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A Fight For My Survival
How to Find God on the Dance Floor is a moving collection of poetry centered around human emotion and the healing power of music and dance. What inspired you to write this particular collection of poems?
I had been going through a rough time in LA trying to get my independent films made which led to a long stretch of depression and isolation. Writing poetry makes me feel alive, almost as much as dancing. So I thought I’d write about what was literally a fight for my survival: getting back to the dance floor.
Can you share a bit about your writing process? Do you have any rituals or routines when writing poetry?
I have to get out of the house. I like to write at cafes because you can be ‘alone’ but around people. I start writing in my journal to excavate how I’m feeling in the deepest most vulnerable place. And then I start handwriting the poetry. It’s weird, poetry is more native to me than the english language. It flows like a river of unceasing word juxtapositions that I have to literally stop in order to function normally. If you saw me in the street, you’d see me talking to myself, saying words out loud to hear how they sound. I look like a crazy person.
Do you have a favorite selection in this collection? One that resonates with you?
My favorite pieces are the last one, because it intentionally sums up the mission of the book: coming out of isolated depression to find a greater sense of life on the dance floor – and – “Do You Have a Nice Ass?” because A) it’s funny and B) it was a weird experiment in breaking down the disappointment of online dating and finding your self worth again.
I also love the fake, funny reviews I put on the back cover.
What is one thing you hope readers take away from this book?
I really hope that readers (especially the underdogs out there) feel their own preciousness in the biggest way. That they see the power in vulnerability and are encouraged to grab life by the balls and do what they love like their life depends on it.
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How to Find God on the Dance Floor
Marlene Rhein’s How to Find God on the Dance Floor is a soul-stirring collection of poetry that doesn’t tiptoe—it stomps, dances, and rages its way across the messy floor of human emotion. Rhein paints an unfiltered portrait of what it means to crave connection, wrestle with loneliness, and dig through the ruins of trauma in search of joy, self-worth, and transcendence. At its core, this is a book about movement—of body, of spirit, of memory—and the sacred power of music, particularly house and hip-hop, as a lifeline to God, to self-love, to sanity.
This is not the tidy, soft kind of poetry you wrap in a Hallmark card—this was truth with cracked lipstick and a pounding bassline. Rhein’s voice is funny, furious, messy, and sharp as glass. The poems are wild and untamed. They jump from nightclub floors to childhood wounds, from pop culture absurdity to sacred vulnerability, and somehow, it all holds together. There’s something deeply cathartic about the way she refuses to keep it cute. She says what we’ve all felt but were too afraid or ashamed to admit. That sometimes you need to dance to remember you’re still alive. That sometimes love comes in the form of sweat and strobe lights, not church pews and neat prayers.
I loved how she blends humor with heartbreak. One minute I was laughing at a dig about pop music at the dentist’s office, the next I was crushed by the weight of a poem about childhood neglect. It’s a rollercoaster, but one you don’t want to get off. Her writing is vulnerable in a way that makes you want to both cheer and cry for her. She doesn’t flinch from her pain or disguise it in metaphor—she spills it, owns it, dances through it. Her spirituality isn’t the polished, book-club kind. It’s gritty, found in flashing lights and gut-level knowing. She makes you believe that healing is possible, even if it’s slow, sweaty, and filled with bad DJs and loneliness.
This book is for anyone who’s ever felt like they didn’t belong, anyone trying to claw their way out of depression, anyone who finds God not in silence but in the chaotic joy of movement. It’s for the feelers, the survivors, and especially the dancers. If you’ve ever needed a reason to get off the couch and reclaim your magic, this book might just be your anthem.
Pages: 112 | ASIN: B0FBX5PDXZ
LITERARY TITAN 