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lmurray74's review
5.0
A brilliant collection of poems where simple language belies the power of the words.
Maxine Beneba Clarke was born in Australia to parents who met in London's Caribbean community: her mother is from Guyana and her dad is from Jamaica.
These poems truly do carry the world and the rhythm pulls you in and under. It's impossible to choose a few lines as without the context they don't mean as much.
The book is made up of short story poems that draw on personal heritage and current events: personal and political. I cannot recommend this collection highly enough.
Maxine Beneba Clarke was born in Australia to parents who met in London's Caribbean community: her mother is from Guyana and her dad is from Jamaica.
These poems truly do carry the world and the rhythm pulls you in and under. It's impossible to choose a few lines as without the context they don't mean as much.
The book is made up of short story poems that draw on personal heritage and current events: personal and political. I cannot recommend this collection highly enough.
earlgreybooks's review
4.0
Always love me so Maxine Beneba Clarke. All of these were great but I especially loved The End of the Affair.
rcampbell's review
4.0
Really enjoyed this collection, not someone who reads or knows a lot about poetry but there were definitely a few poems that really resonated with me after living in Australia for the last year. "Unmiracle" "subtext" and "show me a girl, at five" had me re-reading them aloud again. Think most of the collection benefits from being read aloud. Would highly recommend to anyone looking for accessible poetry who is interested in issues of race and gender in particular.
georgiarybanks's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
I really loved this book.
Here’s the thing.
Before the world went into lockdown, I hadn’t read any poetry since high school.
It didn’t strike me as the kind of thing you’d do for pleasure. I thought it was all old English dudes using words I didn’t know, making references to literature I hadn’t read. It felt sense and dull.
But, I started reading more poetry in lockdown (by Rupi Kaur and Allison Whittaker). My 2020 brain found skinny poetry collections less intimidating than big chunky novels.
I borrowed Carrying the World from the library, because I loved Beneba Clarke’s memoir (The Hate Race) and short story collection (Foreign Soil).
I was hooked from the very first poem.
I stayed up too late, reading out loud.
I was totally engrossed in poems about
- being a single mum in Melbourne,
- a teenager calling Adam Goodes an ape during the AFL’s Indigenous Round,
- that feeling when someone on the street asks you for change and you don’t have any cash on you
- Black history and slavery and Maya Angelou
There was none of that confusing inaccessibility that I’d found in high school English classes. The poems felt clear and authentic and powerful and challenging and just really bloody good.
Apparently I love poetry now?
Please recommend your favourite poets to me!
Here’s the thing.
Before the world went into lockdown, I hadn’t read any poetry since high school.
It didn’t strike me as the kind of thing you’d do for pleasure. I thought it was all old English dudes using words I didn’t know, making references to literature I hadn’t read. It felt sense and dull.
But, I started reading more poetry in lockdown (by Rupi Kaur and Allison Whittaker). My 2020 brain found skinny poetry collections less intimidating than big chunky novels.
I borrowed Carrying the World from the library, because I loved Beneba Clarke’s memoir (The Hate Race) and short story collection (Foreign Soil).
I was hooked from the very first poem.
I stayed up too late, reading out loud.
I was totally engrossed in poems about
- being a single mum in Melbourne,
- a teenager calling Adam Goodes an ape during the AFL’s Indigenous Round,
- that feeling when someone on the street asks you for change and you don’t have any cash on you
- Black history and slavery and Maya Angelou
There was none of that confusing inaccessibility that I’d found in high school English classes. The poems felt clear and authentic and powerful and challenging and just really bloody good.
Apparently I love poetry now?
Please recommend your favourite poets to me!
babblingbooks's review
5.0
Utterly brilliant and so moving. A mix of quiet, fierce, melancholy and hopeful poems about so many topics, politics, racism, history, colonisation, identity, single parenthood, and the craft of poetry.
One to reread again and again.
One to reread again and again.
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