"...a seductive world of danger, mystery and mayhem on an adventure into the nightworld of the vampiric Moon-Chosen ... some of the freshest characters I've come across in recent vampire fiction ... breath-takingly vicious and sophisticated in it's scope and depth. "

--- David R. McKay, Reviewer, Allreaders.com, from a review of NOCTURNES AND NEON (2001)

"intriguing and disturbing ... very grim and very 'dark'... in some places there are scenes that can scar a sensitive psyche. A truly epic addition to the growing pantheon of new vampire visions in horror."

--- Carpe Mortem Online, Reviews, from a review of NOCTURNES AND NEON (2003)

"Opening the covers of one his books is an experience -- you never know what to expect, but you can be assured it will be presented in an intelligent and literate, very visceral and cinematic way. There's a lot of energy ..., a lot of melodrama and emotion, and a lot of sheer ugliness that can make the average reader flinch, yet be compelled to read on."

--- M.K. Durell, From a review of THE SCREAMING SEASON in "QUANTUM NIGHT" webzine (2003)

"Joseph Armstead's "Painmaker: The First Tale in the Book of Dark Memory" is reminiscent of Clive Barker's "Hellraiser," but stands on its own merit as a top-of-the-line horror novel. The violent alien beings are aptly described, as are their gruesome deeds. Other characters are brought to life (and death) by descriptive imagery and dialogue. Filled with a wealth of satanic evil and science fiction technology, "Painmaker" is certain to attract and mesmerize the avid Horror genre reader."

--- Patricia Spork, from a review of PAINMAKER for eBook-Reviews Weekly (2003)

"An Epic Grand Guignol Horror Thriller ... very cinematic, very dramatic, complexly-plotted ... an odd blending of adventure thriller with "X-Files"-stle horror/conspiracy elements and Hong Kong action thriller with political intrigue ... a marvel of complexity and yet very simply told and easy to follow. PAINMAKER is a dangerous book of unique and disturbing visions."

--- Justin McClain, Reviewer, www.dooyoo.co.uk, from a review of PAINMAKER (2003)

"...an extremely well written dark tale of vampires and life in the under world. Joseph Armstead has created a world so unique that this alone will keep the lovers of vampire fiction coming back for more. This particular novel ... is a must read."

Carrie White, Erotic Writer & Reviewer
E-Book Reviews Weekly
http://www.ebook-reviews.net
http://dev.greywulf.net/catt/2006/03/27/bleeding-twilight-review/
Author of Erotogenic

--- Carrie White, Hentracks and eBook-Reviews, from a review of BLEEDING TWILIGHT (2003)

"This novel packs a punch for sure. It's dark, strong and, along with its lead character, a force to be reckoned with. I first came across Joseph Armstead a few years ago when I reviewed his novel, Bleeding Twilight. His writing was dark and masterful then but this is just pure evolution at its best. It's compelling for sure but it's even more than that. It's a graphic, realistic and gripping tale of the undead and those who eliminate them.

Without a doubt, Joseph Armstead can only get better, if that's at all possible.

Carrie White, E-book Reviewer
http://www.ebook-reviews.net
http://www.hentracks.co.uk"

--- Carrie White, Hentracks and eBook-Reviews, from a review of THE DEMOGORGON AGENDA (2005)

AWARD RECOMMENDATIONS:

*  1st Round HWA 2005 Bram Stoker Award recommendations for the short stories "The Lullaby of Tiny Naked Angels" from Wicked Karnival #5, and for "Love Song for a Meat Orchid" from the Wicked Karnival "Halloween Horrors" anthology

AWARD NOMINATIONS:

*  Finalist in 2003 Fourth Annual Dream Realm Awards for Best Horror Novel: THE SCREAMING SEASON

November 2003 Interview in Poetry Life & Times magazine... (Interview conducted by Sara L. Russell)

