The Laughter of Ghouls by K. A. Opperman

$15.00

 

  • Cover and interior art, and cover design by Daniel V. Sauer
  • Paperback
  • ISBN 9781614983286
  • 178 pages

 

 

“K. A. Opperman’s The Laughter of Ghouls is a dark gem of endless depths in which one may see the decadent procession of exquisite darkness in which this poet revels!”—D. L. Myers, author of Oracles from the Black Pool

 

For close to a decade, K. A. Opperman has been among the leading weird poets of our time. Bursting on the scene with the scintillating volume The Crimson Tome (published by Hippocampus Press in 2015), Opperman has consistently displayed a wide imaginative range, a metrical precision reminiscent of the work of George Sterling and Clark Ashton Smith, and a sensitivity to the subtle overtones of the weird in daily life that make his poems far more than mere exercises in shudder-coining.

 

The Laughter of Ghouls shows Opperman at the height of his poetic powers. The emphasis here is on ghouls as symbols of the fragility of our human mortality. Opperman’s fascination with vampires male and female is displayed in a series of poems, while verses on the ghost, the werewolf, and the witch show the poet infusing new life into these traditional weird motifs. Throughout, Opperman exhibits all the qualities that have made him a pioneer in the renaissance of weird poetry that has been ongoing over the last several decades.

 

Contents

 

Introduction: Tainted Laughter

 

Graveyards Forgotten     

The Laughter of Ghouls    

Ghoul Moon 

Among the Ghouls 

Woodland Funeral  

In Fits of Wildest Dreaming           

To Court the Night  

 

Carpathian Spells 

Transylvanian Darkness   

A Queen of Carpathia        

Portrait of the Countess    

Blood and Beauty   

O My Vampiress     

Symbols of Blood    

The Black Czarina  

The Vampire-Slayer’s Whip          

The Lady of the Dagger     

Empress of Vampires         

Carmilla        

Clarethea     

The Woman in the Feathered Mask        

Roses, Black Roses

Bloody Tears

Eventide       

Queen of the Bats   

The Harpy    

The Hunter and the Succubus     

When Wolfsbane Blooms  

Werewolf      

Wilhelmina   

 

Ghostly Sighs        

Amorella       

The Lady in Scarlet 

Midnight in the Ebon Rose Bower

Absinthia      

The Lady of the Graves     

A Ghostly Lily          

The Shadow of the Reaper

The Spectral Knight

The Ghost Carriage

Her Ghostly Sigh    

The Lady in White   

 

Songs of the Goat 

Invocation of Diana

Divinity          

Ode to Ashtoreth    

Flame-Mistress of the Morning Star        

Lilith  

Lucia 

Child of Ice   

In the Dead of Winter         

Krampus       

Priestess of the Goat          

Chant of the Priestess        

Song of the Goat     

Woods at Dusk        

The Goat of Walpurgis       

Walpurgis Eve         

The Crimson Circle 

May Song     

Beltane         

The Wicker Woman

Witch Summons     

The Witch     

The Benighted Path

Ode to the Gorgon  

The Night Mare        

Saturna         

Nightshade Flowers

Your Mask of Porcelain     

Harlequin     

Carnival Siren         

Crimson Masquerade         

Cassilda Dons the Pallid Mask     

Black Widow

Medusa         

The Crimson Witch 

Devil’s Valentine     

Daemonic Nathicana         

Queen of Nenuphars         

My Lady of the Nightshade Flower          

The Forest Witch    

The Blood Garden  

The Demon of Ennui          

The Mushroom Siren         

The Fungal Nymph

Her Fungal Glance 

The Fungal Fog      

The Book of Black Dreams

Black Oracles          

Among the Gargoyles        

Nocturnal Forest Cathedral           

Mary of the Rosy Grave     

Villanelle of My Dead Love

The Voice of the Waves     

My Ship of Dreams 

Heart Burial 

Requiem       

Funeral         

 

Acknowledgments


 



This product was added to our catalog on Saturday 20 March, 2021.