Messengers of the Macabre
by LindaAnn Lochiavo & David Davies
Messengers of the Macbre starts the reader off with a distinctive cover that is at once grotesque and eye-catching. Readers are giving an image of a skeletal face, possibly female, with two large eyes staring directly at you. Perhaps this can be viewed as a challenge, a dare to open this book of poems and see what lurks between the covers within the lines of the poetry.
Like the cover, the poetry comprising this volume is also visually striking, with images that are densely overlaid with metaphorical language. “The earth tilts away / from the true axis of summer. / The light prisms / through the thicker air”. The opening lines of the first poem, This Season In-Between, let readers know that they are going on a journey away from the light and pleasantness of summer’s idle days to something dimmer, a winter of the soul, the death of the human body which forces the spirt to wander in the lands of the dead.
There is a darkness to the poetry that the descriptive language piles on the reader like the earth of a burial mound. In the poem, Halloween Treats, we are introduced to a witch that would surely frighten any parents who take their kids out for Halloween. We watch as the witch puts tricks on treats, getting these disquieting lines: “She sprinkled in a tiny spell / with every sweet a pinch of hell- / spawn impishness, to leave no doubt / what Halloween is all about”.
Messengers of the Macabre is broken up into six sections: Samhain, Bewitchment, Graveyard, Day of the Dead, Haunting, and A Lighter Shade. LindaAnn LoSchiavo stated that the last section was added to the collection to wrap up the mostly solemn book on a lighter tone. Indeed, these poems are more humourous in their content. Emily Post’s Etiquette Book for Ghost is a must have for anyone haunted by spirits from beyond. “"Emily Post’s Etiquette Book for Ghosts / Is a must since spirits are unruly, / Annoying, crass, and insistent—truly / Tactless phantoms offended? Just quote Post!”.
The last poem is an imaginative treat, a warning to all those who may one day parish in a land where they know not the language. Titled, “To Die” in French, the poem narrates the afterlife of a spirit who died in a foreign land and must now haunt alongside the dead whose language they do not speak. “For all spirits roundabout speak in a foreign tongue / (although—a truth I’ve come to know—here I’m the foreign one). / And thus my daily struggle is to say more than Bonjur / to spectral souls whose halls I’m doomed to share forevermore”.
Messengers of the Macabre, by LindaAnn LoSchiavo & David Davies, is a must read for anyone wishing to take a journey into the dark realms of poetic verse. The visceral poems will definitely leave their mark long after they have been read.
