Flammable Solid by S. Reeson Flight of the Dragonfly Press

“S. Reeson’s poetry is bursting with energy and crackling with ideas, held together by a playful, radical approach to form. This is poetry as event, poetry as participation, poetry as an act of community. The interweaving of text and image throughout create an effective and innovative exploration of ideas around mental health, the purpose of poetry and the role of the individual in society.” – Kim Moore

The inception of Flammable Solid has been building for the past few years as I’ve watched Reeson establish their voice and their place of respect within the poetry community and their debut chapbook suitably combusts. As they say themself, ‘power is limitless’ and, throughout these pages, it’s clear how they’ve honed their skill of both pen and page in order to express the angst, anguish and anger required to navigate through today’s clumsy, chaotic and cutthroat world. The collection opens with a literal BOOM and what follows are the repercussions that are painful, personal, destructive and, of course, flammable. These are ‘songs with instruments’ reverberating through 20 poems exploring
who we are, what we will leave behind and how the body must break to make way for its wings. Here, ‘in a certain light’, in a ‘white space’ designed for author and reader to save themselves, you feel that ‘ache, that straddles infinite.’ This is a debut far from innocent, a bold and broad breakthrough. Who wants to be the silent poster girl when you can give voice to the print instead. I know Reeson well enough to hear their voice in my head reading these poems, booming, breaking, beating and, most of all, being brave enough to blast them our way. The wings have opened, the poet soars!” – Damien B. Donnelly

Flight of the Dragonfly Press