The Drowning House - Gripping Psychological Thriller Novel for Mystery & Suspense Lovers | Perfect for Book Clubs & Beach Reading

John Sibley Williams is a powerhouse in the modern American poetry scene. If you don’t look both ways before crossing the street, you might get run over by a John Sibley Williams poem. These are not flimsy fiberglass Fieros of poems, though; they’re fully-loaded semis barreling toward you at full speed, ready to do some damage with their weight.In THE DROWNING HOUSE (Elixir Press, 2021), winner of the Elixir Press 21st Annual Poetry Award, Williams shows the full power of his voice, unafraid to tackle the difficult issues of race, religion, politics. Every word in this collection is precise and carefully placed. Even the chapter headings are a sort of poetry: “My American Ghost,” “No Good Night,” and “Summon.” These set the mood for what’s to come.Williams starts out strong, tackling the modern psyche. He touches on beauty and sadness in the opening piece “Pantomime”: “figures materialize. Deer that might be mothers or sisters, gutshot, looking for a slice of shadow to die in. So many hanging trees we confuse with men.”In “Americanisms,” he explores the inevitable outcome of our inability to cope: “ An unarmed sky heavy with promises cracks open into another storm. The bars are all 24-7 now. How when we say THE THING THAT’S WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY, the FORGIVE ME is implied.”Again, these are not poems lightly read. They burn the eyes with the light they shine on what’s right and wrong with society. Even when Williams finds a moment of levity, it is balanced with a hard truth, as in these lines from “Counterglow”: “Consider the meteorite, 110,000 pounds of debris that hollowed out Wolfe Creek Crater; how Oppenheimer’s boldest nightmares couldn’t concoct the kind of ruin that vanishes a sky for years; how anything can become a tourist attraction.”Succinctly he transforms devastation into the world’s largest ball of aluminum foil—a powerful thought, and one worth having.As are Williams’s meditations on the state of racial issues in America today. These poems comprise the better part of the book, discussing openly many examples of hate crimes and struggles for justice over the years. He often does this in a style unique to him: poems set up from their titles as compare/contrast pieces, such as “Prometheus // Trayvon Martin” and “Rosa Parks // Banksy.” In none of these does Williams shy away from the issue at hand, as here, in the poem “Emmett Till // Edward Hopper”: “ Skin can be its own broken republic. Everywhere, overgrown rail tracks and a few white people who don’t know what to say to each other. Not anymore. Truth is married to the surface of things. The surface is a lighthouse overlooking wreck after wreck.”This book is a stockpile of insights, rich with depth and soul-searching. It takes its readers on a guided tour of the self. It asks us who we are and urges us to answer honestly. This a journey worth taking, especially with Williams as the guide.