The Obscure Substance of Sky

The poetic writing and images of Alicia Wirt-Fox’s
The Obscure Substance of Sky.

We are pleased to announce the winners of the
2021 Codhill Press Poetry Award.

New

The Devil’s Fools

by Mary Gilliland

Subverting received traditions, embellishing mythic figures, the lyrics of The Devil’s Fools speak to and for those wanting heaven: modern pilgrims, medieval masons; seafarer, axe murderer, alcoholic; daughter, spouse, sibling, mother; a woman on pause, a monarch of the underworld, Eve stepping out past Eden. One country bombs another, there’s mass animal slaughter during epidemic, never-ending yard work, love letters from the dead. Humans sorrow and glory, mourn and thrive, treasure the will to live—with burdock and mushroom, apple and willow, cicada, cuckoo, brontosaurus, toad. The poems represent wild and delicious creaturely delusion, deception, vigor and joy.

The Devil's Fools
Fire in Paradise

Fire in Paradise

by Elizabeth Bayou-Grace, Steven Lewis

A collection of poems written by father and daughter during the Pandemic Year 2020

“My father and I started talking about making a split collection of poetry together shortly before the pandemic began. And then he was hospitalized with Covid-19, and we all watched the world change. Together. Separately. It was then that I began to understand how important it was to share our voices in the same collection, to be read together. To not only write with him in the room, but to explicitly invite him in. To make something beautiful out of our conversation. To suffer together. To learn together. To dream of a better world.”

—Elizabeth Bayou-Grace (from the Introduction)

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Codhill Catalog

There is no more important function of writing at this time than to call us to awaken. The state of siege under which human consciousness—human conscience—is living has not abated in the time since Blake wrote. The seriousness of the situation has only intensified. To serve our memory of what is truly important: to that the writer should be a guide.

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