JOSEPH R. ARMSTEAD'S BIO

Joseph R. Armstead was born in Peru, Indiana, USA. He is the oldest child of a military family that settled in New Hampshire after living in Italy, the author currently lives in Northern California. Of his work and influences, he tells us: "Always fascinated by the macabre and the visceral, I've written and developed stories around horror and the occult as presented in a cool and rational scientific way. My writing can be classified as a mixture of "splatterpunk/cyberpunk/hong kong cinema" with influences as diverse as Robert Ludlum and Clive Barker, to Stephen King and William Gibson, to John Woo and Francis Ford Coppola. I believe that horror fiction IS literature, once it is imbued with intelligence, good craftmanship and honesty by its authors and if it stays far away from the cliched, the prosaic and the wretchedly corny. I base what I write in the 'here and now', in Reality, and no matter how off-the-wall the subject matter, I strive to make the story logical. I want the ring of truth to it. I want the reader to enjoy themselves and to be wrapped-up in self-contained world of wonder and danger, but at the same time I want them thinking 'Could this happen? Could there conceivably be a grain of truth in this?' To my mind, that adds spice to the novel and makes the story three-dimensional ... " Interests: Science & Technology; Advancements in the computer industry; Writing Horror Fiction; Science Fiction; True Crime; Motion Pictures; Hard Rock Music; Acid Jazz music; Martial Arts

