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4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
"I am sealing all my faults with platinum// so they'll gleam like the barrel of a laser gun," the poet writes, and that seems like a very fitting description of what is going on in this book. This is raw, visceral poetry dealing with some heavy subjects (most notably alcoholism and other addictions), yet it is often beautiful and always powerful. Some of the imagery in the poems is complex and difficult to unpack, but just when you feel you're getting too tangled up, the poet will drop in a simple declarative sentence that clears the air. Here's one: "I like it fine, this daily struggle// to not die, to not drink or smoke or snort anything/ that might return me to combustibility." Or how about this? "Most days I try hard to act human, to breathe/ like a human and speak with the same flat language, but often// my kindness is clumsy." I feel like I'm not doing this book justice at all, but it's one of those books that is almost impossible to review. Just get a copy and find out for yourself.
(Note: I received my copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway.)
(Note: I received my copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway.)
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
"things / have been getting / less and less hypothetical / since i unhitched myself / from your bedpost." charming collection
one of the best books of poetry I've ever read, the kind that leaves me longing. hard to read while getting sober but important
“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”
it lives in the throat we push it out
when we speak
when we gasp we take a little for ourselves”
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Kaveh Akbar's "Calling a Wolf a Wolf" is an at times terrifying stumble through the intimacies of faith and religion, and the loneliness of addiction and recovery.
The language and imagery walk the line between abstraction and accessibility in a way I can only hope to one day emulate. Lines like, "When he died/ I opened myself to death, the way a fallen tree// opens itself to the wild" truly shook me. My hands itched to pick up a pen.
This is a beautiful collection. Some of my favorites were "Portrait of the Alcoholic with Home Invader and Housefly," "Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Inpatient), and "Portrait of the Alcoholic Three Weeks Sober."
The language and imagery walk the line between abstraction and accessibility in a way I can only hope to one day emulate. Lines like, "When he died/ I opened myself to death, the way a fallen tree// opens itself to the wild" truly shook me. My hands itched to pick up a pen.
This is a beautiful collection. Some of my favorites were "Portrait of the Alcoholic with Home Invader and Housefly," "Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Inpatient), and "Portrait of the Alcoholic Three Weeks Sober."
"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"
easily one of the best poetry collections i've read this year. it's so raw & poignant - from the very first poem, it rips out ur bones, leaves u hollow and aching. only to then delicately share w u its own journey to recovery, its own tricks for learning to love urself. (they don't always work)
"I hold my breath.
The boat I am building
will never be done."
challenging
emotional
hopeful
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced