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ubepandesol's review against another edition
What better way to close out my Sealey Challenge 2023 than by reading a book written by the challenge creator herself? I'm glad I participated this year; next year I'll surely plan ahead better and inundate myself with more re-reads than new finds, and this is one of the books I'm looking forward to re-reading~
rudyyy's review against another edition
4.0
Really just good poetry tbh. Would’ve been 5/5 but the very first poem’s first lines seemed homophobic to me lmao? Kind of jarringly so. But otherwise, powerful and well-done. I would read more of her work. When I read “candelabra with heads” I honestly gasped when I saw the poem start to reverse around itself at its center.
Favorite poems: a violence, candelabra with heads, hysterical strength, the first person who will life to be one hundred and fifty years old has already been born, heretofore unuttered, even the gods, object permanence
Favorite poems: a violence, candelabra with heads, hysterical strength, the first person who will life to be one hundred and fifty years old has already been born, heretofore unuttered, even the gods, object permanence
caramels's review against another edition
4.0
“Allow me this
luxury. Give me tonight to cut
and salt the open. Give me a shovel
to uproot the mandrake and listen
for its scream. Give me a face that toils
so closely with stone, it is itself
stone. I promise to enter the flesh again.
I promise to circle to ascend.
I promise to be happy tomorrow.”
luxury. Give me tonight to cut
and salt the open. Give me a shovel
to uproot the mandrake and listen
for its scream. Give me a face that toils
so closely with stone, it is itself
stone. I promise to enter the flesh again.
I promise to circle to ascend.
I promise to be happy tomorrow.”
leigh_reidelberger's review against another edition
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.