THE INTERVIEW

Poetry L & T:	How and why did you first start writing poetry, Joseph?
Joseph:	Okay, let's just hit the ground running with a tough question right out of the gate...(laughing). Really, I came to poetry late in my writing life, as opposed to other poets, because I was always more of a storyteller, more into narrative, and also because I was never really taught to LIKE or appreciate poetry while in school. Always thought it was a dreary art, predominantly the means of expression for the depressed, the repressed and the "art-damaged". Sorry, I know that is a terrible generalization, but that opinion was the result of how poetry was taught in public school. So, as I explored my options as a reader in my adult years, and satisfied my curiousity about a lot of things literary, I became much more aware of what it was that poetry and poets were really about. I still never truly became comfortable with the most popularly accepted poetry, though, you know, the sonnets and the rhyme-heavy oh-so-precious writes that didn't relate to the world around me, always felt that stuff was too formulaic and too stilted. WHY did I start writing poetry? Easy answer: I wanted to become a better writer. My craft is important to me and so, after slavishly working on getting down the basics of grammar, thematic content, and voice-orientation, I tried exploring and experimenting with a more free-form and lyrical approach to capturing ideas and concepts I wanted to express. I almost see some of it as a type of music.
Poetry L & T:	I agree there, I also feel that poetry is partly about the music of language, as well as human perception/emotions. Do you have a poem of yours which you could quote here, which you feel is one of your more musical examples?
Joseph:	When talking about the 'musicality' that may exist in my wordplay and verse, I mean to say that the pacing and the rhythm I sometimes establish is almost percussive, like street hip-hop rhythms, or even sometimes sibilant, like a breath held too long finally released. For example, from the poem "And Laughter, Like Shattered Glass": "I wander without destination, Alone, seeking but not finding, Killing time even as time Slays me, vainly trying To put distance between The present and the past, Walking numbly into the Chaos of a breach-birthed Future." Or from "Aphrodite Shrieks": "Aristotle said that “Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love”, and the people selling books-on-tape sex manuals say they can guarantee vaginal orgasm every time, but the truth is, as Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe said, “If I love you, what business is it of yours?” " Feel the pacing? Hear the beat? Parts rush and parts punctate on a high note, like orchestration from a pop song.
Poetry L & T:	Who are your favorite poets?
Joseph:	Actually poems interest me more than the poets, so I can read a memorable poem by a writer I'd never heard of and enjoy it just as much as one by a more familiar or better renowned writer. I enjoy Colleridge, W.B. Yeats, Dunne, some Jophn Keats, some Byron, Edgar Allen Poe, (of course!), Ralph Emerson, but for more modern stuff I liked Stephen Vincent Benet, some of the Dada-ist Movement poetry because I like the way they play with forms and with subject matter, Amiri Baraka, some e.e.cummings (even though sometimes he would get a little too "cute", but his wordplay is always intriguing), a little Sylvia Plath, a few of John Berryman's works, and some Robert Duncan. For sheer strangeness and visionary errieness, though, I go for Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison, although I know they're not consdiered "poets", as such, much of their work is very lyrical and visually stimulating with arresting imagery.
Poetry L & T:	When I read your poetry, I feel that I could probably tell that you are an illustrator, from the very strong graphic visualizations which your words bring to life. Do you consciously try to do this, or is it more of an instinctive process?
Joseph:	Yes, I do pen & ink illustrations, but not nearly as much in the past six or seven years as I did formerly. I had ambitions once upon a time of being a graphic artist, particularly a comic book artists because I enjoyed the idea of telling emotional and insightful stories with pictures. But, truth to tell, I just wasn't all that good and my storytelling ambitions always outstripped my artistic abilities. So I concentrated more on writing. I have noticed, though, in my work, that I rely heavily on descriptions of visuals to bring a feeling of immediacy and instant familiarity to whatever concept or tale I'm weaving, so that the reader can become immersed in the "picture" or the mental mini-movie I am creating. The physically visceral impact of what I write is just as important as the emotional in getting the story across.
Poetry L & T:	As a poet who is also an illustrator, have you ever ventured into any projects which combine poetry and art, or would you like to do so?
Joseph:	Hmmmn.., I don't know. If I had the right subject matter and the luxury of time to lavish on the project, I would maybe do just that, but at this point in my career as a budding horror novelist, I feel my time and energy is better spent concentrating on narrative without illustrations. Too, the market for illustrated stories or for poetry with pictures seems particularly small and closed, insular.
