The ballad is one of the most ancient forms of poetic expression, and it has been used for the expression of weirdness and terror at least since the days of Sir Walter Scott. In recent years, the accomplished weird poet Adam Bolivar has lent new vitality and piquancy to this venerable literary mode.
The present volume, a masterpiece of folk horror, assembles a wealth of Bolivar’s spectral balladry, prose tales, and vignettes, telling the story of Jack Drake, whose mother gives him a Silver Key that triggers his subsequent journeys and adventures. It becomes evident that many of these adventures echo the work of H. P. Lovecraft, a dominant influence on Bolivar’s poetry, flawlessly conveying terror and strangeness in a manner that evokes both old-time legendry and contemporary cosmic horror. In one of the most powerful of his ballads, “The Rime of the Eldritch Mariner,” he fuses Lovecraft and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in reinterpreting “The Call of Cthulhu” by means of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
Deftly interweaving English and Appalachian traditions, Adam Bolivar’s mastery of the diction and atmosphere of the weird ballad allows him to tap into haunted undercurrents of ancestral memory, producing phantasmal effects seldom found in other forms of weird literature.
Weird poetry is thriving in our time, but it is safe to say that few poets today can match the achievement of Adam Bolivar in fashioning this rich conglomeration of hypnotic verse.

The Lay of Old Hex: Spectral Ballads and Weird Jack Tales

Literature & Fiction

Bolivar, Adam

Poetry

Hippocampus Press

Spectral Realms completes its eighth year of publication with an issue that displays the full gamut of expression in weird poetry. Aside from contributions by some of the leading exponents of terror in verse (Christina Sng, Adam Bolivar, Ann K. Schwader, Wade German, Frank Coffman), we have such distinctive items as Ngo Binh Anh Khoa's adaptation of a Korean poetic form to the King in Yellow mythos; Adele Gardner's evocative poem on Edgar Allan Poe; David Barker's ongoing reinterpretations of Lovecraft's Fungi from Yuggoth; Scott J. Couturier's tribute to the inherent strangeness of cats ("Gray Grimalkin"); Carl E. Reed's grim ballad of World War I ("We Met in No-Man's Land"); Margaret Curtis's paean to the "Zombie Moon"; and Lori I. Lopez's long poem on the whippoorwill. In addition, prose-poems by Maxwell I. Gold, LindaAnn LoSchiavo, Harris Coverley, Jay Sturner, and Manuel Arenas grace the issue. The "Classic Reprints" include poems by two California poets of more than a century ago, Ina Coolbrith and Henry Anderson Lafler. Donald Sidney-Fryer reviews the correspondence of Clark Ashton Smith and Samuel Loveman as well as a new, expanded edition of Loveman's collected poetry and other writings, Out of the Immortal Night. All in all, another rich feast for the devotee of the weird in poetry.

Spectral Realms No. 16: Winter 2022

Sidney-Fryer, Donald

History & Criticism

This issue of Spectral Realms is dedicated to the late Richard L. Tierney (1936-2022), one of the pioneering weird poets of our time. Included is an unpublished poem by Tierney and poetic tributes to him by Leigh Blackmore and Charles Lovecraft. As always, the issue contains scintillating work by some of the leading weird versifiers of the present day, including Wade German, Frank Coffman, Ian Futter, and Scott J. Couturier.John Shirley, Darrell Schweitzer, Don Webb, and Geoffrey Reiter demonstrate that they are masters of terror in poetry as well as in prose fiction. Lori I. Lopez explores the strangeness of cats in "La Gata," while LindaAnn LoSchiavo tells of the grim fate of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's wife. David Barker and Ngo Binh Anh Khoa write evocative poetry in the Lovecraftian mode, and Josh Maybrook contributes an acrostic sonnet on Poe. Adam Bolivar continues his work in Anglo-Saxon meter, while Carl E. Reed sends in a "ghoulish tale" in verse. Prose poems by Maxwell I. Gold and Manuel Arenas also enliven the issue.Among the classic reprints is a poem, "Vampire," by Bertrande Harry Snell, from a 1929 issue of Weird Tales, as well as a poem by veteran fantasy poet Lilith Lorraine. Marcos Legaria contributes an essay on R. H. Barlow's early poetry.

Spectral Realms No. 17: Summer 2022

Tierney, Richard L.

