Mansfield horror poet releases dark new collection

Biological horror poet L A Mason’s new collection is called ‘Ovum of Risk’.

Mr Mason, 51, was inspired to become a poet after being diagnosed with two separate chronic illnesses – Graves' disease and Parkinson's disease – in recent years, a situation that meant that he had to retire from work.

He said that his diagnoses made him appreciate the fragility of the human body.

‘Ovum of Risk’ presents 27 nihilistic avant-garde poems dealing with subjects including pain, disease, horrific transformations, confrontation with injury, the dark side of sex, and death.

They are loosely connected through the psychopathic protagonist, “haunted, alone, and paranoid”, who is voyaging back through his life to his birth, and beyond.

It is the protagonist's warped view that the only way to remove the ‘ovum of risk’ – that is, the potential for any new child to grow to become a force for evil such as a murderer or dictator – is by not reproducing.

Drawing inspiration from artists including poet Dylan Thomas, painter Francis Bacon, French poet Baudelaire, French novelist Émile Zola and Un Chien Andalou creators Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, ‘Ovum of Risk’ is an unsettling but hypnotic read, and one of the few collections of body horror poetry to be released in recent years.

To purchase a copy of the collection, visit the author’s website at www.blacklamp.net or search for title on Amazon.