A review by bisexualbookshelf
Like a Hammer: Poets on Mass Incarceration by Diana Marie Delgado

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4.25

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! This book will be released in the US on March 4th, 2025 by Haymarket Books. 

In Like a Hammer: Poets on Mass Incarceration, editor Diana Marie Delgado gathers a compelling collection of poetry that unmasks the painful truths of the U.S. prison-industrial complex, demanding the reader confront the inescapable grip it has on both bodies and minds. These poems are birthed from the voices of the incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and those who love them, each one a testament to the human cost of carcerality. With stark imagery and layered metaphor, the poets refuse to accept the notion that incarceration is an inevitable force, choosing instead to depict it as a monstrous system fueled by colonialism, white supremacy, and capitalism’s demand for control.

The collection is a vivid portrayal of the suffocating nature of imprisonment, where time becomes a stagnant, oppressive force and where families are torn apart, their bonds stretched thin by the miles and glass that separate them. The poets also offer an incisive critique of the systems that push individuals toward crime, exposing the links between poverty, addiction, and state-sanctioned violence. Themes of guilt, survival, and resilience pulse through the pages, as these voices reflect on the dehumanization inherent in both punishment and policing. The body, as both a site of resistance and suffering, is explored with tenderness and urgency, especially through the lens of the feminist experience within the prison system.

One of the most striking elements of Like a Hammer is the experimental form of many poems. Poems like Sin à Tes Souhaits' "TRAP," which interrogates the devastating consequences of racism through multiple definitions of "trap," and Vanessa Angélica Villarreal's "Architect 1," which traces the birth of carcerality back to European colonialism, provide sharp political critique while maintaining deep emotional resonance. Meanwhile, Candace Williams' "black, body" and Nicole Sealey's "An excerpt from ‘Notes from the Visitations’" challenge the dehumanizing structures of policing and the ways they disproportionately affect Black and brown bodies.

Ultimately, Like a Hammer is not just a collection of poems; it is a call to imagine a world beyond prisons, one where justice is not synonymous with suffering. Through these poems, we are asked to witness the pain, but also the resilience, of those who have been brutalized by the system—and in doing so, to demand a future without cages.

📖 Recommended For: Fans of radical poetry, abolitionist thought, and the intersections of personal testimony and political critique; readers interested in the impacts of carcerality on individuals and families; those interested in abolition of police and prisons. 

🔑 Key Themes: Mass Incarceration, Dehumanization, Family Separation, Historical and Systemic Roots of Oppression, Feminist Perspectives on Prison, Resistance and Re-imagining Justice.
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