Fire in the Marrow
William Crawford
About the Author
William Crawford has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in poetry. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, most recently including, Counterexample Poetics, The Criterion, Danse Macabre, Differentia Press: Corporeal Manifestations, Leaf Garden, Luciole Press, Unlikely Stories of the Third Kind, and Up the Staircase Quarterly. Fire in the Marrow is his first poetry collection. William lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is an animal rights activist.
From the Introduction
"Crawford creates unforgettable, aqueous supralunary scapes. To see these expanses and intimacies he imagines, is to immerse completely, to permit wave upon wave of exquisite original beauty, rarefied insight, and sublime musicality to wash over you, till you cannot remember life apart from this sea of tranquil splendours and agonies. The truths are that elemental."
—-Constance Stadler, author of Tinted Steam, Sublunary Curse and Paper Cuts, co-author (with Rich Follett) of Responsorials
ISBN 978-0-9819984-8-0
140 pages
$16.95
5.5" x 8.5" perfect bound, paper
Excerpt
Cielo Scenes
for Sharon Tate
remembering those cielo scenes
the Christmas lights and spilled wine
on August’s altar
built for the snow queen
the boys that once spelled her name
with lit sparklers in the dark
now off tearing wings from butterflies
losing ten pace shootouts with the stars
to keep themselves from mourning
to forget the slow blink
of those flash bulb shocked eyes
every time they close their own
the lawn was littered
with strange new starlings
and fire sale garments
a tinsel lasso of damselflies
dead in the pool
sapphire gin
and a record skipping –
stoned into oblivion
the golden shamble beauty queen
scrambled and breathless
on the parlor floor
the ruby blister traces
framing flawless measurements
a hot blooded silhouette
hemorrhaging a voluptuous void
a cat-calling, wolf-whistling darkness
quick to encroach
consuming the room
cancelling the mirrors
shake waking the dream
savagely kissing
her crushed wild strawberry mouth
from an anxious distance –
a precious redbird you can’t touch
aurora borealis eyes and aura
long gone
loosen the rope
let her go
from gilded cage
to open window
with no memory
of this slaughter.
Reviews
"Occasional occurrences transcend the human’s knowledge into sculpting diverse redefinitional aspects, thus creating splayed paths for devotional direction (new understanding), whichever is most sincere, easiest to conquer, most beautifully created. Occurrences with this disposition, as they appear to the poet, signify a growth within the caliber not taught, but innately granting visit on one’s own artistic terms. The poetry of William Crawford exhales the rarity of authenticity, one of spectacular noticeable launch, using language’s specialized gifts: arrest, collocation, devotion, understanding. In an age where poetry is prominent by the selves of most prevalent self-definition (too, by like-minded thoughts creating intertwining ideologies), Crawford needn’t qualify himself as a poet through the eyes of his very own, for he is easily identifiable by the markings his poetry creates across the psyche of his fortunate readers. Fire in the Marrow shall encapsulate neoteric times, in that the collection shall scream to be heard; and not in the fashion of attention-seeking vanity, but because the language of itself cannot be contained within a culture acclimated to mundane, literary occurrences."
—Felino A. Soriano, author of 16 collections of poetry, including Apperceptions of Reinterpretations
"Word lovers of the world, rejoice! William Crawford's Fire in the Marrow is an intoxicating invitation to consider the possibility that inspired logophilic genius - the unabashed love of words for their own sake, unsullied by academic posturing or intellectual elitism - did not die with Shakespeare. A select few poets offer words that live inside us; fewer still offer words we may live inside. William Crawford writes with the rarest of poetic voices; his masterful notes amplify the full diapason of human existence. He inhabits his observations so completely - feels and conveys them so authentically and fearlessly - that readers will come away from this superlative collection having experienced life more meaningfully in a very real sense. Drink deeply, all ye who revel in the ability of language to spark perceptual transcendence - William Crawford offers hope and sustenance for aesthetes mired in the all-too-often catachrestic wasteland of modern popular poetry."
—Rich Follett, co-author (with Constance Stadler) of Responsorials and Featured Artist, Counterexample Poetics
"William Crawford's timeless, gorgeous, and evocative poetry is described perfectly by the title of his first full-length collection, Fire in the Marrow. From the tragedies of movie stars to the darkest human impulses, the world of Crawford's poetry sparkles and glimmers as he dares to tread "Where even the Mockingbirds go silent." I recommend this collection wholeheartedly."
—Melanie Browne, publisher, Leaf Garden Press
"Indeed the world can be a bewildering outpatient stumbling through the debris of existence, but the heart can adapt to the furies both internal and external. William Crawford, singer-poet-visionary, in his resonant river Fire in the Marrow, tap dances with saviors with talcum powdered soft bums and even if you do get sick from too much sky the gift finds you indeed, you don't find it. This soiree of explorations into the large vulnerable mutating house of who we are, is full of deft 2 steps, empathetic sax solos, and a welcome sign for the lost, maimed, missing in action. Crawford isn't afraid to shoot the rapids, and anyone who is capable of flying will find their arms much more malleable after soaring along these canyons of his rhythmic vision."
—Scott Wannberg, author of Strange Movie Full of Death
"The measure of a man isn't his macho bravado, how many pounds he can bench, his checkbook balance, or his football acumen. The real measure is legacy. William Crawford's works are just that. It takes a real man to show you the inside of his heart and live to tell about it. Fire in the Marrow is a book to be read again and again for years to come."
—Nobius Black, publisher, Calliope Nerve, author of One Nite Pig
"Word lovers of the world, rejoice! William Crawford's Fire in the Marrow is an intoxicating invitation to consider the possibility that inspired logophilic genius - the unabashed love of words for their own sake, unsullied by academic posturing or intellectual elitism - did not die with Shakespeare. A select few poets offer words that live inside us; fewer still offer words we may live inside. William Crawford writes with the rarest of poetic voices; his masterful notes amplify the full diapason of human existence. He inhabits his observations so completely - feels and conveys them so authentically and fearlessly - that readers will come away from this superlative collection having experienced life more meaningfully in a very real sense. Drink deeply, all ye who revel in the ability of language to spark perceptual transcendence - William Crawford offers hope and sustenance for aesthetes mired in the all-too-often catachrestic wasteland of modern popular poetry."
—Rich Follett, co-author (with Constance Stadler) of Responsorials and Featured Artist, Counterexample Poetics
"William Crawford’s profundity blazes forth in Fire in the Marrow, his “bloody beating heart” pumping words that grab readers and draw them into a bottomless gulf of revelation. The pulsing, rhythmic sweep of the pure light of his work illuminates like a lighthouse set above rocks that souls may dash themselves against. A sentinel calling us to rise above our need for distance from the pain of life, Crawford is a singular patron poet-saint reminding us of the beauty we can draw from the marrow of afflictions."
—Karen Bowles, publisher, Luciole Press