece, Stokes paints the dreams and nightmares that wove through her experience of that liminal space onto the page in electrifying detail. These whimsical, sometimes painful ruminations draw the reader further into glimpses of boundless yearning, unease, and even past lives. "Forest-Dirt"—like many of the author’s musings—is heavily inspired by motifs and themes commonly found in fairytales, mythology and nature, and seeks to give weight to the intangible through the lenses of symbolism and magic.
"A Throat Full of Forest-Dirt" is an enigmatic snapshot of the complex relationship between envy and desire, how the two mirror each other, and how the artist endlessly toes the line between both. Through a mounting, hazy tale of fear and longing, Stokes examines her own (often fraught) relationship with desire—as a woman, an artist, and a citizen of a very-unwell America—through reflections on an ill-fated romance with a childhood friend. The author explores desire as a shadow, as a soulmate, and as a means of self-discovery, through a series of poems written in the liminality of the Covid-19 pandemic.
With every piece, Stokes paints the dreams and nightmares that wove through her experience of that liminal space onto the page in electrifying detail. These whimsical, sometimes painful ruminations draw the reader further into glimpses of boundless yearning, unease, and even past lives. "Forest-Dirt"—like many of the author’s musings—is heavily inspired by motifs and themes commonly found in fairytales, mythology and nature, and seeks to give weight to the intangible through the lenses of symbolism and magic.
Strange imp:
delicate,
phantasmagorical chimera:
weaponized folklore.
Lavender and
lemon-seeds.
Ocean mist and
Egyptian musk and all
the haze of
spring.
I hear you singing.
I feel the gods
negotiating your sentience,
bartering with ancestors.
Who will I be once you’re here?
Where will I go?
What will become of my
goldenness as it’sÂ
ground down to
sand and
cast on the wind?
I will twirl on the air like smoke.
You will best me:
you are an Olympian unwritten,
and I,
your de-fanged Mother.
I am the white-noise-radio
to which you’ve hitched your chariot.
You have your father’s
audacity.
You will best me
in the end.
A Throat Full of Forest-Dirt delivers what the summary promises, and that is a fantastic exploration of the author's emotions of envy and desire twined with mythology and nature, ripe with melodic stanzas that speak to the soul. Over a span of nine poems, readers will go on a path of many emotions and different kinds of imagery.
What will become of my goldenness as it's ground down to sand and cast on the wind?
Bri Stokes begins the collection with a poem that tackles the emotion of jealousy. Stokes captures the inner struggle uniquely, transforming the emotion into a physical entity that is to be born, "an Olympian unwritten" and how comparison in envy leads to the spiraling of emotions, "you will best me in the end."
I would pull out my veins for you
The second poem, "Twin," speaks of an ethereal connection between two people or elements. I love the lines at the end about singing to each other, where the imagery pulls us to see how the bond between the two is unbreakable even from a short distance between them, as mentioned from the "slope of your gaze" where one is looking at the other. This poem may not represent people but could also embody emotions, as the summary describes envy and desire.Â
glamor magick lodged inside her sockets like a diamond-plated lobotomy rod
The following two poems are about writing and inspiration, losing ourselves in emotion and inspiration or lack thereof. "Death of the Author" seems more about being inspired, while "A Muse Made of Shrapnel" is more about finding inspiration. Yet both are about how we dig into the parts of our lives that cause hurt to us, yet we produce something worthwhile from what we create. That is my interpretation of Stokes' writing, but I could be wrong.
I will leave the rest of the poems for readers to find out more about other topics of desire, silence, and rebirth. I want to allow readers to discover what they like most about the poems by themselves.Â
The collection must be read more than once, not simply out of necessity to understand the poems further but to really enjoy the experience. Each poem is very immersive and brings the reader to a new world within the poem. I wish the collection were longer so I could read even more and delve deeper into the author's writing. The poetry is deliberate in wording. After the second readthrough, I love every poem more for the vibrant imagery.Â
I would recommend A Throat Full of Forest-Dirt to poetry lovers who enjoy works like that of Rupi Kaur and Nayyirah Waheed.