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booksthatburn's review
5.0
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Grief, Police brutality, Sexual content, Racism, Child death, Murder, Chronic illness, Suicide, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Homophobia, and Medical content
Minor: Pregnancy, Miscarriage, and Drug use
faithratesbooks's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Grief, Colonisation, and Suicide
Minor: Confinement, Gaslighting, Grief, Blood, Murder, Death, Genocide, Violence, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Racism, Infertility, Racial slurs, Medical trauma, and Medical content
elwirax's review against another edition
3.0
"...we did not build your boats (though we did leave a trail of kin to guide us home). we did not build your prisons (though we did & we fill them too). we did not ask to be part of your America (though are we not America? her joints brittle & dragging a ripped gown through Oakland?). i can’t stand your ground. i’m sick of calling your recklessness the law. each night, i count my brothers. & in the morning, when some do not survive to be counted, i count the holes they leave. - dear white america
"anything is possible in a place where you can burn a body with less outrage than a flag" - every day is a funeral & a miracle
This collection had many beautiful, and reflective lines while focusing on difficult subject matter like police brutality, racism, HIV, mortality and sexuality. dear white america , every day is a funeral & a miracle and not an elegy were by far my favourite pieces in this collection, the anger and frustration that flows out of them was hard-hitting and raw. Poems like dream where every black person is standing by the ocean focused on the importance of remembering the hardships endured by the Black community while others emphasised caring past a hashtag/ momentary social media interest and aiming for real change. As in its opening poem (summer, somewhere) that imagines a world where all lost Black boys are resurrected, Smith offers moments of hope in between the more hard-hitting themes.
However, I really don't think that the type of poetry in the first half was really for me i.e. disjointed (line breaks at strange times that hinder reading and make it seem like words have just been thrown together) and written in a way that makes it difficult to grasp the full meaning. I personally prefer a solid structure /fully formed sentences (like in the second half) when it comes to poetry.
By no means was it a bad poetry collection though, it was personal and emotional in its subject matter, but I don't really know what to rate it so I'm going to leave it blank for now.
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Police brutality, Racial slurs, and Racism
clnpbd's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Murder, Police brutality, and Violence
Minor: Suicide
calcijade's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Grief, Chronic illness, Blood, Death, Medical content, Racism, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Racial slurs, Gun violence, Police brutality, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Murder
Minor: Suicide
camsara99's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Medical content, Murder, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Violence
Minor: Slavery and Suicide
wormytoby's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Medical content, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Racial slurs, and Sexual content
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Fatphobia
sarah984's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Death, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Medical content, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicide, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Blood, Child death, Drug use, Homophobia, Self harm, and Slavery