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khuizenga's review against another edition
3.0
In this sometimes strikingly beautiful but uneven collection of poems, I found myself often a bit lost. Harris's real strength is piecing together imagery that evoke strong emotions, and when I knew what she was talking about, I really got it, other times I felt like the essence connected with my heart and not my brain, and other times I was just lost. I think going in with a certain amount of background info on these poems helps - I could connect with most of Harris's politically related pieces because I could identify the context they were coming from. I also loved her use of science, especially seemingly inaccessible science terms that, for me, trigger a lot of connections (Limulus polyphemus, tardigrades, a few other terms thrown into the body of her poems that make my marine biologist brain light up in pleasure). For example:
"O bed of oxygen, divine surge. Be also brackish sea. Be
seed of the frost, and supercooled. Be shade soup.
Sweet hale of beloved drench and mitchondrial belly,"
- from Ablate the Suncups, not the Ice: an Incantation
I'll have to come back to it again. I suspect her style will get easier to understand the more I read it since I grasped a lot more by the second half of the book.
"O bed of oxygen, divine surge. Be also brackish sea. Be
seed of the frost, and supercooled. Be shade soup.
Sweet hale of beloved drench and mitchondrial belly,"
- from Ablate the Suncups, not the Ice: an Incantation
I'll have to come back to it again. I suspect her style will get easier to understand the more I read it since I grasped a lot more by the second half of the book.
nuhafariha's review against another edition
4.0
Thank you to FSG ad NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!
Available August 4th 2020
I was outside, on a rock in the middle of a babbling brook and reading francine j harris's divine collection "Here is the Sweet Hand". I can't think of a more perfect place for these poems, which felt like peeks of sunlight through the dappled trees. Like the small ant peeking over my zippered lunchbox, harris's poems see the world from a whole new perspective. Echoing with warmth, intelligence and unfrettered black magic, this is a collection that hums and sings through the veins like a new day. Her range goes all the way from discussing opera to rapping over Ty Dolla $ign's signature "Or Nah". We see the immense joy and tears that make the modern black femme experience. "Here is the Sweet Hand" is a collection to return to again and again, seeking and seeing in different lights.
Available August 4th 2020
I was outside, on a rock in the middle of a babbling brook and reading francine j harris's divine collection "Here is the Sweet Hand". I can't think of a more perfect place for these poems, which felt like peeks of sunlight through the dappled trees. Like the small ant peeking over my zippered lunchbox, harris's poems see the world from a whole new perspective. Echoing with warmth, intelligence and unfrettered black magic, this is a collection that hums and sings through the veins like a new day. Her range goes all the way from discussing opera to rapping over Ty Dolla $ign's signature "Or Nah". We see the immense joy and tears that make the modern black femme experience. "Here is the Sweet Hand" is a collection to return to again and again, seeking and seeing in different lights.
jhuynh848's review against another edition
I did not understand more than 90% of the poetry therefore I will not rate this book.
alinam's review
4.0
In short, beautiful and heavy. I'd have to say a lot of these were difficult for me to parse and understand but still I enjoyed the descriptive language which had so much depth. I'd say 4 stars for normal times but 3 stars for COVID times because these poems took my heart, made it heavy but didn't release it back out to the world more open than before. The poems bundled me up and I had to find my own way out. They were good, illiciting emotions that, much like the subject matter of the poems, remain unresolved. I'll be thinking on these poems for a while.
imiji's review
challenging
reflective
tense
fast-paced
4.25
this a many-limbed, agile, perceptive collection that is finely attuned to the music and pulse of its language. a delightful and challenging read. "language works over information..." is one i'll be thinking about for a long, long time.
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