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jesshooves's review
“In order to grieve properly / you must remember...Some say writing is an act of remembering. / What has been forever lost. The sensations lodged in teeth cracks and / throat muscles.”
julziez's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
jd_brubaker's review
5.0
I try writing down quotes from every book of poetry I read. It's a way for me to more thoroughly absorb what I'm reading, as well as look back on the book to see what stood out when I read it. I also believe this practice allows me to challenge the ways I look at literature, stretches my ability to be both critical and receptive of what I read. Some books I write down very few quotes. I am not going to be the intended audience for every book of poetry I read.
This book, I took four and a half pages of hand-written notes. To say that I devoured this book, that it hit me in tremendous ways, is to understate the impact.
This book wrestles with so many themes and subthemes, I can't list them all. Central to these poems are grief, identity (issues of gender and sexuality and race), and the always rolling/roaming/untethered relationship with our bodies. This book feels imbibed with an entire lifetime of questions and answers. It seems to look at subthemes of family, friendship, love, sex, romance, social expectations and stereotypes, etc.
And while the imagery and the writing are striking and don't hold back, the emotions evoked are subtle and almost gentle. Even when the images project violence, whether physical or emotional, there is a tenderness, a kind of heavy compassion the speaker presents to the reader:
"No monument, / only blood-earth, / warm salve to open throat-bone. / How to live between mother and time?" (pg 7).
"A narrative / wired in cells, desolate root" (pg 10).
"[We / bracket infinity]" (pg 17).
"Shiny perpendicular - my cunt wet all day - / legions of waste in my body" (pg 29).
"Only I see my stranger" (pg 30).
"I love you like a saw / into barely beating / heart" (pg 48).
I think my favorite quotes from those I've written down are these:
"Seer said, betrayal is always a symbol of the soul being upgraded" (pg 77).
"Deception is often a reciprocal activity" (pg 80).
"In order to grieve properly you must remember - even if remembering is a non-space, more like a feeling than an image. Some say writing is an act of remember what has been forever lost" (pg 88).
"To love incessantly despite the reader's inability to extract anything at all from the remnant" (pg 95).
"To mutate is to live" (pg 99)
Even typing these up right now has given me chills along my arms. There's something visceral here, something deeply carnal and rooted in grief that simply catches the collar of the reader and never lets go. Not even when the last poem is over does this book let go, and I find it magical. Natural. Nature-human focused. It's as if the speaker is using the poems to search for something; something lost, something hidden, something stolen, something broken. I have this book on my To-Read-Again pile because there was too much in it for me to absorb it all at once. It is truly a stunning piece of work.
I gave it five stars. Highly recommend.
This book, I took four and a half pages of hand-written notes. To say that I devoured this book, that it hit me in tremendous ways, is to understate the impact.
This book wrestles with so many themes and subthemes, I can't list them all. Central to these poems are grief, identity (issues of gender and sexuality and race), and the always rolling/roaming/untethered relationship with our bodies. This book feels imbibed with an entire lifetime of questions and answers. It seems to look at subthemes of family, friendship, love, sex, romance, social expectations and stereotypes, etc.
And while the imagery and the writing are striking and don't hold back, the emotions evoked are subtle and almost gentle. Even when the images project violence, whether physical or emotional, there is a tenderness, a kind of heavy compassion the speaker presents to the reader:
"No monument, / only blood-earth, / warm salve to open throat-bone. / How to live between mother and time?" (pg 7).
"A narrative / wired in cells, desolate root" (pg 10).
"[We / bracket infinity]" (pg 17).
"Shiny perpendicular - my cunt wet all day - / legions of waste in my body" (pg 29).
"Only I see my stranger" (pg 30).
"I love you like a saw / into barely beating / heart" (pg 48).
I think my favorite quotes from those I've written down are these:
"Seer said, betrayal is always a symbol of the soul being upgraded" (pg 77).
"Deception is often a reciprocal activity" (pg 80).
"In order to grieve properly you must remember - even if remembering is a non-space, more like a feeling than an image. Some say writing is an act of remember what has been forever lost" (pg 88).
"To love incessantly despite the reader's inability to extract anything at all from the remnant" (pg 95).
"To mutate is to live" (pg 99)
Even typing these up right now has given me chills along my arms. There's something visceral here, something deeply carnal and rooted in grief that simply catches the collar of the reader and never lets go. Not even when the last poem is over does this book let go, and I find it magical. Natural. Nature-human focused. It's as if the speaker is using the poems to search for something; something lost, something hidden, something stolen, something broken. I have this book on my To-Read-Again pile because there was too much in it for me to absorb it all at once. It is truly a stunning piece of work.
I gave it five stars. Highly recommend.
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