Christopher Doda
ISBN 1-894469-04-6
$14.95 CDN
72 pp
“Among Ruins is an intriguing mixture of the fantastic and the frighteningly real. These poems, tinged with the irony of life and politics, convey a dark and powerful mythic undertone that speaks not only to the reader but to the reader’s soul. This is a haunting and memorable first collection.” -Bruce Meyer
In Christopher Doda’s debut collection, Among Ruins, one discovers a mature, sophisticated, and highly engaging poet. Obsessed with the burdens and treasures of history, the contemporary world is explored through a wide lens, a view that refuses to allow the reader to shake off the effects of the past.
Historical figures, myths, executioners and lawyers, widows and lab technicians all share their professional acumen and secret regrets in language that is as simultaneously revealing and deceiving as the world itself. Doda’s voice encompasses the cry of generations for pity and joy to triumph over destruction and hatred. An engrossing achievement.
Praise for Among Ruins
“Now we find authors like Christopher Doda again excavating the classics, using the past to pepper poems that are ultimately very contemporary and relevant. The verses collected in Among Ruins are distilled lessons from history, infused with enough passion to make the dusty old characters breathe again.”
– Broken Pencil
“It is hard to imagine how a work could be both cynical and romantic at the same time, but it is impossible to describe Among Ruins without ambiguity.”
– Pagitica
