Warm up your February with Flutter: southern gothic fever dream by Kristin Garth, illustrated by Mathew Yates, now available from TwistiT Press. In Flutter, Garth’s annotated sonnets tell the story of Sylvia Dandridge, bed-ridden with scarlet fever in 1883 Pensacola. As the fever progresses, Sylvia becomes drawn into the otherworldly side of her parents’ estate, where dreams and reality fuse. Her experiences change Longleaf Estate and its inhabitants forever.
Blue
lips fingers cause to aspirate, cry chords,
accompaniment, first edict to you
his incantation while you were unwound
worn around — creation, be thou unbound.
– from “Creation, Be Thou Unbound” by Kristin Garth
Southern Gothic
Flutter includes a lavish, haunting setting: a Southern estate, a carpetbagger’s artificial lake, fever sweeping the region, and supernatural secrets in the woods. Into this setting, Kristin Garth releases fever-stricken Sylvia Dandridge, who encounters scorned mermaids, abandoned babies, and a demon who transforms all beneath the trees. In turns, Flutter takes the reader through budding romance with poems such as “Rosemancy” and “An Ancestral Love of Boyish Bees,” before highlighting the horrific with “A Planting Song” and “Mother of Moths.”
Flutter also stretches out time. The metered verse of Garth’s sonnets evokes oral history and epic storytelling. And indeed, Flutter memorializes the story of Longleaf Estate through multiple generations and families. Throughout, the lurking bee demon Étienne propels the plot, playing a similar role with the Dandridge girls as Anne Rice’s Lasher with the Mayfair witches.
Fevered Artwork
Mathew Yates’ artwork complements Garth’s writing well. Vivid linework and figures pop from swirling backgrounds, each image a flash of clarity amid the hot throes of the fever dream. Yates’ illustrations capture both the details in Garth’s prose annotations and the feel of her lush poetry. And Yates wields a gorgeous, arresting color palette that brings the inhabitants of Longleaf to otherworldly life. (Watch out for the black-ink sketch of an efflorescent fawn, too!)
Reading Flutter: southern gothic fever dream
Kristin Garth employs a hybrid format in Flutter that allows for many ways to interact with her text and story. Each section of the tale combines a traditional sonnet with prose annotations. Every poem showcases Garth’s lavish imagery and well-honed poetic technique. Some poems feel inseparable from the larger plot, while others shine without context, speaking to the human condition. “All Humans In A Midnight Woods Are Prey” in particular, will register with anyone who has ever felt more fly than the spider when out in nature. The prose annotations both add to and work separately from the poems, reading more like a narrative unfolding of the story.
For our part, we recommend reading the sonnets first, enjoying Yates’ beautiful illustrations along the way. Then come back for the narrative annotations and a fresh look at the artwork. Or dive in and read everything in order — Flutter has enough for multiple readings and comes with a fever that’s hard to shake.
the body, cloth, no one can save, like child
beloved carried to a grave. They cut
away ceramic head, forearms. Burn defiled
materials diseased, disarmed. They put
what’s salvageable in a sterling box
a bisque dismemberment to be unlocked.
– from “Bisque Dismemberment” by Kristin Garth
Kristin Garth is a Pushcart, Best of the Net & Rhysling nominated poet from Pensacola and a sonnet stalker. Her sonnets have stalked magazines like Five: 2: One, Yes, Glass, Luna Luna, Occulum, Drunk Monkeys, and other places. She is the author of eleven books of poetry including Pink Plastic House (Maverick Duck Press), Puritan U (Rhythm & Bones Press), Candy Cigarette Womanchild Noir (The Hedgehog Poetry Press), Flutter: southern gothic fever dream (TwistiT Press) and Dewy Decimals (Arkay Artists, 2020). Follow her on Twitter: (@lolaandjolie) and her website (kristingarth.com).
(For a sneak peek at Flutter, read Kristin’s poems “Fish Kill” and “Let Him Know” in the September 9, 2019 Weekly. – Elephants Never)