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emelynreads's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
Tiana Clark's prose is a treasure, filled with vulnerability and emotion. I really appreciate her imagery and style. I will definitely check out more of her writing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Slavery, Sexual assault, and Racism
jesshooves's review against another edition
5.0
“Nashville is hot chicken on sopping white bread with green pickle / chips—sour to balance prismatic, flame-colored spice / for white people. Or, rather, white people now curate hot / chicken for $16 and two farm-to-table sides” —from poem “Nashville”
genrejourneys's review against another edition
5.0
Rating: 5/5
Art in all its forms, the struggle of not just writing about black pain while also desperately needing to give voice to it, and revisiting the past all come to brilliant effect in this poetry collection.
Art in all its forms, the struggle of not just writing about black pain while also desperately needing to give voice to it, and revisiting the past all come to brilliant effect in this poetry collection.
emilydugranrut's review against another edition
4.0
“Because poems are part animal + part pain machine tearing at flesh, holy somatic control, I guess.”
novelesque_life's review against another edition
5.0
RATING: 4.5 STARS
This evening I read, spoke, felt, cried, smiled, paced, yelled-out-finger-snapped the lines that made my body the tingle. I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood is a raw wound and to the bone. I feel like I was reading Clark’s journal, and yet this is more than Clark's story. This collection is a look at the historical trauma of Black "Americans" to how the generational trauma continues. Even in contemporary time, the Black body is bruised, sexualized and made it worth nothing. It’s the genuine honesty with herself -about herself and those around her - and things around her that made me hold space for this collection. I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood is a difficult book to read, but for that reason it must be read. This is the poems I would want the next generation to read. This collection is inspiration and call for justice even if it's how you believe.
Poetry is so important to connect people to the emotions to what is going on or in historical context. It conveys beyond politics, social issues and love. It takes big scopes and lets you know how it feels personally - and if done correctly- from the body rather than just the mind. This collection gave me inspiration to continue to open up myself to words.
This evening I read, spoke, felt, cried, smiled, paced, yelled-out-finger-snapped the lines that made my body the tingle. I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood is a raw wound and to the bone. I feel like I was reading Clark’s journal, and yet this is more than Clark's story. This collection is a look at the historical trauma of Black "Americans" to how the generational trauma continues. Even in contemporary time, the Black body is bruised, sexualized and made it worth nothing. It’s the genuine honesty with herself -about herself and those around her - and things around her that made me hold space for this collection. I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood is a difficult book to read, but for that reason it must be read. This is the poems I would want the next generation to read. This collection is inspiration and call for justice even if it's how you believe.
Poetry is so important to connect people to the emotions to what is going on or in historical context. It conveys beyond politics, social issues and love. It takes big scopes and lets you know how it feels personally - and if done correctly- from the body rather than just the mind. This collection gave me inspiration to continue to open up myself to words.
annebennett1957's review against another edition
3.0
The poems are powerful and horrifying. I had a hard time understanding most of what I read but I gathered that there was rape, violence against women, racism, and sexism. None of it easy to read.
National Poetry Month Wrap up: https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com/2021/04/national-poetry-month-wrap-up.html
National Poetry Month Wrap up: https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com/2021/04/national-poetry-month-wrap-up.html
scrow1022's review against another edition
5.0
Beautiful and searing and tender and mournful and angry. And rich, so much packed in (history and music and poetry antecedents), going to take a lot of re-reads to fully enter in.
lelex's review against another edition
5.0
"I woke up before anyone else and walked outside barefoot to the chilled porch still slick with a thin layer of morning dew. There was a little coral snake asleep, coiled by a rocking chair. I wasn't afraid this time."
"Jacuzzi-warm water gurgled and spun as his white robe spread around my little circumference, holy creamer."
"because you're gone & your mother is gone all because someone said you stole a backpack meaning your body was made a forgotten altar your body made bodiless kept pushing back as your trial kept pushing back & back & black matter moves backwards in time"
"Kalief Kalief Kalief this is such a poor offering but I am pouring it on the ground like a good rain & whatever softens the earth is your name whatever might grow from that darkening bright spot is your name"
"shows him how she splits herself (as I have) again and again for such a gorgeous, foolish God and man"
"Do they want you, she says, sucking her ghost teeth, or your black pain?" What's the difference? I say."
"I'm ready to find the ruined churches."
"Strange how desire is greedy and silent in stasis. Strange how two bodies can grow without branches."
"Jacuzzi-warm water gurgled and spun as his white robe spread around my little circumference, holy creamer."
"because you're gone & your mother is gone all because someone said you stole a backpack meaning your body was made a forgotten altar your body made bodiless kept pushing back as your trial kept pushing back & back & black matter moves backwards in time"
"Kalief Kalief Kalief this is such a poor offering but I am pouring it on the ground like a good rain & whatever softens the earth is your name whatever might grow from that darkening bright spot is your name"
"shows him how she splits herself (as I have) again and again for such a gorgeous, foolish God and man"
"Do they want you, she says, sucking her ghost teeth, or your black pain?" What's the difference? I say."
"I'm ready to find the ruined churches."
"Strange how desire is greedy and silent in stasis. Strange how two bodies can grow without branches."