Dauntless

Dauntless is a series of dramatic monologues based on a common theme of stubborn endurance. It is divided into five sections of ten poems each, with the following titles: Outlaws, Invaders, Punks, Ghosts, and Monsters. The book begins with an address to the reader in the voice of an Orphic character. I see the collection as a sort of shell radio through which this Orphic character receives broadcasts made from the various personae given voice within the monologues. In this way, the sections act as channels received by this shell radio. The Oxford English Dictionary defines "daunt" as "To overcome, subdue, vanquish...To tame, break in (an animal)...To bring into subjection, subdue...To cast down, put down, quell...To dispirit...To stupefy...To toy." My collection asks readers to consider the antithesis of these ways of treating the Other. The dramatic monologue form allows me to give voice to the voiceless in society, such as a man with a weakened immune system from a third-world country, an exploited rogue elephant, mummy heads, or a young woman who angered the current aristocracy (the gods, the prince of Denmark, a tyrannical teenage girl from the "in" group). Throughout the manuscript, poems seek to challenge the locus of power and the ruling order's need to subjugate other life forms to its will. Punks, Pests, Assassins and Privateers, Hustlers, Outlaws, Artists, and Victims all fit in society and deserve a voice, whether that voice speaks what we want to hear or not. By confronting the voice of the Other, we are able to confront parts of our own selves that we may not understand and learn how to coexist in a world that is not interested in bending to our need to profit from it.