Red Death, Purple Dark

The debut poetry book by Thalia Geiger, author of Wild Like a Woman. Red Death, Purple Dark cycles through seasons, centering the rot of all forms: tending to dying plants in the garden, debilitating depression in the mind, broken politics of the world, and suffering sickness in the home. Through a series of failures and persistence, the poetry within is a passion for life and its absence: a painful, yet essential, pruning that we all must undergo. This book is for the health of the garden and the welfare of the soul. 

ON ZAMI AND OTHER THINGS

I am listening to a taping of Audre Lorde,

her voice patient and not unlike my mother’s

when she would ask me a question about myself.

She says, “I have died too many deaths

that were not mine” and I want

to take on the part of my mother,

reach out my hand to pat her puffed ‘fro

or smooth it with coconut oil like my mother

did mine, saying, I know, honey. I know.

 

ISBN: 979-8-9987727-2-6

74pgs, 5.5” x 8.5”

Cover design by Josh Dale

Thalia Geiger is a poet and editor. She is the author of the chapbook, WILD LIKE A WOMAN (Finishing Line Press, 2025), and has work featured in New York Quarterly, Allegory Ridge, Coffin Bell, Grim & Gilded, and more. She hails from Philadelphia, where she works in journal publishing. You can check out her website at thaliageiger.com and find her on Instagram