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booksteader's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
sloatsj's review against another edition
5.0
I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this collection, though I knew it dealt with ancestry and the American South. The epigraph sets it up well, three lines from a Lucille Clifton poem:
pay attention to
what sits inside yourself
and watches you
I was gladly surprised by how much I liked the poems and Petrosino's approach(es). The subject matter is heavy but the poems are inspired, they breathe. The first section of the book consists of just one poem, which begins:
You're on a train & your ancestors are in the Quiet Car.
Petrosino uses both formal poetry like sonnets and villanelles as well as free verse. One approach that worked really well here was erasure, which she applies to the results of a DNA ancestry test, which shows a mixed heritage from Western Africa, North and East Africa and Northwestern Europe. Some of those poems were published here (note: I found them easier to read on paper than online): https://bit.ly/3y5BwKa
pay attention to
what sits inside yourself
and watches you
I was gladly surprised by how much I liked the poems and Petrosino's approach(es). The subject matter is heavy but the poems are inspired, they breathe. The first section of the book consists of just one poem, which begins:
You're on a train & your ancestors are in the Quiet Car.
Petrosino uses both formal poetry like sonnets and villanelles as well as free verse. One approach that worked really well here was erasure, which she applies to the results of a DNA ancestry test, which shows a mixed heritage from Western Africa, North and East Africa and Northwestern Europe. Some of those poems were published here (note: I found them easier to read on paper than online): https://bit.ly/3y5BwKa
rebeccacider's review against another edition
I'm trying to find words to describe this collection, and so far "lovely" and "ambivalent" come to mind. Petrosino uses repetition and startling images to describe her relationship to an (ever present) past. There's a sense of the author mediating between conflicting narratives, heritages, ways of understanding.
I wish I'd come to this book with a better knowledge of what I will term the Monticello-Industrial Complex, but certainly I've spent enough years living in the Upper South to get the gist. My favorite poems were "Happiness," which is beautiful and distressing and warrants a few rereads, and a series of villanelles titled "Message From the Free Smiths of Louisa County," which address gaps in the historical record. Petrosino reads these omissions as their own kind of resistance, but the resulting absences are nonetheless baffling and heartbreaking. Until reading these poems I'd never realized how much genealogy research feels like playing three-dimensional chess with dead people.
I wish I'd come to this book with a better knowledge of what I will term the Monticello-Industrial Complex, but certainly I've spent enough years living in the Upper South to get the gist. My favorite poems were "Happiness," which is beautiful and distressing and warrants a few rereads, and a series of villanelles titled "Message From the Free Smiths of Louisa County," which address gaps in the historical record. Petrosino reads these omissions as their own kind of resistance, but the resulting absences are nonetheless baffling and heartbreaking. Until reading these poems I'd never realized how much genealogy research feels like playing three-dimensional chess with dead people.
samstebbins's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
buttermellow's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery and Physical abuse
inkdrinkers's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
5.0
"I pay cash to prove myself / no shoplifter. Still, I abscond with my black feelings" (The Shop At Monticello)
In Petrosino's White Blood the traditional ideals of Virginia are juxtaposed against it's deep and dark history of slavery. It's not enough to call this collection one that's rooted in history, with it's poems about Jefferson and the documentation of freed slaves, this is a collection full of raw emotion, full of pain and reminders that though many would prefer to overlook the darkness in the past, it still remains.
I adored these poems. The collection stands so well by itself, but also each part is strong in it's own right. The blackout/omission poetry sections were some of my favorites, using the same passages over and over and choosing to rearrange what words (and sometimes letters) are seen. I want to be this prolific in my life. I want to invoke images like Petrosino so effortlessly does.
Easily one of my favorite poetry collections I've picked up on a whim.
Content Warnings: racism/slavery
In Petrosino's White Blood the traditional ideals of Virginia are juxtaposed against it's deep and dark history of slavery. It's not enough to call this collection one that's rooted in history, with it's poems about Jefferson and the documentation of freed slaves, this is a collection full of raw emotion, full of pain and reminders that though many would prefer to overlook the darkness in the past, it still remains.
I adored these poems. The collection stands so well by itself, but also each part is strong in it's own right. The blackout/omission poetry sections were some of my favorites, using the same passages over and over and choosing to rearrange what words (and sometimes letters) are seen. I want to be this prolific in my life. I want to invoke images like Petrosino so effortlessly does.
Easily one of my favorite poetry collections I've picked up on a whim.
Content Warnings: racism/slavery