Poetry L & T:	Yes, I have also noticed the insular nature - of the graphic novel publishing world in particular, for example the popular adult comic publication Heavy Metal is not accepting unsolicited submissions any more. Yet there are many talented writers and cartoonists both in the USA and the UK, who would love to have work featured in Heavy Metal... anyway, to my next question.... My current favourite poem of yours is "A Dustdevil of Twilight Gray". On your AuthorsDen page for this poem, your intro says "A response to Kate's Challenge" - what was her challenge and how did it inspire this amazing poem?
Joseph:	Wow, thanks! I enjoyed creating that one in a big way! I just let my imagination fly free and didn't concern myself with form or with meter -- I just wanted to paint a surreal and sombre picture of the fantastic. "Kate's Challenge" on Author's Den at that time, back in July I think, was a challenge put forth by Kate Clifford for authors to describe themselves through being seen as a color, you know, the "What color would you be?" question. Usually, I really don't like those kinds of exercises, because they strike me AS "exercises", not writing. But I read Kate's own work and that of a couple other authors on The Den, and I saw they had taken my preconceptions and just tossed 'em out the window. So it was put up or shut up time, for me, there was no pressure from anyone else, and I just allowed something different to bubble up from the depths...
Poetry L & T:	You are a novelist as well as a poet. Having looked through your books section at AuthorsDen, I can see that your book The Screaming Season looks to be just the kind of scary novel I enjoy reading. Can you tell me a little more about this book, for the benefit of our readers who share my love horror stories?
Joseph:	Thanks for asking! Well, I'll warn you -- I often will take a standard "horror" idea, you know, the classic stuff like vampires and zombies and such -- and then I turn them inside out. I hate working with hoary cliches, really, because I think they make writers lazy. But what I do is to take current scientific knowledge and advancements and re-work the old legends from that viewpoint, making them more "logical". I think it re-injects a sense of wonder and horror into the story idea if there's a sense that "this could happen...". And, let's face it, the horror and thriller audience is much, much more sopisticated and much more "hip" than it used to be since TV shows like The X-Files and Buffy and Profiler, even PBS programs like Mystery's "Touching Evil", came into the popular lexicon. Too, we have the work of authors like Thomas Harris, creator of "Hannibal Lector", and James Patteron's thrillers and Anne Rule's true-crime novels to bring make the horrifically incredible seem almost ordinary. THE SCREAMING SEASON is basically the tale of a technological experiment gone wrong, creating a catastrophic disaster zone on the American landscape, and how a group of survivors roam that nightmarish deathzone seeking escape. It's a story of how that same irresponsibly-used technology opens a doorway into another universe, a place where a godlike alien being rules through tyranny, and how that conqueror marches his forces towards our Earth. It is also a love story, a tale of romantic obsession and betrayal between the hero and the heroine and the villain. It is a very human novel, parts told in the form of a young woman's journal, and it is a descent into the Inferno, a trip into the Heart of Darkness. I think it is quite unlike any other novel out there right now.
Poetry L & T:	How far would you go to shock, in one of your stories - for example, would you ever dream of killing off a glamorous female character who seemed to be a key "love interest" character for the hero? And do any of your "bad guys" ever win?
Joseph:	If the story called for the death of a major love interest for the lead character (male or female, a couple of my novels do have female leads), I would do it, but only if it is intrinsinc to the plot or to the development & growth of the lead character. I really don't do "shock" value gimmicks, precisely because I do consider them to be mere gimmicks. Shock tactics are a kind of "cheat", a way for a writer who really hasn't structured their story well or who really doesn't HAVE a story to tell to get themselves out of a corner into which they've painted themselves. If I've invested the time and effort to flesh out a character that I know the reader will care for, I will not just kill them off because it would have a lot of visceral impact. Like I said: it's a kind of cheat. Moreover, it is insulting to the reader's intelligence, or at least to the intelligence of the readership I aspire to...
Poetry L & T:	How do you feel about censorship of literature and films?
Joseph:	Urg! This one is a slippery slope... As a general rule, I am against censorship of literature and of films. I think it is short-sighted on the part of any community that does so and I think it is fascistic. It's the triumph of mediocrity. It's how the Unwashed Masses stay Unwashed and unawares. It's legislated stagnation. Now, on the other hand, do I want 6 and 7 year olds looking at or reading hardcore pornography or gore-driven extreme violence? HELL no! Young impressionable minds can't handle that stuff. Period. It is bad for their development. It makes for bad wiring in the machine of their minds. Artists who want to stretch the boundaries and rip through the envelope need to exercise good judgment and not be so damn self-indulgent. They DO have a responsibility to the greater public who see their work. But I think people being TAUGHT to blanketly think or consider something as "bad" as opposed to acceptible by their limited community standards is still frightening. There are a lot of people out there working really hard to roll the clock back and take away our freedoms, take away our individual ability to think and make choices, and they're programming a lot of little child-robots to not accept anything new or different, to accept the lowest common denominator, and to perpetrate the artistic status quo, regardless the medium. And that kills art in a society.
