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A review by beccamcostello
Calling a Wolf a Wolf by Kaveh Akbar
5.0
An instant favorite.
I liked following the thread of how relationship to language changes through time and place: "I don't understand the words / I babble in home movies from Tehran but I assume / they were lovely I have always been a tangle of tongue and pretty want" (from "Every Drunk Wants to Die Sober It's How We Beat The Game")
I like the reoccurring imagery of love/soul being stuck in the throat: "it's a myth that love lives in the heart / it lives in the throat we push it out when we speak / when we gasp we take a little for ourselves" (from "Heritage")
I like the different ways "wild" nature is portrayed: "sometimes if I'm silent for long enough even the wild around me stops moving" (from "Thirstiness is not Equal Division")
I like that addiction/alcoholism is woven together with life as a whole, not presented separately in a neat package: "to make life first you need a dying star / this seems important with you so close to collapsing yourself" (from "Portrait of the Alcoholic with Moths and River")
I have too many highlights to include all my favorite lines.
"As long as the earth continues its stony breathing, I will breathe. / When it stops, I will shatter back into gravity. Into quartz." (from "Rimrock")
A friend recommended this to me on Twitter when I posted about being a few books short of my 2020 reading goal. I'm very grateful that I tweeted, that she recommended, and that it was immediately available for me to download from the library.
I do dislike reading poetry digitally, so I'll be buying a copy for myself. (Note: the Kindle sometimes formats stuff weirdly, so I'll blame any errors in line breaks on that)
I liked following the thread of how relationship to language changes through time and place: "I don't understand the words / I babble in home movies from Tehran but I assume / they were lovely I have always been a tangle of tongue and pretty want" (from "Every Drunk Wants to Die Sober It's How We Beat The Game")
I like the reoccurring imagery of love/soul being stuck in the throat: "it's a myth that love lives in the heart / it lives in the throat we push it out when we speak / when we gasp we take a little for ourselves" (from "Heritage")
I like the different ways "wild" nature is portrayed: "sometimes if I'm silent for long enough even the wild around me stops moving" (from "Thirstiness is not Equal Division")
I like that addiction/alcoholism is woven together with life as a whole, not presented separately in a neat package: "to make life first you need a dying star / this seems important with you so close to collapsing yourself" (from "Portrait of the Alcoholic with Moths and River")
I have too many highlights to include all my favorite lines.
"As long as the earth continues its stony breathing, I will breathe. / When it stops, I will shatter back into gravity. Into quartz." (from "Rimrock")
A friend recommended this to me on Twitter when I posted about being a few books short of my 2020 reading goal. I'm very grateful that I tweeted, that she recommended, and that it was immediately available for me to download from the library.
I do dislike reading poetry digitally, so I'll be buying a copy for myself. (Note: the Kindle sometimes formats stuff weirdly, so I'll blame any errors in line breaks on that)