Reviews

Origin Story: Poems by Gary Jackson

lizzderr's review

5.0

Jackson’s debut—Missing You, Metropolis—was a tough act to follow, but it was arguably just warming readers up for the headliner that is origin story. The title can be read as a play on comic book themes, and there are poems that carry on that thread from the previous collection, but it also speaks to the profound family history Jackson plumbs in poems like the gut-punch opener, “holoprosencephaly (hŏl’ō-prŏs’ěn-sěf'əlē).” The poet notes in the acknowledgements that the book belongs to his mother, Kim, as much as it does to him, and that isn’t merely an affectionate gesture: a dozen poems are carved out of transcribed interviews with Kim—born to an African American father and a Korean mother—while others are addressed or quietly speak to her, such that her presence shapes the collection, even in her absence. Still other poems answer naïve questions about race relations (“Isn’t it / getting better?”) with narratives showing sharp-edged facets of the experiences of a Black man in twenty-first century America (and, occasionally, South Korea). This poignant, wise, and provocative collection is a must-read.