ANTHOLOGIES & UNTITLEDS, by Cassandra Bristow

Poetry, chapbook, 16 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

ANTHOLOGIES & UNTITLEDS is a collection of poetry detritus, evidence of an unintentional project started in 2018 for the scraps and fragments within poems. These are the misfits, things that didn’t quite fit in to a larger poem saved with a title, but still lingered enough to become their own entity. Each of these “untitled” pieces are saved in Apple Notes with a number attached, obtaining a place inside the larger chronological form— as of December 2024, 170 of them live under this categorization form.

From a mindless collecting of little nothings emerged shards of true vulnerability, embedded with something raw that always seems intangibly attached to a first draft, half-baked thought sort of thing. ANTHOLOGIES & UNTITLEDS was intentionally crafted as an antithesis to what makes the polished poem complete, inviting the idea that these unpolished pieces of breath are worth cherishing just like what the floating shelf in a bedroom holds all those little keepsake objects, displayed.

Cassandra Bristow is a queer pet-fish-having "Writer" for now, because calling oneself something like an "interdisciplinary artist" or "multimedia creative" feels a little tired when living in Brooklyn, New York. Also, when looking for new exciting synonyms to use as terminology nothing felt right, but don't worry— that hopeful research will go on. In the meantime, you can keep up with Cassandra's work across all mediums by following her Instagram, since that's where most of it goes for promotional purposes.