Poetry L & T:	Do you sometimes find that poetic descriptions appear in your novels, or narrative storylines appearing in your poems?
Joseph:	Yes, extremely often a poetic passage will work its way into my narrative descriptions. I can't help it. It's the way in which I'll express the mood behind a scene or the way in which a character thinks or reacts. And sometimes narrative will intrude into one of my poems, because the strength of the piece demands some descriptive passage to jell the concepts or to heighten the sense of Unreality I'm trying to convey. Purists will hate that, I am sure. But I do not want to change that.
Poetry L & T:	How has the internet helped and/or hindered you, as a poet and novelist?
Joseph:	The Internet has helped me TREMENDOUSLY as BOTH a poet and a novelist! Firstly, I was able to actually SEE and participate in an actual community of like-minded writers and readers without having to attend writers' conferences for ridiculous amounts of money nor did I have to spend time and resources attending "how-to" seminars taught by people I've never heard of nor seen a book published by on any store's shelves. The people I encountered in these groups and newsletters and BBs were actual writers whose work I could readily find, in electronic and in hardcopy form, and, as such, VALIDATE their opinions and advice. I have never found these people to be aything other than gracious and helpful and down-to-earth and I did not have to go through a literary agent, a publicist, nor a press agent nor even a secretary to speak with them. Secondly, the Internet allowed me to read a lot of poetry that seldom is properly distributed through the big chain bookstores nor even through the small brick 'n' mortar independent bookstores. READING is a BIG part of writing. It helps inspire one to know what's out there, to sample other voices. Some from other parts of the world. Working in a vacuum is a dead end. The only voice you ever hear in that situation is your own. That's very limiting.
Poetry L & T:	I read on your AuthorsDen page about your new novel "PAINMAKER: First Tale in the Book of Dark Memory"; it describes an enemy known as "the infernals"... I would love to know more about these mysterious creatures...
Joseph:	Thank you for mentioning PAINMAKER, it is a project that I am proud of, one I worked very hard on. I wanted to write something very adult, very unsettling, non-cliched and very dark. Something "Clive Barker-ish", but funneled through my own sense of the macabre. It is a very non-typical occult-horror fantasy. And a fantasy it definitely is! THE INFERNALS are the near-omnipotent alien villains of the piece, touted as a chapter from THE BOOK OF DARK MEMORY. I describe them as follows: "They exist in a world that is MORE than a world, in a place that is NOT a place, in a Reality BEYOND anything we know, a dimension of pain and violence where suffering is food nurturing a dark and ageless power. They are THE INFERNALS. They have haunted Humanity since the invention of fire, since the nights when the first man-ape stared up at the stars and feared what lurked in the darkness between the lights. They live in our nightmares and in our darkest, most bestial moments. They can come to us as a whispered voice, as a sudden homicidal fantasy, as a incendiary impulse to commit mayhem, they come to us when we are weak and our pain is at its greatest. Sometimes they come to us because we have called them. These are the stories of men and women in extreme circumstances who encounter the very worst, most powerful incarnations of their evil influence, who discover for the first time that we are a species haunted by the presence of THE INFERNALS. These are stories of Evil Embattled. This is the Book of Dark Memory." And wouldn't you just know following that, a fun time is had by all...!
Poetry L & T:	Finally, Joseph, what is your main ambition for the future?
Joseph:	I don't really know whether or not you can actually classify it as "ambition", but I really want to create something lasting and beautiful, even if it is beautiful in a dark way. Writing is communication, regardless its format, and I want to share the ideas and impressions I have of or inspired by the world around me. I want to become better at this craft, to eradicate some of the structural weaknesses caused by my incomplete knowledge or by lack of experience. I want to leave behind a body of work that excites and inspires and maybe sparks a small revolution in someone's mind. I want to add to the encyclopedia of the imagination, even if only a few people ever see my work. It's not about making buckets of money or fame or superstardom or even being a big fish in a little pond... that's totally unrealistic for someone who does genre-writing like I do. And, let's face it, the New York Times Bestseller list has rarely showcased a book of poetry anytime in the last fifteen years. It's about the writing, about the work, about the ideas the words spark.
Poetry L & T:	Thank you for the interview, Joseph.
Joseph:	Thank YOU, Sara! It is wonderful to talk with someone as talented and intelligent as yourself about my work and about this craft. You have made me feel very special. I hope your readers will share our enthusiasm for this craft! I'm going to go celebrate! Time for a roadtrip to the local Godiva chocolate shop! C'mon, I'm buying!

