500 Hidden Teeth

Another fine book from Meat For Tea Press.

Flavorful and feasting, Scott Ferry's 500 Hidden Teeth is a collection of sentences woven together to create one hell of a poem. Each finely detailed sentence is elegant enough to stand on its own, but poured together, 500 Hidden Teeth exists somewhere on its own planet of poetry, prose, and liturgy. The collection is vibrant, at times humorous, at other times bleak, but always tenderly rendered. Reverence is bestowed on small everyday moments; with a running current of fantasy, they are given sacred significance. The collection is filled with the complications of religion, the wonder of nature, and the sweet and sour connections between a father and his family. 500 Hidden Teeth showcases all the best things about being present and alive: the hidden wonder that reveals itself, having been right in front of you all along.

-Jane-Rebecca Cannarella, editor at HOOT Review, and author of Better Bones (Thirsty West), Thirst & Frost (Vegetarian Alcoholic), and more.

With 500 Hidden Teeth Ferry has created a raw, living thing where form mimics the fleeting nature of thought. At first glance these "sentences" are deceptively simple but when gathered together as a collection, that is when the teeth come out. Each line has an underlying wrinkle, imbued with intimacy and wonder which both delights and terrifies. "I write into a shiny box and hope for an echo." Ferry's urgency to communicate with both the living and the dead "is never just one thing." He compels us to, "drive into a strange neighborhood" that sprawls across such magnificent distances. To listen for our ghosts, our heroes and our loved ones. Czesław Miłosz said, "The poet receives a poem as a gift from forces unknown to him." Reading this gorgeous collection, at times feels very much like watching Ferry unfurl offerings from another dimension - "like a morning so far back I can never return to it." Ultimately Ferry wants to jolt us into remembering that, "every part of us is also all of the flowers and all of the roots and all of the stars."

-Lillian Nećakov, author of Duck Eats Yeast, Quacks, Explodes; Man Loses Eye

In 500 Hidden Teeth, Scott Ferry spins poems like spider silk-fine, fragile, and beautiful, but with incredible tensile strength. One of the things I enjoy most about Ferry's work is that he is not afraid to experiment with form, and here, these poems all began as a challenge to himself to write one-line pieces. A lot of them remain one-liners, while some have been grouped into slightly longer offerings. Each one is a gem, a koan; staccato and lyrical at the same time, intimate, tender, breadcrumbs leading the reader to the heart of truth. I am forever ensnared in webs such as, God, just because I know how to grieve, do not take everything away and But, again, somehow, I think I chose this; somehow, I think I chose this. I cannot overstate how singular and luminous this collection is. In these gossamer filaments, Ferry not only brings God closer to us, he stitches us all together-whether God, flesh, spirit, or animal, we are all one weave.

-Lauren Scharhag, author of Ain't These Sorrows Sweet.