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seabird1116's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
itsmeamethyst's review against another edition
4.0
Loved hearing Saeed Jones read this audiobook of poetry. The poems are fresh/original and the audiobook goes quickly. It would be worth re-listening soon.
robinks's review
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
This is an incredible collection of poetry! I liked how the poems weaved in and out of each other. I also appreciate that who Jones is shines through in every poem.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Minor: Drug use, Mental illness, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
lextypething's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
jonscott9's review against another edition
4.0
So thankful for Saeed Jones' voice in our world of letters. My high expectations for this 2022 tome of poems came after being absorbed into his sphere via the memoir How We Fight for Our Lives. It was painfully beautiful.
Here in Alive, he checks quite a few boxes on the iconic-artists passport – there's Aretha, Toni, Maya, Billie, Cicely, Whitney and Diahann – though despite those divas' appearances, I was perhaps most moved by the poem, "Little Richard Listens to Pat Boone Sing 'Tutti Fruitti.'" Appropriations of Black-made art are nothing new, never will be – see Ryan Charles' videotaped thoughts on Elvis Presley's fame – but they're jarring once one's eyes are opened to truth. (I won't say "woke." Fuck woke.)
Meditations on grief, that over the passing of his mother, are particularly poignant among Jones' pieces here. As soon as I finished, and probably before that, I realized that I need to sit with this batch of poems again before too long. So eager for what he writes next, apart from the Substack newsletter I already get, and am running toward the closest copy of Prelude to a Bruise, his previous work of poetry, that I can find. Candidly, time and again, Saeed Jones finds me.
Here in Alive, he checks quite a few boxes on the iconic-artists passport – there's Aretha, Toni, Maya, Billie, Cicely, Whitney and Diahann – though despite those divas' appearances, I was perhaps most moved by the poem, "Little Richard Listens to Pat Boone Sing 'Tutti Fruitti.'" Appropriations of Black-made art are nothing new, never will be – see Ryan Charles' videotaped thoughts on Elvis Presley's fame – but they're jarring once one's eyes are opened to truth. (I won't say "woke." Fuck woke.)
Meditations on grief, that over the passing of his mother, are particularly poignant among Jones' pieces here. As soon as I finished, and probably before that, I realized that I need to sit with this batch of poems again before too long. So eager for what he writes next, apart from the Substack newsletter I already get, and am running toward the closest copy of Prelude to a Bruise, his previous work of poetry, that I can find. Candidly, time and again, Saeed Jones finds me.
luosymekawa's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
fast-paced
5.0
“The end of the world was mistaken for just another midday massacre in America.”
An incredible book of poems. I will definitely be reading again.
An incredible book of poems. I will definitely be reading again.
nicomarlyse's review against another edition
5.0
“but now, ambered under this streetlight, he pulls me in for a kiss again and I decide, briefly, to let the world kill itself however it chooses: yes, I hear the sirens and I am their scream but tonight, I will moan a future into my man's mouth”