 ************************************************************************************************************

August 2003 Interview with author Roberta Olsen Major for WINGS ePRESS

by

Roberta Olsen Major

Thanks for asking, Roberta! THE SCREAMING SEASON is a strange novel, a mix of horror and science fiction with some elements of philosophy and some other elements drawn from classical mythology. There's a healthy dose of the investigative procedures we've all come to expect, courtesy of television programs like "The X-Files" and "CSI", and there is the fantasy-adventure element with the action. But for all that, it is still mostly a story about human beings making their way in this mysterious universe.

Well, this is kind of hard to pin down, but I was in a bookstore and saw a book on Angels, I fanned through it only half-interested, and I just kind of saw the "fairy dusting" of these immensely powerful and passionate celestial beings as kind of a cop-out. Such beings wouldn't be overgrown fairies, not if they were to survive in this tumultuous universe. Then, watching TV, I saw Christopher Walken in this small movie called "The Prophecy", an Eighties film, I think, and it sparked the idea further. Something bizarre started taking shape in my mind. So over a couple of days the idea grew in my head: "What if an angel went mad?" A week later, I read in the newspaper about a disaster at an industrial plant in Mexico and I knew where my story would begin...

That's a good question... Yes and No. They are composites of some people I've met through the years, but no one in particular. I like my characters to be real enough to stand on their own two feet, but not so real that anyone I know would be offended or embarrassed.

Ugh, a personal question... How dare you try and drag me out from the shadows! I'd have to say insatiable curiosity and a strong sense of right and wrong. Injustices at all levels of life bother me.

Wow. A toughie. Uh, waitaminnit... okay, here they are, in NO particular order:

THE GREAT AND SECRET SHOW, by Clive Barker--because he showed there was so much more to horror than gratuitous grossness and silly Halloween scares. This was a really imaginative and deeply philosophical horror-mystery, with some religious overtones.

STRANGERS, by Dean Koontz--because he built a great mystery around a group of really fractured personalities and made me care about what happened to those folks.

FRENCH KISS, by Eric Lustbader--because he was able to successfully mix real political history with over-the-top fictional events and make it seamless and believable and erotic.

THE GEMINI CONTENDERS, by the late Robert Ludlum--Ludlum was the KING of the espionage/political thriller in the 1980s and for good reason. He was like Hitchcock in that he could make the commonplace exciting and his characters were often mixed up folks who were in over their heads in a conspiracy they never knew existed.

SWAN SONG, by Robert R. McCammon--Epic doomsday fantasy with an uplifting, affirming message that doesn't ring phony or saccharine-sweet. A long book, but well worth the time it takes to read through it, sampling the horrors following a worldwide catastrophe through the eyes of the tired, scared and brave folks who are amongst the few survivors. The story stays with you for a long time afterwards...

I've been writing seriously, with an eye towards a professional goal, for about four years now, but I've actually been writing in one form or another since I was 16 or 17 years old.

I actually wrote it as a short story, about 10,000 words, many years ago and for some odd reason carried it around with me wherever I moved. It was a vastly different tale then, a lot less complex. I always kind of knew inside that someday I'd get back to it. Once I'd started re-drafting it, it took off and I finished in inside of seven months.

I have been favorably compared by a few readers who've seen my other work to popular British author BRIAN LUMLEY a lot, actually pretty high praise for me, don't know how Mr. Lumley feels about it, though... As for myself, I think I see a lot of John Farris, Clive Barker, and Eric Lustbader in my style.

Now THAT'S an interesting question! I would have to say that I think THE SCREAMING SEASON is a multiple course meal.

Why? What have you heard? Whatever they said, it's not true... I was never involved! I was out of town and it was too dark for them to have seen anything! Seriously, short answer, "Yes!" Two projects, in fact. Both full-length novels. One a suspense thriller with a complex, and frightening, twist and the other a dark fantasy vampire thriller.

Thanks for the interview, Joseph. I look forward to reading your book!

Thank YOU, Roberta! This was fun ... well, okay, it was better than getting hit in the head with a claw-hammer. Jooookinnnng! And best of luck with your own work! I look forward to seeing more of it!

