Take a photo of a barcode or cover
bookishlibrarian 's review for:
A Little Daylight Left: Poems
by Sarah Kay
I liked this collection a lot. For me I found this, as in a lot of spoken word poetry, that the rhythm and momentum of the poems cause me to speed up my reading of the poem, where I get more out of the poems when I slow down. (This is a me thing.) A few that stood out: "A Bird Made of Birds," "Worth Celebrating," "Knowing," "To Whoever Broke into the Rental Car & Stole My Vibrator," "Quiet," "Sharpshooters", "Jello," and "Reader, Dear."
The poems cover a lot of ground: what we inherit from our parents (her photographer parents' knack for noticing), infertility, her mother's hospital stay, and more. A couple of my favorite poems are about the temporariness of relationships, whether it be a break-up at Whole Foods ("Table Games") or friendship in the lovely "Worth Celebrating" which has the lines "..someone will be the first to let the friendship stale,/will stop answering calls, someone too must be the first to die./In the meantime, I suggest we fill our pockets with picnics & potlucks./Phone calls & photographs & songs we know in four-part harmony."
A lot of poems are about vulnerability: emotional vulnerability but also physical vulnerability as a woman, which resonates in poems like "The Poet's Father Wakes in a Cold Sweat," "I Am Seventeen & Everyone", and "To Whoever Broke into the Rental Car...." which by the title leads you to believe that it's going to be funny, and it is, but then hits you with, "I too have dreamed of owning what was not meant for me./I too have lusted after the high of a wide stance on a crowded subway.//the buzz of a boardroom that will look me in the eyes--/who can be blamed for that desire" and "Sometimes I envy your ability to take." This makes the sweet opening poem "Ode to the Two Girls in the Outfield of the Tee Ball Game" hit differently, too.
The poems cover a lot of ground: what we inherit from our parents (her photographer parents' knack for noticing), infertility, her mother's hospital stay, and more. A couple of my favorite poems are about the temporariness of relationships, whether it be a break-up at Whole Foods ("Table Games") or friendship in the lovely "Worth Celebrating" which has the lines "..someone will be the first to let the friendship stale,/will stop answering calls, someone too must be the first to die./In the meantime, I suggest we fill our pockets with picnics & potlucks./Phone calls & photographs & songs we know in four-part harmony."
A lot of poems are about vulnerability: emotional vulnerability but also physical vulnerability as a woman, which resonates in poems like "The Poet's Father Wakes in a Cold Sweat," "I Am Seventeen & Everyone", and "To Whoever Broke into the Rental Car...." which by the title leads you to believe that it's going to be funny, and it is, but then hits you with, "I too have dreamed of owning what was not meant for me./I too have lusted after the high of a wide stance on a crowded subway.//the buzz of a boardroom that will look me in the eyes--/who can be blamed for that desire" and "Sometimes I envy your ability to take." This makes the sweet opening poem "Ode to the Two Girls in the Outfield of the Tee Ball Game" hit differently, too.