P'rea Press

Charles Lovecraft’s fine booklet itemizes Tierney’s writings, noting even appearances in cyber­space ... For the Tierney completist. (From review)

This handsome paperback edition includes essays by eminent critic and scholar S. T. Joshi on the weird verse of George Sterling, Clark Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, Samuel Loveman, Donald Wandrei, Frank Belknap Long, as well as a list of contemporary weird poets that includes Richard L. Tierney, Donald Sidney-Fryer, Brett Rutherford, Keith Daniels, Ann Schwader, Alan Gullette, and Australian Leigh Blackmore.

S. T. Joshi is an award-winning Indian American literary critic, scholar, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors of weird and fantastic fiction.

This handsome signed hardcover edition includes essays by eminent critic and scholar S. T. Joshi on the weird verse of George Sterling, Clark Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, Samuel Loveman, Donald Wandrei, Frank Belknap Long, as well as a list of contemporary weird poets that includes Richard L. Tierney, Donald Sidney-Fryer, Brett Rutherford, Keith Daniels, Ann Schwader, Alan Gullette, and Australian Leigh Blackmore.

S. T. Joshi is an award-winning Indian American literary critic, scholar, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors of weird and fantastic fiction.

Poems of delectable strangeness and exquisite savagery and dread by R. L. “Terminator” Tierney, author of fantasy and the macabre for over fifty years, and wordslinger of hellish proportions are presented here by P'rea Press. Sweet cadences of darkness salted with bedevilled fright, and Lovecraft and Howard, all live in this 132-page crowded hardcover volume of 71 poems. Now see what people have said about this work.

Leigh Blackmore

Poems such as “All-Hallowed Vengeance,” “The Yuletide,” “All Hallows’ Eve,” and “The House on the Cliff” rival the best serious work of any weird poet of the last one hundred years.

Robert M. Price

Tierney’s sonnets are incantations conjuring a world unknown but never henceforth to be forgotten. It is a world where the Lovecraft of the Fungi from Yuggoth whispers again ... If we had not a word of his great Sword-&-Sorcery tales, we should still have to count Richard L. Tierney among the giants of the Fantastic.

Donald Sidney-Fryer

Tierney remains … unrestricted in range and power of imagination. This new book of poems makes a worthy companion-piece to his earlier Collected Poems.

Ramsey Campbell

If there is a finer poet in the tradition of Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, I don’t know of one. Tierney has a vision as cosmic and savage as any of theirs, and his expressive skills are enviable indeed.

S. T. Joshi

In his [Tierney's] poetry there is not a word out of place, not a line that is other than musical, not a stanza that cannot be considered a triumph of quiet eloquence. 

Frank Belknap Long

There is no other present-day poet in the entire Lovecraftian galaxy who treasures to quite the same extent as does Richard Tierney the fabulous valleys and high mountain peaks of fantasy, or who has captured their splendors with a greater perceptiveness.

Poetry readers and fantasy connoisseurs the world over have treasured “A Wine of Wizardry” and “The Hashish-Eater” for almost a century. Written by George Sterling in 1904 and Clark Ashton Smith in 1920 respectively, these poems have been the supporting lintel and threshold to a fantastic doorway of the imagination for generations of enthralled readers.

Now at last there is a contemporary response to these masterworks from poets as diverse and distinguished as Richard L. Tierney, Bruce Boston, Alan Gullette, Leigh Blackmore, Michael Fantina, Wade German, Earl Livings, and Kyla Lee Ward. Their magnificent poems evoke the enduring, timeless qualities of Sterling’s and Smith’s masterpieces and rework the spell to enthral a new generation.

∞

We seem to be in the midst of a renaissance of fantastic poetry, as the present volume attests. The poets in this book have found in their work the inspiration to weave a tapestry of weirdness that stands as a substantial contribution to the fantastic verse of our own time. Connoisseurs of poetry know what aesthetic pleasures are in store for them when they read vivid, meticulously crafted work such as is contained in this book.

S. T. Joshi (author Supernatural Literature of the World, I Am Providence, H. P. Lovecraft: A Comprehensive Bibliography)

Inspired by George Sterling and Clark Ashton Smith, yet fueled by the twenty-first century talents of celebrated poets from both hemispheres, this collection of vintages has something for every rarefied taste. From hashish dreams to psychic expeditions through deep space-time, here are experiences not to be found elsewhere. Sip slowly, and revel in the flight.

