Our Failing Shadows
Authored by: Alexander Menid (Mark Nemglan)
Published by: Nemglan Press
These 25 spell-poems are otherworldly meditations on the themes of love, death, sin, redemption, ecology and nature, the ritual year, and the soul’s yearnings. Deeply mystical, they take the form of curses, hymns, incantations, evocations and invocations.
Our Failing Shadows is a twilight text, best read at dusk or dawn. Indeed, many of the poems call on themes of liminality, the unseen and the shadowy presence of the dead within the land. Few spirits are named, and those that are not draw power from their ambiguity. The poems vary in voice and style, some are invocatory, others bold statements of identity from the otherworld. The spirits are called and given a voice, and sometimes that voice whispers things uncomfortable to hear. The poet engages with concepts of sin, both religious and ecological. ‘Anticosmic’ and ‘A Curse (for Humankind)’ confront us with the fact that however much we other ourselves, we cannot escape our humanity…. It draws in form and style on ancient hymns, spells, psalms, charms and folk music. It is also a text that can be worked, including invocations to spirits and even a solitary rite, with full instructions. This is not a passive book about someone else’s spiritual experience, but one which the reader too may become involved in.
Bibliography
Standard Edition
Copyright date: 2018
Number of Copies Printed: 25 hand-numbered copies.
Physical Description
Dimensions: 5 in x 7 in.
Page Count: 50 pages
Illustrative content: a sigil designed by the author accompanies each poem.
Binding
Binding: Hard-bound in black bookcloth with black endpapers and a full-colour dust jacket.
Content Note
Accompanying material: 25 poems
