OFFICEPARKS by Noam Hessler (2025, Farthest Heaven)

We Built A Church For Keeping Things Intact

OFFICEPARKS, Noam Hessler’s debut poetry collection, comes courtesy of the relatively new small press Farthest Heaven.

I believe I was made aware of this collection by L’Enfant Terrible Christopher Sandbatch, an exemplary mutual whose writings on Southern Gothic literature, poetry, and Nick Land I’ve long enjoyed on his Substack and via X.com.

Throughout my transatlantic exploration of the U.S. poetry scene, certain names and book covers appear with alarming regularity; a sure sign, I think, that their contents are worth investigating, despite the exorbitant postage fees faced by a culture-starved Brit.

OFFICEPARKS, with its clover-green cover and imagery of a rather forlorn Minotaur (or a man posing as one), was burned into my frontal lobes the moment I first laid eyes on it.

And so begin the totems that populate this ethereal collection of heartfelt, brilliant poetry.

Add to the Minotaur, who is present throughout, giants, fine hide jackets, fish of all shapes and sizes, and a faint religiosity that hums quietly in the background before briefly coming to the forefront.

These are merely the images I share a kindred love with, the ones that sank me deeper into Hessler’s world, though they are far from the only hooks.

The poems themselves resist uniform formatting: some are arranged in lines, others in prose, and several break and resume mid-page. It’s a bold choice, even by modern standards, but one that holds the reader’s attention throughout.

While it’s nowhere near as extreme as House of Leaves (another Minotaur-heavy text), it fulfils a similar function, drawing the reader’s attention beyond the words on the page.

Combined with the Dada-esque sketches by Noam himself, the result is not merely a wonderful collection of poetry, but a tactile and thoroughly engaging reading experience.

My favourite poem of them all, the dream-like The Terrorist (For Amber), abandons traditional poetic form entirely, reading instead like a short story in prose; so much so that it could almost be classified as one.

Another fascinating element that appears later in the book, and one that particularly appeals to me as an ex-emo singer, is the series of numerically titled poems, “Screamo Lyrics”. I assume these are fictional band lyrics, complete with notes on how the accompanying music might sound, including the curious addition of steel drums.

The collection is full of these sorts of sleight-of-hand creative exercises, which serve to elevate it from mere poetry into something more like a mini mixed-media project, not unlike a “zine.”

Another standout is Solar Eclipse, Written Before the Solar Eclipse, where playfulness slips into profundity as it hurtles toward its crescendo with lines like:

“There are weeks when nothing happens to me and there are also years, and years, when nothing happens to me.”

Some read almost hymnal, others are micro-poems, and before long you find yourself deep in the five-part poem starring the shopping Minotaur from the cover.

This is a journey of a book, equal parts fisherman’s lament and teenage screamo singer’s angst. It never stays still, and you must keep up!

Another giant, an execution, a burning, and suddenly it’s over.

The afterword is thoughtfully written, a meditation on the nature and origin of poems themselves. It’s a charming touch, almost reminiscent of a behind-the-scenes DVD extra.

I believe this collection was a joint editing and formatting effort by Will Ballard, owner of Farthest Heaven, and Tom Will, another of those talented rogue poets whose names will be familiar to anyone acquainted with the indie poetry scene.

This wonderful book immediately establishes Farthest Heaven as an incredibly promising press, placing it alongside Expat Press and Apocalypse Confidential in the upper echelons of modern American poetry, and one I will keenly follow in my never-ending search for compelling contemporary literature and poetry.

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Buy the book: Farthest Heaven – OFFICEPARKS
Follow Noam: @poetryaccnt1518
Follow Farthest Heaven: @FarthestHeaven

And if you’re interested in this poetry scene in general, follow these two scamps:
Christopher Sandbatch: @CSandbatch
Tom Will: @TomWill72550626