Devastating violence is a fracturing occurrence that distinguishes itself from other eventualities in the three distinct and divergent blessings that God/the universe gifts to its victims. The victim can only choose one blessing to embrace because each blessing contradicts and makes the other inviable. One is the blessing of self-annihilation. One is the blessing of vengeance. One is the blessing of art/creation. Delphinium Gospel is a triptych-structured poetry collection that explores the blessing of creation as a manifesting interplay between horrific grief and desperate longing in the aftermath of Denzel Scott's brother, uncle, and cousin's respective murders, exploded in their interconnectedness to the sorrows that plague the United States of America.
Denzel Xavier Scott debuted as an author of genre literature in November 2021 in Beneath Ceaseless Skies with his short story, "The Black Rainbow." His poem, "Questions for the Coming Age of the God of Meat" was published by Fiyah Magazine in January of 2023 and his short story, "Zariel: Parable of a Gifted Black Child" is forthcoming in the January/February 2024 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF) Magazine. He was recently named as a Cave Canem Fellow Semifinalist for his then-unpublished and then-named debut collection, Hymnal of a Delphinium Moon, was a Pushcart nominee in 2020 as well as a Sundress Press Best-of-the-Net finalist in poetry in 2019 and has twice been nominated for inclusion in the Best New Poets anthology. He earned his BA in English from the University of Chicago and received his Writing MFA at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in his hometown, Savannah, GA. His essays, literary fiction, nonfiction, and literary poetry appear in Spillway, Rattle, Decomp, Pidgeonholes, Empty Mirror, the Cortland Review, Random Sample Review, Linden Avenue, amongst many others. You can find him often on Twitter in real-time at: @DenzelScott
"Grief is often the wheelhouse of modern Black Poetry, exposing, reflecting, and making fractals of our spirits and of our survival. In Denzel Scott's Delphinium Gospel, we are made to Say the Name of the American-sponsored pains that plague us. The plant, Delphinium, symbolically represents happiness or goodwill, but such are often hard to come by in our most undervalued communities—as over-reported (and often overly exaggerated) as its dangers are. But Scott's Delphinium Gospel is a vigilant witness to our everyday joys and to the random and sometimes predictable states of violence systematically designed to contain us. some. Yes. of us. In this new collection, Denzel Scott calls us all to mourn, to recall and bear witness, and to finally acknowledge the only generational wealth most of us will ever know—the communions of Black Life & Spirit. Delphinium Gospel stands as a testament to the fact that within our seasons of blood loss, there always has been, and always will be: Bloom." - Ronald Davis
"Denzel Xavier Scott uses evocative and sharp language in these poems. He has a beautiful way with language and a compelling story to tell. Each of these pieces feels like a fluid painting to step into, each page a beating heart to behold." - M.M. Carrigan
"Denzel Scott's Delphinium Gospel is a stunning debut from an equally stunning poet. The Cave Canem Prize finalist's debut poetry collection has finally arrived, and a gospel it certainly is. Scott's poems leave it all on the page, a wordsmith bringing truth to power within grief and joy into a way that invites, not intrudes upon the reader to revel in his life. This is a collection I will return to time and time again. I cannot wait to see what he does next." - Chris L. Butler
"Denzel Scott's Delphinium Gospel reminds me of the joy to be had when we give ourselves permission to linger. These poems are intent on telling the full story, relishing the details, stretching the rich and complicated syntax of their lines like cotton candy. And when dealing with violence, loss, and grief, Scott also makes a statement about healing, how perhaps lingering and taking up space is a distinct coping mechanism, a way to erode the jagged edges of grief. This collection demonstrates how excess can be a route to precision, to portraying our world and experiences more accurately through the accumulation of language, imagery, and surprise." - Taylor Byas
"Delphinium Gospel is a catalogue of grief, selfhood, violence, and reckoning. Throughout the collection, we witness the horrors death plagues the body and the mind. The death of family. The death of a perceived self. The death of faith in systems. We journey in the realms of each, desiring a better outcome for the selves that inhabit these pages. And still, there is something like hope in the midst of the darkness; a small light; a yearning spirit that bleeds through it all: 'How alive I am, finally, as a falling legend with the dead.'" - Luther Hughes
