Blog Tour: Confess by Juliette van der Molen

Confess by Juliette van der Molen

Twist in Time Press

Released October 9th 2020

It's been a delight to be immersed in 1692 Salem this week, celebrating the historical poetry collection, Confess: The Untold Story of Dorothy Good.

On our stop on the tour (you can follow the rest of the tour using the twitter handles above), I wanted to share an excerpt from the collection. Here is the book information first...

Blurb

'1692 Salem, Massachusetts - Based on the life of Dorothy Good, the youngest person accused of and imprisoned for witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials, Confess tells the story of the trauma surrounding this nearly forgotten child from one of the darkest chapters in early American history. A colony is plunged into turmoil filled with misunderstandings, fear, intolerance, religious fervor, and an egregious abuse of power. Over the course of the year, more than two hundred people are accused of witchcraft and thirty are found guilty. Nineteen will be sentenced to death.

Four-year-old Dorothy and her mother, Sarah Good, are arrested for witchcraft.

Dorothy will confess.

Sarah will hang.

This is Dorothy’s story…'

Juliette van der Molen Bio

Juliette van der Molen is an ex-pat poet living in Wales. She is an intersectional feminist and member of the LGBTQ+ community. Her work has appeared in The Wellington Street Review, Nightingale & Sparrow, Burning House Press and several other publications. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of The Net. Juliette is also the Poetry Editor for Mookychick Magazine. She is a spoken word performer and has had the honour of appearing in several venues in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Her books include: Death Library: The Exquisite Corpse Collection, Mother May I? and Anatomy of A Dress.

You can connect with her via Twitter @j_vandermolen and her website www.JulietteWrites.com.

Buy the book from Twist It Press here

Excerpt;

Criminalis Carolina

why won't you remember those

on Gallow's Hill[1], how they

hung and swung,

twitched and turned

unless they were lucky—

gifted with a hangman

adept at wrapping nooses

to snap necks

of those accused.

your blood lust demands

that they were tried by

fire, those witches,

my mother,

writhing in toxic

fumes, charred putrefaction

for the appeasement

of the holy.

O Constitutio Criminalis Carolina[2]

enter in the inquisition,

tamed into confession licked fire.

you won't imagine tears

of a child,

me—

harbinger of death

from my birth cry,

stealer of souls,

life's litany lost

inside the mouth

of my serpent familiar

coiled red-hot,

forked tongue a-flame.

O Constitutio Criminalis Carolina

inscribe history's memory,

branding the woman i blamed.

[1] This was the place where condemned witches from the Salem Witch Trials were taken to die by hanging, in accordance with English Law. [2] This was the first recognized body of German law which was enacted into law in 1532 during the Diet of Regensburg. This law defined certain crimes as severe and included the crime of witchcraft. It authorized the use of torture to gain confessions and was one of the earliest laws utlized during the inquisition. Punishment for being found guilty of this law was death by burning.