Reviews - Calling a Wolf a Wolf

488 reviews for:

Kaveh Akbar has quickly become of my favorite poets. After reading Martyr! I knew I needed to engage with more of his writing. In this collection it’s so interesting to see early versions of lines and concepts that found their way into his novel later on. Beautiful language, profound poetry, overall incredibly impactful

sophiesallade's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Calling a Wolf a Wolf is the story of a broken man who wants so desperately to be whole, to be loved, to be recognized, and to find faith in something that will help put him back together. My heart goes out to Cyrus— I mean Kaveh— and I find myself fully on his team, and rooting for him to keep building his life raft.

‘Envy is the only deadly sin that’s no fun for the sinner’

‘I’m becoming more a vessel of memories than a person it’s a myth that love lives in the heart it lives in the throat we push it out when we speak when we gasp we take a little for ourselves’

‘my father believed in gardens delighting at burying each thing in its potential for growth some years the soil was so hard the water seeped down slower than the green seeped up still he’d say if you’re not happy in your own yard you won’t be happy anywhere’

‘I am inconsolable I need
pondfoam and boxed wine in a coffee mug or soothing
saffron and bay leaves I need to be poured dry instead of this slow
seeping it hurts to even think about the leak in my brain
where brackish water trickles in and memory trickles out
with what do I need a hole like that
answer me
with what’

Content Warnings

martinatan's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

azalia's review

5.0

the poetry was beautiful, I only wish that I read a physical copy bc the digital edition I borrowed from the library wouldn't format right.

I guess I'll just have to buy a copy and read it again later.

wildflowers1120's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

best collection of poetry i've ever had the pleasure of reading

ekarick's review against another edition

5.0

I've made it clear I am not to be trusted with a body
always leaving mine bloodless as ice with just a needle
of breath left in its lungs sometimes when I run
I run like a beautiful man in straight lines clean
as spidersilk sometimes if I'm silent for long enough
even the wild around me stops moving