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katherineharnisch's review
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
This collection of poetry truly does capture the spirit of life in America. With a heavy focus on incarcerated persons (the author often teaches English at prisons), the poems speak on what freedom means, what haunts those who do not have a traditional form of freedom, and what it means to exist in various parts of America. Many poems focus on juvenile detention centers, several focus on specific places in America, and a few focus on what it means to be alive in America (through history as well as currently). The poet has a pretty distinct voice, and it worked well in many of the poems. However, there were a few poems where this fell a little flat, or even seemed a little forced. I felt this was specifically in “Donuts in Kidjail,” where it felt like the underlying message of what freedom means to different people was much more overt than most of the poems. Overall a good read if you are looking for poems on the American existence.
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