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steveatwaywords's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.5
Wow, what a collection of personal politics that is demanding of our attention. Soto's work makes the public personal, collectively draws and synthesizes authorial, speaker, and social experiences of contemporary events--especially of the victimizing of the non-binary and people of color. In so doing, we are drawn into the confessional spaces; the offering is an intimate discomfort for those who live it, and an alarming call to those readers who have not.
Soto delivers his verse across a variety of open forms, but one fairly unique device employed is the double-slash frequently appearing inside lines: the result is an underlining of significance, the reading of a break without distance, of breakage without release. I found myself fascinated by its readerly effects throughout.
Soto cites a number of influences on his work, but I am unsurprised that Eileen Myles is among them. The poetry here foregrounds a kind of captivity, slapping readers with graphic moments and discomforting juxtaposition. The result is a feeling of responsibility for what we so easily ignore or assuage our guilt by social slacktivism. We cannot close this book without at once a feeling of grateful release but also an understanding that we nevertheless are neighbors (and even allies) of death and terror.
Soto delivers his verse across a variety of open forms, but one fairly unique device employed is the double-slash frequently appearing inside lines: the result is an underlining of significance, the reading of a break without distance, of breakage without release. I found myself fascinated by its readerly effects throughout.
Soto cites a number of influences on his work, but I am unsurprised that Eileen Myles is among them. The poetry here foregrounds a kind of captivity, slapping readers with graphic moments and discomforting juxtaposition. The result is a feeling of responsibility for what we so easily ignore or assuage our guilt by social slacktivism. We cannot close this book without at once a feeling of grateful release but also an understanding that we nevertheless are neighbors (and even allies) of death and terror.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, Death, Racism, Hate crime, and Homophobia
axmed's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
When prisons close // We hope there are no museums for pain // Where tourists can safely visit nobody // While prisoners are in solitary // Around this country // We made phone calls // To our deaf friends // Telling them to hurry // To the hospital // That Ross holds // The angles of angels // Have you heard // The extreme loneliness // Of the pervert parade
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