Candice Louisa Daquin Reviews The Lithium Chronicles

The thing about Nicole Lyons is …. There are too many things about Nicole Lyons and nothing about her is sufficient to encompass all that she is and will be.

She’s more than words. But she is without doubt the fiery mistress of words. She knows the power within words. She knows the spells behind words. She can inhabit a word and possess it and then give it back to you, with her own unique signature upon it.

How she has that mastery I don’t know, but single-handedly she’s responsible for new genres that she alone OWNS.

So, when her publishers send me an advance copy of The Lithium Chronicles Vol. 1., to review, I get a little light-headed and vacillate between two tactics; Going completely fan-girl overboard and trying to stay professional. I think I’ll go completely fan-girl overboard.

The cover alone has a claim to magnificence. And it’s no wonder, what other modern poets work deserves a gorgeous cover like that?

When Lyons began her blog, The Lithium Chronicles, I doubt even she knew how enormous her online and offline presence as a writer, thinker, philosopher and voice of her generation would become.

For those who know her, maybe her massive success comes as less of a surprise, because they already had insight into why she’s the magnetic compelling creature that she is.

The title gives us a little hint. It’s often said those who are bipolar have that irresistible mercury that we’re all attracted to. When they’re good they’re off the freakin chart.

Sometimes however, it’s worth imagining how hard it must be to be Nicole Lyons? What a price you pay for that degree of creative altitude?

Consider how all those mercury souls who write, have to navigate, survive and endure the intense highs that may bring madness or brilliance, whilst the lows confer almost un-survivable darkness. Maybe that’s why so many true artists do have some kind of mood-disorder, where they are at the mercy of something within them that can produce such excellence. It’s like skating on a knifes edge and avoiding being stabbed by it your entire life.

I could quote Nicole Lyons for hours, and in fact I have quoted her more than any other writer I believe on my own blog. Equally, you could google how many throughout her writing career thus far, have done just that and remain hypnotized to the succinct and desperately clever way she riddles her wordage. However, rather than quoting her this time, I ask you to just go out and buy her and grow her voice even more, although I know she’ll do it without you because that’s who she is, she’s a scrapper. She’s a survivor and she’s a bad ass and she’s also got a golden heart and a fierce mouth that I wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of, but one I intensely, eternally respect.

If you spend any time on social media, you’ll see Nicole Lyons work everywhere there is poetry, in fact you’ll see people outright plagiarizing it, she’s one of the most often copied artists and regularly has people pretending her work is theirs. I suppose imitation is the greatest form of flattery, but I also know it’s sickening, cheap and terribly hard on the author.

Personally, I get really tired of reading endless memes online, especially those life affirming quotes. I’ve just had too much of it now. I find a lot of things about social media irritating and insincere. But somehow and despite this, I find myself sharing Nicole Lyons work again and again as if she’s every kind of exception to every kind of rule.

It’s probably because, Nicole Lyons just isn’t and will never be a passing phase, a momentary epiphany or a transient hot writer. She’s here to stay the long haul, and if you label her as simply an author of memes and short, clever phraseology, you’ve missed her depths and she has a velvet goldmine of them. Some of her most profound and moving work is in her longer writings which you may not be as familiar with as they are not shared as often but you will find them in this volume. It may surprise you how versed she is at any length poem, and how moving and intense her longer pieces can be.

Yes. That’s it. Nicole Lyons is an exception to every rule. She’s the author you will become addicted to, even as you vowed never to become addicted to any writer. She’s the straight girl you will crush on whether you’re straight or gay, because of her honesty, and the sheer erotic will of her soul. She’s the poet you’ll most often quote, probably imperfectly, and you’ll finally accept that she’s cast a long spell on you the way all fantastic and immortal writers do and you can’t put that feeling into words.

I won’t quote Nicole Lyons because you probably already know how good she is. The only thing left to say is, if you ever read poetry and feel something, you’ll want to own every last thing Lyons has written and this is absolutely no exception. If we ever needed a poet laureate of brave, broken, real people who survive the darkness, Nicole Lyons would get my vote, as she is my queen of hearts. She’s a heart breaker, a heart mender, a best friend, a warrior, a solace, a rage against the dying light and a new element in the natural world that they haven’t yet named. Hell, I’m fairly sure she makes the sun shine and thunder roar. Such is her own, wild, untamed and brilliant voice.

The Lithium Chronicles is available through Amazon.

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Candice Louisa Daquin’s own life, traveling from her native France, via England, Canada and finally the US, has brought a myriad of experiences that others have often been able to tap into via her writing. A collection of lives really, and with this, she tries to weave greater meaning through poetry and touch those who experience similar questions, doubts, and hopes. Surely this is what writing attempts in its very human form?

Daquin’s themes include feminism in its complex, everyday form, and the experience of being a woman, a gay woman, a bi-racial woman, a bi-cultural woman and finally, a Jewish woman of Egyptian extraction (Mizrahi) and how this sits with the world’s current revolt between the dominant faiths.

You can read more of her writing at The Feathered Sleep.