HETERODOX REVIEWS: "Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect" by Koss (diode Editions)

diode Editions (2024)

Drunk and thumping through a tense present:

the eclectic multitudes of Koss's "Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect"

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Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect by Koss (diode Editions: 2024). 52 pages, 6” x 9”. ISBN: 9781939728661. Available for $12.00 here.

Besides having unquestionably the best title in recent memory, Koss's new collection absolutely offers some of the rawest, unflinching and compelling creative nonfiction, free verse and prose poetry you will be fortunate enough to encounter online or in print. 

...the black and white can render an otherwise threatening event quite harmless...

Intersectional or confessional poetry and prose have never been so accessible or entertaining, and I can recall few instances of such a variety of diverse forms and styles living side by side comfortably in harmony between two covers. Intimate, big-hearted, cheeky and wise, the vignettes contained within represent a small universe of deep consequence, with the weight of dark matter. Rarely has so much been said in so few pages as eloquently, making for a triumphant rallying cry for decency and perseverance in the face of life's tribulations and vicissitudes.

 

...I never used purple right when coloring...

Anyone who had a very close, profound and impactful relationship with a grandparent will especially cherish the contents, leitmotifs and running threads of overarching meanings and memories throughout. The volume will also be particularly appreciated by fans of the absurd, flights of Alfred Jarry and Antonin Artaud, David Sedaris and Chuck Palaunik, Max Jacob and Kathy Park Hong! The unexpected flourishes of musicality also make for wonderfully unexpected and appreciated interludes punctuating very serious business and pleasure! I was elated to observe a Taco Bell-centric piece commended with a Best of the Net nomination! (Indeed three works collected within were so prestigiously honored.) As someone descended from trailer folk the vivid and incisive, perceptive layered depictions and yarns investigating complexities of the rural places and personages were much appreciated in literary traditions more dominated by the city life outside of imagism and flowery, vapid exalting -- by comparison, incendiary episodes and characters Koss introduces us to are anything but bland, the furthest cry from sociopolitically neutral imaginable, thankfully.

...past groves of blackened ghosts bulwarking a copper sky...

Also those who have experienced devastating loss and trauma will find much to relate to and engage with thought provokingly throughout this text. (The rotated bird silhouettes staged between two telephone poles on the cover -- pivoted 90 degrees so as not to be immediately recognizable -- which distinctly resemble crosses create a tableau echoing some potent recurring themes expressed and ricocheting about articulating deep concerns and reservations relating to faith, organized religion, deeply disappointing adherents advocating for them clumsily and dubiously.) Not for the faint of heart, in the best ways possible.

...sprinkled throughout someone's South like an unnamed constellation...

The stakes are high and the world's dangers and general travesty are never dismissed or downplayed, but Koss is indomitable and overcomes admirably with aplomb, setting a laudable example all can take countless valuable lessons from. A momentous collection to be remembered, there's no one who couldn't benefit from acquaintance with it!