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Midnight Glinting
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The Horror Zine Review

Moonlight Glinting off the Blade

by Christopher Hivner

Paperback: 120 pages
Publisher: Panic Press (April 22, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: n/a
ISBN-13: n/a

Moonlight Glinting off the Blade

Moonlight Glinting off the Blade

by Christopher Hivner

Review by Jean Jones

Christopher Hivner writes from Pennsylvania in the United States, and his stories and poems have been published in various places including Black October, The Horror Zine, and Niteblade. His latest book is titled Moonlight Glinting Off the Blade, and it is a collection of thirty-four horror poems, twenty-two previously published and twelve new. Hivner describes the book as "the theme running through the works is death whether it be physical, mental or spiritual."

What struck me was the cleverness of several of the poems in the collection. Many of the them are quite funny, such as "Sentimental Fool" which gives images of a love sick fool except this one is a little different:

Cleaning under my nails
after a good hot shower
I find a bloody
flake of her skin.
I clean it up
and place it in a keepsake box

What starts out "sentimental," ends up revealing the thoughts of a serial killer. Christopher's work is like that, horror tinged with "dark humor," as he puts it, and he is quite good at it. 

Sometimes, his poems read like nursery rhymes with a twist such as "Pretty, Young Maids," where the maids are described as such:

Pretty, young maids
all in a row
waiting for the Prince to choose.
Pretty, young maids
all in a row
copper and gold hair plaited with bows.
Pretty, young maids
all in a row
white dresses corseted tight against the breasts.
Pretty, young maids
made sure they were the only women left
by slaughtering all the rest.

Starting out like a nursery rhyme and ending with dark line like "slaughtering all the rest" is emblematic of Hivner's work in Moonlight Glinting off the Blade. He finds ways to shock you with the endings as if you were in a Twilight Zone episode when it is revealed to be a twist away what you expected and a shock to the system.  I'm reminded of the great poet Anne Sexton who rewrote fairy tales in her book, Transformations. Her revisions of what happens reminds me of Christopher Hivner's work.

Such delightful poetry is always worth purchasing. Poetry relies on the senses, and gives deep access to memories and feelings.

Even painful or dark experiences are romanticized in verse, as we can see early on in American literature through the writing of Edgar Allan Poe. 

Wikipedia points out that "The Philosophy of Composition" was Edgar Allan Poe's essay on how to write a good poem. Poe claimed "....that length, 'unity of effect' and a logical method are important considerations for good writing. Hivner follows that lead in Moonlight Glinting off the Blade.

From the beginnings of American literature, painful or dark experiences have been romanticized in verse, and Christopher Hivner continues in that proud tradition of dark verse. Midnight Glinting off the Blade is a worthwhile torch bearer of that experience!

 

 

 

You can buy Moonlight Glinting off the Blade HERE.

About the Author

Christopher Hivner

Christopher Hivner

Christopher Hivner has work published in Black October, DecomP, and Niteblade among others, and was nominated for a Rhysling Award in 2008. A collection of short horror stories, The Spaces Between Your Screams, was published in 2008 and can be found HERE.

About the Reviewer

Jean Jones

Jean Jones

Jean Jones received an M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University. In 2008 St. Andrews Press published a collection of poems entitled The Birds of Djakarta.