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cnnr876's review
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
picked up from the library after hearing her name mentioned by hanif abdurraqib at city arts and lectures talk. the water themes and metaphors were pleasant, but can’t tell if it was my favorite poetry
raloveridge's review
4.0
Really beautiful forthcoming collection from Four Way Books—highly recommend this!
seebrandyread's review
4.0
Yona Harvey's poems in Hemming the Water are often experiments in space and sound. On one page, the lines may spread across the page with large gaps between words, on the next, each line is comprised of only a word or two. Harvey draws much of her inspiration from music, specifically the compositions of jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams. Improvisation, an awareness of rhythm, and space for breath and silence mark her work in separate or even the same poem.
The collection is structured around the idea of growth and change. The first section of poems, "The Gate to the Water," discusses barriers both within and without the narrator, particularly barriers of the body, her comfort or discomfort with its shape and movement or its similarities to her mother's. The body carries the potential to further or hinder, but that potential often hinges on the way we see ourselves. It can also bring us closer to other women or it can be a tool for division.
The second section ("Swimming Lessons") has the narrator coping with life--the birth of children, living as a Black woman raising Black children in a hostile environment, and the other disasters, literal and metaphorical, lurking around each corner of passing time. The narrator begins to find her place in the world. Two of the most interesting poems are in this section: "'The Antelope as Document'" and "Gingivitis, Notes on Fear." The first is a meta take on poetry as a form of witness. The second, is shaped in part like a concrete poem and suggests two ways of reading it.
The final section or "The Shape the Water Takes," presents a more confident narrator. The same struggles and fears are there, but she's more equipped to deal with them. Some of the poems are reflective or speak to previous poems from a point of more experience. She continues to have conversations with other artists like Neruda and Toni Morrison but as a more seasoned writer. She is more prepared to accept what life gives.
The collection is structured around the idea of growth and change. The first section of poems, "The Gate to the Water," discusses barriers both within and without the narrator, particularly barriers of the body, her comfort or discomfort with its shape and movement or its similarities to her mother's. The body carries the potential to further or hinder, but that potential often hinges on the way we see ourselves. It can also bring us closer to other women or it can be a tool for division.
The second section ("Swimming Lessons") has the narrator coping with life--the birth of children, living as a Black woman raising Black children in a hostile environment, and the other disasters, literal and metaphorical, lurking around each corner of passing time. The narrator begins to find her place in the world. Two of the most interesting poems are in this section: "'The Antelope as Document'" and "Gingivitis, Notes on Fear." The first is a meta take on poetry as a form of witness. The second, is shaped in part like a concrete poem and suggests two ways of reading it.
The final section or "The Shape the Water Takes," presents a more confident narrator. The same struggles and fears are there, but she's more equipped to deal with them. Some of the poems are reflective or speak to previous poems from a point of more experience. She continues to have conversations with other artists like Neruda and Toni Morrison but as a more seasoned writer. She is more prepared to accept what life gives.
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