In this scintillating follow-up to the acclaimed volume The Lay of Old Hex (2017), Adam Bolivar demonstrates why he is one of the most accomplished and readable weird poets of our time. As a balladeer Bolivar has no peer among his contemporaries, and his many eloquent poems about the enigmatic Jack-musician, lover, and warrior against supernatural enemies-evoke the centuries-long tradition of balladry extending back to the Middle Ages.\nThese ballads comprise miniature tales of terror, as Jack ventures into haunted house, battles against legions of demonic cats, and matches wits with seductive sorceresses. In the long poem Hellbound Jack, the "Scarlet Balladress" spins her own tale about Jack\nA distinctive subset of works in this volume is a series of short plays that Bolivar himself has frequently presented, in public and private, with marionettes of his own design. Here we find such baleful characters as the Devil, Betty Crow ("a formless apparition"), and other sinister figures.\nAdam Bolivar draws upon the ancient heritage of balladry but revitalizes it in his own distinctive fashion, endowing it with renewed vitality by infusing it with his own dark vision of a world where terrors lurk unseen around every corner.

Ballads for the Witching Hour: Rimes, Lays, and Plays for Marionettes

As Hippocampus Press's award-winning weird poetry journal Spectral Realms completes its ninth year of publication, it continues to feature some of the best poems of terror and the supernatural by leading contemporary poets. Ann K. Schwader, Adam Bolivar, D. L. Myers, Wade German, and others grace this issue. Carole Abourjeili writes on vampires, Christian Dickinson in banshees, Steven Withrow on ghosts, and Scott J. Couturier on ghouls. David Barker continues his revisioning of Lovecraft's Fungi from Yuggoth, while Carl E. Reed writes a vibrant tribute to Clark Ashton Smith. Ngo Binh Anh Khoa uses a Vietnamese verse form to cosmic terror and grue; master versifier Frank Coffman conveys weirdness in a quaternelle; and Joshua Gage utilizes the ghazal to speak of the "old gods." The classic reprints include an anonymous poem dating to 1823 and James F. Morton's "Haunted Houses." Reviews by Leigh Blackmore, Katherine Kerestman, and Steven Withrow of recent books of weird poetry complete a bountiful issue.

Spectral Realms No. 18: Winter 2023

Schwader, Ann K.

Come, take a walk in a darker wood with us. Join us in a haunted place where Pan walks free, where the Dark Mother holds her shadow children close, and where the full moon rides high in the night, whispering secrets of a forgotten past into the wind. Come closer and listen to these tales of a darker nature from the minds of ...-Manuel Arenas-Chelsea Arrington-Hayley Arrington-David Barker-Adam Bolivar-Phil Breach-Scott J. Couturier-Ashley Dioses- S. L. Edwards -Maxwell I. Gold-John Linwood Grant-Jill Hand-John H. Howard-Maquel Jacob-Shayne K. Keen-David Myers- K. A. Opperman -Duane Pesice-Rachel E. Robinson- A. P. Sessler -William Tea-Russell Smeaton-Michael Walker-Sarah Walker - Gordon B. White -Can Wiggins-Ivan ZoricWith a forward by Sarah Walker, Scott J. Couturier and Shayne Keen and artwork byDan Sauer, Sarah Walker, Alan Sessler and Kai Bryan, this book is sure to satisfy. Come walk with us...we are waiting for you....

A Walk in a Darker Wood: An Anthology of Folk Horror

Walker, Sarah

Walker, Sarah T.

Opperman, KA

HOWARD, John

Barker,David

Myers, David L.

Genre Fiction

Oxygen Man Books

From ADAM BOLIVAR, author of The Lay of Old Hex... a collection of interconnected tales steeped in myth, folklore and archaic legendry. The Lowells talk only to Cabots and the Cabots talk only to God. The Drakes, meanwhile, talk only to the Devil... JOHN DRAKE stalks the streets of 1920s Boston. He is a Brahmin by birthright, but shunned by others of his caste. Still, it is to him they must turn when caught in a supernatural snarl that needs untangling-or cutting with the rune-graven sword passed from father to son since the days of Jack the Giant-Killer. Twelve Gothic tales unfold the uncanny saga of the Ettinfell, cursed by ancestral compact to defend the city of his birth, while longing for escape to the elfin Otherworld where he can be united with the mysterious balladress whose music haunts his dreams. Featuring twelve full-page illustrations by Dan Sauer.

The Ettinfell of Beacon Hill: Gothic Tales of Boston

Jackanapes Press

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