A Necklace of Teeth is my second poetry chapbook, which released 22 July 2024 from Dogleech Books.
This collection is themed around queer rage, specifically my fury around homophobic family, religious trauma, and past sexual predators.
You can buy A Necklace of Teeth from the publisher's store in print or as an ebook.
My poetry writing style is simple, raw, and understandable. If you like Running Upon the Wires by Kae Tempest, you might like my poetry.
Trigger warnings: familial homophobia, religious homophobia, religious trauma, adult language, violence, gore, arson, murder, references to past sexual assaults.
wounds the evangelical church left in me
you got your hooks in me young—
talons with a death grip on my heart.
and when I finally wrenched myself free,
I bled.
claws tore open my ribcage,
desperate for the organs
you felt belonged to you.
throat
lungs
stomach
liver
heart
but they weren’t yours anymore.
I sank to my knees, left in tatters,
but I survived,
and you howled,
with gore in your teeth and nails.
you called your fury sadness
and your hatred love;
you said you only wanted
what was best for me.
but I’m looking at the hole in my chest
and the shreds of skin
and the ripped-out innards
and I’m wondering
(with my viscera in my hands)
if maybe that wasn’t true at all.
if maybe it never was.
a secondary emotion
they say anger is a secondary emotion
(an emotion fueled by other emotions).
they say it means I’m really feeling something else—
sadness or disappointment or fear, maybe.
they say it’s easier for me to express anger than express hurt.
they say anger’s an iceberg with pain beneath the water line.
they say it’s a way to protect a vulnerable heart.
and maybe it is.
maybe I am
scared and
vulnerable and
weeping deep inside.
maybe the idea of stringing together
a necklace of your teeth
is just a defense mechanism,
and I’m actually feeling
sad or
humiliated or
disappointed.
but are you willing to take the chance
that I might actually have the needle and thread and pliers
ready and
waiting for you?
I'll stay angry if I want to
they say anger is poison in your own glass.
they say don’t stay angry past sundown.
but I say
fuck that.
sometimes anger is called for.
sometimes anger is the only indicator I’m bleeding.
sometimes anger has to last
so I can work up the courage
to tell someone they wounded me.
I’ll drink the poison
if that’s what it takes.
the sun will set
and rise and set
and rise and set
and rise and set
and I’ll still be furious
that you treated me this way.
Advance Praise for A Necklace of Teeth
"You know that scene in the movies when someone walks out from the shadows, haloed by flickering streetlights, their fingers twirling weapons with a fluidity that makes your breath stammer? Ivy L. James’ poems are the moment in the story when the soundtrack swells. This collection will pulse a surge of queer fury and recognition and power through your bones. It embarks on a hero's journey much closer to the heart than any other and isn't afraid to get its hands dripping in electric blood."
- Elena Sichrovsky, Eating Out Anne Sexton (Ghost City Press, ‘24)
***
"Ivy L. James has a gift for you –
torrents of flame lightning white hot venom for those who read words of peace and choose war – slow agonies for the monsters parents promised weren't real but always been hiding in tricks of light– engraved promises of Decimation on the foreheads of those who live for sorrow – slowly teaching those wilfully ignorant the difference of stigmata v. scars – a salt the earth approach to tending the fields once known as home
It's wonderful – you're thankful of it, and make a note to check the inscription of “sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc”
A Necklace of Teeth, all for you. You pop it on, happy to wear it home."
- Clem Flowers, author of KUDZU (Cowboy Jamboree Press) and I KNOW NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT (BULLSHIT LIT)
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Read a few poems for free: The Orange and Pink Sunset: Poems from the Chapbook
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Read Chapter One for free: Chapter 1: “Good Sir, That's a Lotta Snow”
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Buy it from my publisher or from your preferred store!
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Read Chapter One for free: "Chapter One: Guess Lorena Has to Go to Ìovoria Now"
You can buy it from my publisher or from your preferred store!
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