house as a cemetery

Description “john compton is a poet who marches to the beat of his own drum. Seeing compton’s work, I am left with so much hope about poetry’s future.” —Michael Chang, poet and author of Toy Soldiers and The Heartbreak Album “john compton’s house as a cemetery is a raw and unfiltered look at grief, queerness, and the emotional aftermath of living through trauma. compton writes with urgency and purpose, making this collection feel less like a book and more like a necessary act of survival.” —Emanuel Xavier, poet and author of Still, We Are Sacred “The way this poet faces death so beautifully will inspire every reader to dive inside and cherish the life outside the spine of this dark yet masterwork of mortality, expertly resurrected.” —Adrian Ernesto Cepeda, Poet & Author of La Belle Ajar, We Are the Ones Possessed, and La Lengua Inside Me “john compton leads us “on a tour / identifying every dead thing.” On display is the grotesque, the sensual, and the transformative.” —Paul Hlava Ceballos, poet and author of banana [ ] “john compton continues to sing his solitary song with the voice of a pure poet. He is a poet of rare talent whose work cuts the cloth of everyday language into a magic carpet of longing, lust, and love. His work transcends his life and thus triumphs over the stark realities of a world on fire and the constraints of his everyday life.” —Jim Dunn, poet and author of Angry Bull’s Cadence “A poet can tell you things you know but don’t quite articulate: A poet can also surprise the way something ordinary can be seen anew: A poet can make us feel that a line of verse is not unlike a Chagall painting—next time you are in your house, remember that a house ‘sits, skeleton bare to the elements.’ Most importantly, sometimes the poets tell us like it is. And that is the truth.” —Ilya Kaminsky, poet and author of Deaf Republic “john compton’s house as a cemetery is a tapestry of eclectic free verse as it escorts readers into the pulse of death’s kaleidoscope. Each poem is a window into a different point of view, many poems from a speaker who teaches us something new to see about rebirth, belonging, about demise, enlisting strong diction that’s both wise and gripping.” —K.R. Morrison, poet, educator, and author of Cauldrons