Ventricle, Atrium

by Gabriel Gadfly

Love is in the details.

In the fingers finding a hand in the dark. In the stretch and curve of a spine. In goosebumped shoulders and the taste of skin.

Gabriel Gadfly’s much anticipated second anthology is a vivid and tender tribute to the life cycle of love — the sex, the laughter, the pain, the sweetness, the fear, the vacancy. Filled with yearning, this arresting collection finds beauty in all that love has to offer, from the mundane to the abstract.

With Ventricle, Atrium, Gabriel Gadfly explores love at all its junctures, through sickness and health, in good times and in bad, offering sharp and remarkably precise observations on the tiny, all-important details of love.

Genres: Poetry

98 pages, Paperback

First published January 13, 2012

About the author

Gabriel Gadfly is a poet from Birmingham, AL. He is the author of Bone Fragments (2011), a collection of war poetry, and Ventricle, Atrium (2012), a collection of love poems.

His poems have appeared in Four & Twenty, Borderline, Anatomy & Etymology, and Subtext Queer Arts Magazine.

More of Gabriel's poetry can be found on his website, http://gabrielgadfly.com.

Reviews

[Ren Luebbering · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ventricle, Atrium is panty-dropping poetry at its finest. Gentle, fast and hard, Gabriel Gadfly seduces his readers by teasing them with the smallest, most intimate moments of relationships: a first kiss, a knowing look, a long goodbye. Page after page, he lays his words down softly, whispering sweet nothings and harsh realities of love as it lingers in our lives. Nothing is perfect, nothing is sacred; love both conquers and destroys in his second book, a sharp contrast to his debut book of war poetry, Bone Fragments. We are taken from the battlefield to the bedroom, from the fox hole to the rabbit hole of romance and heartbreak ("Fossils"), from agony to ecstasy ("Throb"). And just when we are begging for more in Ventricle, Atrium's last few pages, Gadfly leaves us breathless in a climax with his poem "Monochrome." Let this not be a one-time fling, Gabriel. My heart breaks and beats faster at the thought.

Thankfully, my thirst is quenched by his new content at gabrielgadfly.com.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gabriel Gadfly covers every emotion, feeling, and sensation in his collection of love poetry, Ventricle, Atrium -- from first glances, to first kisses, from the touch of a hand to a sexual embrace. Gadfly will send you on a journey of friendship, passion and heartbreak - sometimes within the same poem. The title says it all - Ventricle, Atrium is a journey of and through the human heart.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me three months to read this collection cover-to-cover. I kept stopping to re-read poems that stuck into my heart. This is love poetry defined by its physicality. Tangible, erotic, and at times, exalted like the lovers of clouds.

Gabriel Gadfly has a turn of phrase that is refreshing and electrifying. Go, read, you won't be sorry.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another volume of honest and poignant poetry. He holds nothing back. The smallest details and mundane rituals have been celebrated as much as the first kiss or the first coupling. There is much here to cause fond memories to resurface. There is also much to cause fears to resurface. Read with caution because your emotions will be engaged.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gabriel Gadfly has a way of writing down in poetic form the things that are real and true in this world. He finds the beauty in the mundane, the whole relationship poured out from one glance. Poems that reminded me of loves that I have lost and the love that I hold now.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

lusty and luscious - Gadfly's words ricochet through out your body landing in all the right spots! Sensual, bittersweet, sexy and oh so loving.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply beautiful.

[Carnella Bobbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love will tear us apart, sometimes actually .

This book of poems takes you in deep and it refuses to let go.