How Hot It Be in Hell

How Hot It Be in Hell is a collection of 39 poems that helps you travel through various emotional landscapes. In my opinion, this book won’t resonate with you if what you expect is healing. But if you need artworks that picture your mental or existential pain the most beautiful way possible, then this collection is for you. If you are:
• Questioning your life and purpose
• Dealing with Gil or regret and destructive habits
• Suffering from emotional damage
• Struggling with dark turns in your life

This book is for you. The poems will tell you, “I see your pain”. They will even cry and scream with your soul.
But again, do not expect healing. Do not expect enlightenment. Just… Expect a clearer view of whatever feeling you may have. Expect a deeper dive into your wounds.

My reading experience was not the best since I didn’t come to contemplate any pain. As a result, I found some poems triggering, pulling me back into some painful, previous events in life that I was part of.

My Favorite Poems
• Is This Art

This one is the very first item in the collection. You can get an easy interpretation without having to look through all the imageries.

Starting with the words “I create” and followed by repetition of no. “Not spray, not clay, not brush, not glue”, paired with the starter “I create”, this poem features the emotion of someone doing something that does not follow common standards.

“Is this art?” = does it still count even when the way I do my work does not fit the common definition? You can see inner emotional noices of those who question their different ways of doing things. You can see doubts and fears of doing something that others think different.

• Better Days

This one is short, simple, and easy, too. The poem lives in a contrast pair of imageries, dirty glass and bright sun.
Someone is inside that dirty glass, looking out to see the sun shining so bright. Isn’t it also very easy to interpret? Isn’t it easy to get the capture of the emotion a depressed person? An emotion that is already going down to depression but not yet severe, an emotion that tells you when you’re depressed, everything outside your world seems to be wonderful. Looks like full of hope and happiness even if the truth does not match.

• Broken

This one is the most layered poem that documents damage, deeper damage, and total collapse without specifying a single event. Every line portrays layers of stages of being broken that happens gradually, a process of distruction that starts small and then expands into a long-term, unbearable misery. It clearly shows how any pain can get worsened over time.
What I found interesting is, this poem does not show any living figure. No human, no animal, no gloomy house, yet still presents the 4 stages of broken in the darkest way possible. If I were a poet, I would never have thought to write like this one.

So, the flow starts by mentioning tragedy after tragedy experienced by the unnamed (referred to as it) with such strong, visual imageries. Since this poem comes with interesting layers, I will try to break down what happens to “it”, as far as I know from my reading and interpretation.
First off, it was hit by a truck, cracked with tiny lines. = It was hurt so badly, and the wound/crack lingers/stays opened.

And then, it broke further in the rain. = There comes the second layer of pain to carry.

And it is now in pieces at night, waiting to be scattered by the wind. = Now that life keeps pressuring with more wounds, it splinters into shame. Shame that creates feelings to disappear at the end of the day..

• Flinging Shit

Another simple, short, and easy-to-interpret poem. Again, appease with a clear message to see that I don’t have to throw snippets of its imageries.

This time, it’s taken from an angle of a frustrated yet hopeful, creative soul. Frustrated because they know once something is made and thrown to the world, it is not always be remembered. And hopeful, hoping that there idea/creation remains in people’s memory.

• In The House of Flies

This poem feels so excessive right from the title. Flies are used to picture place that’s far from clean, followed by other imageries like sticky lips from the fruit, uncontrollable laughter, red juice everywhere and more, it all captures how overly spoiled with pleasure can turn into something chaotic, messy, and even loss of control. When reading the full poem, you get the clearest few of unstoppable madness and impulsive habits without awareness.

• Fountain (a Prayer)

First time reading this poem, it threw me off guard. I was confused, not knowing what the whole thing really means.

Someone has a whole bunch of quest, and something is addressed as fountain. This fountain is expected to wash their mouth and keep them young and brave. What???
But instead of being stuck on the fountain imagery, you can start your interpretation from the request. Wash their mouth, keep them young and brave. It probably means a cleanse from worries and anxiety of whatever is going to happen. It can also mean to keep them tough and courageous enough to face the future. So this poem is captured from a heart that wants to be filled with strength and courage to fight against their fears. And the thing, the comforter, has to reach and fill them from a higher place just like a fountain.