Ann K. Schwader (author Twisted in Dream, In the Yaddith Time, Wild Hunt of the Stars)

A feast of fantastic verse, a special delight for Klarkash-tonians who need no further reassurance that the stately, cosmic tradition represented by such masterpieces as "The Star-Treader" and "The Hashish-Eater" is alive and well.

Darrell Schweitzer (author Pathways to Elfland, Windows of the Imagination, Exploring Fantasy Worlds)

Foreword, by S. T. Joshi

 

Publisher’s Preface

 

A Wine of Wizardry

 

George Sterling

 

The Hashish-Eater; or, The Apocalypse of Evil

 

Clark Ashton Smith

 

Visions of Golconda

 

Richard L. Tierney

 

Memoria: A Fragment from the Book of Wyvern

 

Leigh Blackmore

 

A Trip to the Hypnotist

 

Alan Gullette

 

Thirteen Ways of Looking At and Through Hashish

 

Bruce Boston

 

The Mantle of Merlin

 

Earl Livings

 

The Necromantic Wine

 

Wade German

 

Sandalwood

 

Michael Fantina

 

Lucubration

 

Kyla Lee Ward

 

Select Bibliography

 

About the Contributors

This new 3rd reprint edition features an updated bibliography and an extended reviews section. Several of the poems have received revision at Leigh's hand, making these the definitive texts of these poems. Fantastic new cover coloring by artist, Gavin O'Keefe, and the always superb interior book-designing of David E. Schultz, complement the strange ecstasies of this book.

With a Foreword by US critic and scholar S. T. Joshi, and an introduction by the editors of P’rea Press, Spores from Sharnoth and Other Madnesses is an essential acquistion for enthusiasts of horrific and dark verse.

“Excellent poetry of the weird … If you love Lovecraft and admire formal poetic form and structure then this professional debut collection must be in your collection!”

“Leigh Blackmore … is a superb fantasy poet, indeed, one of the highest order.”

“This remarkable little book of verse at once establishes Blackmore as one of the leading weird poets of our time, fit to be mentioned with the likes of Bruce Boston, G. Sutton Breiding, Ann K. Schwader, and others … Blackmore reveals penetrating insight into the authors to whom he pays tribute and an understanding of the metrical precision that sets them apart from the lazybones free verse that too often clutters our poetry journals.”

“Magnifique! Sobresaliente! Mumtaaz! [Blackmore] definitely has the touch … and of course I can tell he has the same sources of inspiration as I do.”

“Outstanding technical quality … deeply felt and well-crafted poems. The occasional inversions and older language, used with discretion, do not mar in any way these often fear-filled runes, but impart a needed and enjoyable variety … These poems, more often than not, strike home again and again.”

“The author undeniably has a talent for evoking mysterious and sometimes unsettling images and many of the entries – most of which are quite short – do indeed suggest the prose and subject matter of Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and other early Weird Tales writers … Superior in quality to most of the other poetry I’ve read in the same vein.”

“[An] excellent collection of poetry by Leigh Blackmore, one of Australia’s leading talents in weird fiction … One can say of Blackmore as Lovecraft once said of Clark Ashton Smith: “None strikes the note of cosmic horror so well.”

“Leigh Blackmore is well known in the Australian speculative fiction scene and one of our leading experts in horror and dark fantasy. Spores from Sharnoth shows another side of his talents – as a poet. This is a collection of poetic meditations on the life and works of H. P. Lovecraft, including a large section devoted to the Cthulhu Mythos. Leigh’s control of the sonnet and other poetic forms is – for someone like me who can just about manage a limerick – sobering. His language and imagery is at times dark, at others liminally romantic and thoughtful. It’s not the sort of book you can rush through. It is one you want to savour, read a verse, ponder and let your mind wander through the doorways Leigh has opened up.”

“Leigh Blackmore’s verse will appeal strongly to fans of H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, and of the older, traditional Weird Tales school of writers. It belongs on the same shelf with August Derleth’s Dark of the Moon and Lin Carter’s Dreams from R’lyeh, to be treasured for its elegant lines, spooky sonnets, cosmic vistas, and, since Blackmore is a genuine poet and not just a pastichist, occasional departures from all expectations.”

—Darrell Schweitzer, author Transients, Ghosts of Past and Future