
Koss Poetry & Art
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Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect – Now Shipping!

Dancing backwards towards pluperfect
by Koss
Published by Diode Editions
Shipping in October 2024
Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect is a poetic assemblage of a life sown outside the predictability of middle-class, straight America, one where the aftermath of repeated trauma and loss is allayed by unexpected moments of connection, empathy, and love.
Koss pens inventive textual routes through life transits, forging head-on through the debris with unflinching vision and grit in a timbre that shifts from existential dread to dark comedy. Part dirge and part survival story, Dancing Backwards transmutes the rubble of trauma, abandonment, grief, and suicide loss into a queer, hybrid elixir, their lived story worthy of telling.
Blog Posts
South Florida Poetry Journal #25 Poem
Honored to have a disturbing but important poem in South Florida Poetry Journal’s latest issue (#25). #CW. So grateful to the editors for publishing. Read it along with a bunch of great work and sound files here.
Drawing and Grief
I’ve been organizing and digging through years of debris as I figure out what I want my life to look like going forward. Haven’t been able to write lately but have been making cards and paper art, which does something else creatively. It’s nice to be outside of language right now. Below, a drawing of […]
Asemic Writing, Erasure Poetry | Up the Staircase Quarterly
Grateful to be in Up the Staircase Quarterly #57. This issue is full of great poetry and art. Poetry by these people included: Quinn Forlini | “Attenuation” Sanvitti Sahdev | “I fill up” Fiona Lu | “hunting” Oluwafisayo Akinfolami | “Semantics” Satya Dash | 2 poems: “Elasticity” and “Two Deaths” Jill Khoury | “Subjective Units […]
Punk – A Kissing Dynamite Anthology
Thrilled to be included in this Punk poetry anthology from Kissing Dynamite, a poetry journal (edited by Christine Taylor). There are lots of great writers in here including Michael Chan. Kissing Dynamite is one of my favorite, inclusive online journals. They publish poetry and art once a month and only consider one poem at a […]
scissors & spackle poetry
Very happy to have two experimental pieces in scissors & spackle, a sort of experimental/punk literary journal. “Love Song for a Friend” is a grief list poem and “gratitudes” is also lists that became something readworthy (hopefully). The friend in “Love Song” is Kim who left the world too soon. I also wrote about her […]
San Pedro River Review | Poetry Publication
So fortunate to be in another issue of San Pedro River Review. This issue has a theme of Place. Jeff and Tobi, the editors, are kind and efficient. They have two brief submission windows each year, then superfast notices for submitters. Generally, a month or so after an acceptance, the issue is out. I wish […]
Boats Against the Current – Poetry – Koss
Boats Against the Current is a wonderfully designed, promising new journal founded by McKenna Themm, a poet and managing editor of the LA Review. Boats Against the Current Magazine is an online journal dedicated to poetry. My poem explores grief as told through the lifespan and habits of crickets. Read it here, and if you’re […]
Alien Buddha – Publication
I’m very behind in blog posts but was happy to have three poems published in Alien Buddha at the end of January 2022. These are pieces from my manuscript, One for Sorrow, and address domestic violence, one, queers and the church–a tough sell for the lit world–so very grateful for the publication. Alien Buddha publishes […]
Done 2021 | Water-Soluble Crayon on Crossword Poem
Done, 2021, a visual poem on newsprint crossword—created by moi at the end of the year. I’ve been depriving myself of color for a long time. Here’s a new start to occasional color. Happy New Year!
Moist Poetry Journal | Poem by Koss
This is nearly a month late, but I’ve been struggling with a photo I bought of Harold’s hearse (from the movie Harold and Maude) and finally finished it today. Was pleased to get accepted into Moist Poetry Journal, a queerish journal and feminist space started by Han Vanderhart. This particular sequence of poems was guest […]
Indecision | Koss | Crossword Art
Sometimes less is more. Sometimes I can’t believe in language. But all that really matters is the pencil, the brush, and this moment. Check out some of my other crossword poems and art in my blog. You can also navigate by the categories. Thanks for visiting.
Celestial Work | Koss | Crossword Poem
Another crossword poem/drawing. It’s made of graphite crayon, pencil and washes. Check out some other recent posts for more.
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