************************************************************************************************************

March 2005 Review of PERCUSSIONS, a Poetry Anthology

Review

Percussions, a Mystic East Anthology
A Review by Prof Jeanne Emmons (Editor, Briar Cliff Review)

Percussions, a Mystic East Anthology, is a new collection of poetry edited by Debashish Haar and featuring poems by Haar, as well as Jim Dunlap, Robert Jude Forese, Joseph armstead, and Richard James. Although three of its poets are from the United States, another from Australia, and only one from the “mystic east” of India, the collection has an international flavor and, at times, a mystical flavor.

Of these percussionists, Jim Dunlap is the most hard-hitting, with poetry that explores the deleterious effects of humanity on the planet, including destruction of the rain forest, war, and global warming, and overpopulation. The poems weave together complex images and show an attention to form through the use of rhymes and fixed forms such as the villanelle. Dunlap’s dark message can best be summed up with the question “How can Heaven abide us?” from his poem “L’Essenteil est invisible aux yeux.” However, he seems to embrace a more optimistic personal vision when, in “Oedipus Wrecks,” he embraces the healing power of love.

Forese’s poetry is more personal, more subjective, more abstract, and less formal. His vision tends to leave behind the literal world and inhabit a dreamier realm, full of saints and goddesses and metaphorical battlegrounds on which his conflicts play themselves out. Like Dunlap, however, he views mankind as a “ghastly creature,” though “some fight to remain kind.” This dark vision is balanced by a desire to return to the lost paradise and a hunger for the divine, as expressed in his poem “Heavenly Shoulder.”

Joseph Armstead’s poetry also examines the fallenness of humanity and its distance from the divine. It is a poetry of mean streets, including violence, and addiction, and these realities are at the same time vividly realized in the literal imagery of the poem and couched within a wide-angle historical and cosmic context. Thus the personal and the historical, the ordinary and the apocalyptic are compressed together. Modern gangsters are seen as descendants of Masai royalty and Armstead draws parallels to the ancient Greeks Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. The jagged dysfunctions of modern life are juxtaposed with the divine, just as one of the poems suggests that broken gemstones are mixed with shards of glass. These jazzy poems are reminiscent of the beats and win their way from brokenness to beatitude by facing the ugliness squarely and moving through it toward wisdom. Armstead writes, “Everything is meaning, I let myself stumble, dimly, into believing.”

If Armstead’s poems attempt to reconcile the flaws of modern life with a sense of meaning, Richard James’s poems create an enclosed biosphere in which the world was never fallen. Although his poem “The Garden” refers to the eviction of humanity from paradise, this group of poems seems to imply that return to the garden is not only possible but has already occurred, largely through the power of erotic love. The poems produces a sense of being in a protected, rarefied bubble, a “sphere of light,” and this sense is enhanced by James’s use of traditional forms and archaic diction. The ugliness of the modern world is invisible here. All is well, but be warned, as he says in “The Tide,” “This hour won’t last.”

Debashish Haar’s elegant poems close off the collection, raising questions about the nature of poetry and perception. The poems ripple the “blue screen” upon which things are projected and question the reality of love, war, and poetry itself. By showing that all is illusion, these poems come closest to representing the “mystic East” of the collection’s subtitle. Although these poems graphically demonstrate, like many of the others in this collection, the miseries of modern humanity, both personal and political, the poet makes us aware that these “realities” are presented through the flawed filters of human perception and of art. We wage war under the “illusion that hatred is love.” In our personal lives, numbness gives us “the illusion of love.” In this the poem participates by groping for its voice. The poem “searches for its form.” At the same time the poem “is a bond” and, paradoxically, “Poem is the fire that incinerates the bond.” In perhaps the most haunting of these poems, Haar states “I am not present on this page.” This sense of a consciousness operating at a distance, aware of the illusory nature of reality is pervasive. “I can see better with eyes closed,” says the poet.