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lindseyzank's review against another edition
4.0
A sharp, intentional collection of poems about family, love, loss, racism, slavery, childhood, womanhood, and magic. Finney’s words are silky, hitting all of the right places on my tongue when I read them out loud. Her stanzas build momentum and energy as they work towards conveying ever important messages about relationships and injustices and how we make our way in this often unfair yet beautiful world. Her poems are filled with anecdotes built from well crafted scenes. Some of my favorites in this collection: “The Greatest Show on Earth,” a poem about “Black woman as spectacle;” “Shark Bite,” a poem in which Finney meditates on the horrors of slavery for Black women, as felt through the sea; “Mean Nina,” an enlightening poem about Finney’s Great Aunt at the end of her life; “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau,” a poem in which Finney imagines herself meeting Jacques Cousteau underwater and wondering about her ancestors who perished there during the slave trade; and “The New Cotton,” a poem about prison work lines, which are really no different than slave cotton picking ones.
In the penultimate poem, “Fishing Among the Learned,” Finney uses the metaphor of fishing to reflect on how we best teach others. She asks, “Will I teach them anything that the world will later ask of them to be sure and know?” This very poem will help frame my next year of teaching. The lessons of this collection, for both Finney herself about her family, and her readers about life, run as deep as the seas about which she writes.
In the penultimate poem, “Fishing Among the Learned,” Finney uses the metaphor of fishing to reflect on how we best teach others. She asks, “Will I teach them anything that the world will later ask of them to be sure and know?” This very poem will help frame my next year of teaching. The lessons of this collection, for both Finney herself about her family, and her readers about life, run as deep as the seas about which she writes.
lexibarstow's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.75
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