I was so honored to receive Koss’ new collection, Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect (Diode Editions), and I wasn’t disappointed. To be honest, I was sold at “Pluperfect”, being something of an armchair grammarian. And as the journey went along, I saw such beauty, sadness, and strength, that I was deeply affected.
Early on the tone is set. In the bombshell “My Therapist Sez” one is struck with the honest humor, done with panache, while Koss seemingly actually educates the counselor. And in “TV” we find the relation to media and the role of the artist, important questions for sure. Koss goes on to explore gender norms and critique the awful violence they’ve seen. A dark wisdom comes of this: “Beings become who they are.”
Then there’s “Dinner at the Brady’s”, a surprising and lonely poem, not at all what a reader might expect. Koss is an unflinching poet, not afraid to handle love and pain so close together. There’s a brutal acuity in “Again: Holidays (Zuihitsu)”, a poem of loss. Throughout we are faced with the unspoken thoughts of family, all the while given verbal fireworks as in “(Re)Creation #1” and “Myth of the Father”, a biting indictment that centers the myth as both story and absence.
Imagination abounds in these poems as does Koss’ sense of humor. Take a look at “TeleMother” and “Fucked-Up History.” The titles are so suggestive. And there comes a traditional love poem, but in the form of an anaphora: “Love Song for a Friend (Kim)”. Death soon follows, and is quite direct in “Ten Thinks to Remember ‘Bout Me When I’m Dead.”
There’s a victory in this book and I believe it’s verbal. “And Soon in a Week (Zuihitsu)” is simply a mental health masterpiece. I can’t recommend this book enough, and partly because it ends with such clear perception and a visionary note.
Dancing Backwards Toward Pluperfect is a 2025 Lammy Awards Finalist. To obtain your copy: https://www.diodeeditions.com/product-page/dancing-backwards-towards-pluperfect-by-koss
Matthew Freeman's latest book is called Dopamine and the Devil and was published by Coffeetown Press. He holds an MFA from the University of Missouri-St Louis and much of his work documents his recovery from schizophrenia.