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leigh_reidelberger's review
4.0
Ordinary Beast:Poems is a really great collection by a very talented, poetic visionary. I know that sounds like a semi- pretentious way to describe a book of poetry, but Nicole Sealey really made me think in a way I haven't in a while. While the poems in their entirety are great, it's how many times I found single lines at a time that said so much and made me want to commit them to memory that made me fall in love. I've had this book just a couple hours and it's already dog earred.
Favorites:
Medical History
Hysterical strength
the first person....has already been born
in defense of "candelabra with heads"
Favorites:
Medical History
Hysterical strength
the first person....has already been born
in defense of "candelabra with heads"
xomeera's review against another edition
2.5
Some interesting things with form and commentary going on here, but overall many of the poems either fell flat for me or felt too heavy-handed, and not much of it stuck with me for long after. Still had a few really touching and impactful ones though—“virginia is for lovers” and “in defense of candelabra with heads” particularly stood out.
crookedtreehouse's review against another edition
You look just like
your mother," he says, "who looks just like a fire
of suspicious origin." A body, I've read, can sustain
its own sick burning, its own hell for hours.
It's the mind. It's the mind that cannot.
I don't usually rate and review poetry books but for the month of August, I'm doing the Sealey challenge where you read a book of poetry a day. I"m starting with the poet who inspired the challenge, Nicole Sealey.
I created a Suite Of Prompts based on this book, and reread her book as part of creating an all POC poetry reading list for some friends who are new to poetry.
your mother," he says, "who looks just like a fire
of suspicious origin." A body, I've read, can sustain
its own sick burning, its own hell for hours.
It's the mind. It's the mind that cannot.
I don't usually rate and review poetry books but for the month of August, I'm doing the Sealey challenge where you read a book of poetry a day. I"m starting with the poet who inspired the challenge, Nicole Sealey.
I created a Suite Of Prompts based on this book, and reread her book as part of creating an all POC poetry reading list for some friends who are new to poetry.
lifesaverscandyofficial's review
promising and fascinating first collection. the Paris Is Burning poems don’t quite stack up, but I’m wild for so many others. she won me with the Brad Pitt poem!
chrism1's review
3.0
The volume didn't work for me as a whole. As much as I adore the film, Clue, the Clue poem just doesn't work. The Brad Pitt one also doesn't hit its mark. If there had been more thematic cohesion within the book, I would have liked this book a lot more than I did.