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blaze_o_glory's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Pilgrim Bell contains a quiet anger easily confused with sadness or overlooked entirely. My favorite poems are An Oversight, Against Memory, and The Palace.
lisali's review against another edition
5.0
I have 83 highlights, let me bring out my favourites (of my favourites):
“Robot” from the Czech robota, meaning forced labour.
♡ Fear. Comes only. At our invitation but. It comes. It came.
Dizzy is the soul, dizzy is the soul with all its lies about the soul.
There are moments in every day if you asked me to leave, I would.
♡ A failure of courage is still a victory of safety.
Suppose. There was a reason for it. Suppose there wasn’t.
My empire made me happy because it was an empire, cruel, and the suffering wasn’t my own,
Whatever I learn makes me angry to have learned it.
The mouth full of meat, the earth full of dust.
May I feather into such a swan soon.
Consider our whole galaxy stakes in place by a single star. I fear we haven’t said nearly enough about that.
Time will break what doesn’t bend - even time. Even you.
♡ I hope somebody forgets you today too. I hope somebody cuts that ribbon free.
I would prefer. Not. To be outlived. By anyone.
Every person I touch costs me ten million I’ll never met.
♡ He is asked to turn his shirt inside out. He is asked? His insides, out.
Art is where what we survive survives.
Don’t judge him by the first thought to enter his head. Judge him by the second.
“Robot” from the Czech robota, meaning forced labour.
♡ Fear. Comes only. At our invitation but. It comes. It came.
Dizzy is the soul, dizzy is the soul with all its lies about the soul.
There are moments in every day if you asked me to leave, I would.
♡ A failure of courage is still a victory of safety.
Suppose. There was a reason for it. Suppose there wasn’t.
My empire made me happy because it was an empire, cruel, and the suffering wasn’t my own,
Whatever I learn makes me angry to have learned it.
The mouth full of meat, the earth full of dust.
May I feather into such a swan soon.
Consider our whole galaxy stakes in place by a single star. I fear we haven’t said nearly enough about that.
Time will break what doesn’t bend - even time. Even you.
♡ I hope somebody forgets you today too. I hope somebody cuts that ribbon free.
I would prefer. Not. To be outlived. By anyone.
Every person I touch costs me ten million I’ll never met.
♡ He is asked to turn his shirt inside out. He is asked? His insides, out.
Art is where what we survive survives.
Don’t judge him by the first thought to enter his head. Judge him by the second.
cgcpoems's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
This is the second collection I’ve read from Akbar & I enjoyed it just as much. These aren’t poems to read causally—they demand your attention, & are better when you give it.
antennaclasses's review against another edition
3.5
this is telling about me: my first thoughts midway through the book is that the poems are wildly inventive and greatly inviting but sometimes the sunshine feels a bit enforced? as though (and this is the clincher in my philosophy) speaking from a liberation I have not achieved yet or does not seem to really exist (the secret hope that my misery has company: is this just me or is this the polemic of our literary moment?)
also, of course, postcolonial trope of evaluating your english as a Choice mid-poem, often echoing past colonial violence. sometimes it shows up as grammar trickery. I like this version. sometimes it shows up as an etymology lesson. I don’t like this version. “my father speaks perfect english” is a perfect line and is also scary
sara_shocks's review against another edition
4.0
Favorites: "The Miracle," "There are 7,000 Living Languages," "My Empire," "Forfeiting My Mystique," "Ultrasound," "Shadian Incident," "Reading Farrokzhad in a Pandemic," and "The Palace."
eggandart's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0