Poetry collection – Brown Girl Reading

Dear Ancestors Poems & Reflections on the African Diaspora

Poetry is not something I pick up very much but in the past 4 years I’ve had the pleasure of reading some fantastic poetry collections. This year has started with Dear Ancestors Poems & Reflections on the African Diaspora by CP Patrick, author of the compelling novel The Truth About Awiti. There are poems in this collection that come from The Truth About Awiti. I strongly recommend you check it out because it is quite the story with a dash of fantasy and deals with the African diaspora and the transAtlantic slave trade.

It’s a slim collection containing only 58 pages, a short poem on each page. To the eye that would appear to be slither to discuss such a complex subject, but believe me it’s more than enough. From the first poem I was thrown into the African diaspora, my emotions rising within. I could put it down and when I did I had finished and reread it a second time.

The collection is structured in 4 parts – Home, Middle Passage/Second Home, Bondage, Freedom or Something Like It. The poems in each section are perfectly understandable. These poems are not obscure or difficult to understand. They are written with nuance and a perspective that will touch you before you realize it. These poems made me reflect but also made me remember how proud I am to be black. I come from strong people. People that have a history that doesn’t just start with slavery.

The fact that CP Patrick begins the collection with poems from the section Home that cherishes the beginnings of black people in Africa – free with their own lives and customs, good and bad, exhibits her desire to tell our entire story.

“if but for a moment

you were

stillborn

descending from the heavens

leaving the safety of my warm womb

you saw this sad world

and changed your mind”

clairvoyant stillborn

CP Patrick, Dear Ancestors Poems & Reflections on the African Diaspora, p. 28

If you’d like to pick up a copy of Dear Ancestors or any of my other recommendations please consider clicking my affiliate link for The Book Depository. It would be much appreciated. It will help fund my incessant book buying, reading, and reviewing. Thank you!

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American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin – Terrance Hayes

When I heard about the release of this American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, I knew I had to read it. I don’t often read poetry but when I do it’s because I’m sure the collection is going to move me. And this one did that and more.

This collection was savvy, intelligent, angry, creative, and has its pages and words on the pulse of what’s wrong with America. How does a poet cope with the election of a new president? Lyrical and rhythmic, Hayes let’s us know what the deal is. So you need to be ready. He’s angry. Every sonnet in the collection has the same title, ‘American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin’. One of the coolest things about this collection is that there is a sonnet index at the back. The first line of each sonnet with its page number moreover when you read each line in the index it makes another poem.

In this collection, Hayes is the assassin but so are we if we feel as angry as he does. He makes it clear that we are all linked and that we need to realize that and act like it. He also reiterates that we’re in the shit! He uses everything from police brutality to pop culture to express his thoughts so if you aren’t up on the news, music, literature, tv, shows, movies, etc., it might be difficult to understand the meaning behind these sonnets. I personally found them excellent and would recommend them to everyone, especially to Americans. I’ve already read it twice. Finding new meaning throughout the collection and I will surely pick it up again. We are going through a difficult and unprecedented period in the United States that needs to change for the better! All I can say is read American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin for some consolation and most of all vote! Check out the video below where Terrance Hayes talks about his writing and reads a few of his poems. He’s brilliant!

“AMERICAN SONNET FOR MY PAST AND FUTURE ASSASSIN

The umpteenth thump on the rump of a badunkadunk
Stumps us. The link, the chump, the hunk of plunder.
The umpteenth horny, honky stump speech pumps
A funky rumble over air. The umpteenth slump
In our humming democracy, a bumble bureaucracy
With teeny tiny wings too small for its rumpled,
Dumpling of a body. Humpty-Dumpy. Frumpy
Suit. The umpteenth honk of hollow thunder.
The umpteenth Believe me. The umpteenth grumpy,
Jumpy retort. Chump change, casino game, tuxedo,
Teeth bleach, stump speech. Junk science. Junk bond.
Junk country, sum speech. The umpteenth boast
Stumps our toe. The umpteenth falsehood stumps
Our elbows & eyeballs, our Nos, Whoahs, wows, woes.”

American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassins, p. 48 – Terrance Hayes (Penguin Books) 89 pages, paperback

Rating: 5 stars

If you’d like to pick up a copy of American Sonnets For My Past And Future Assassins or any of my other recommendations please consider clicking my affiliate link for The Book Depository. It would be much appreciated. It will help fund my incessant book buying, reading, and reviewing. Thank you!
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#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 28 #ReadSoulLit Wrap Up

Unbelievable I stuck to a TBR!😅 Sadly Black History Month will soon be over but luckily #readsoullit can continue on. Hope you all had a good one and have discovered some new authors and new books to read throughout the rest of 2018. My #readsoullit stack was pretty good. No duds and I managed to read 7 books. Wish I could have gotten in a 400+ page book so it looks like that will be a priority for next month. Happy continued #readsoullit reading and Thanks to you all for participating! Please check out the video below of Frank X Walker, a great Affrilachian poet from Kentucky. The best works I read this month were from him. Buffalo Dance and When Winter Come are two excellent poetry collections – MUST READS!

What did I read this month:

Tar Baby – Toni Morrison, paperback, 306 pages (Vintage) ****

Buffalo Dance The Journey of York – Frank X Walker, paperback, 69 pages (The University Press of Kentucky) *****

When Winter Come The Ascension of York – Frank X Walker, paperback, 115 pages (The University Press of Kentucky) *****

A Red Death – Walter Mosley, paperback, 312 pages (Washington Square Press) ****

Debbie Doesn’t Do It Anymore – Walter Mosley, hardcover, 265 pages (Doubleday) ***

The Mighty Miss Malone – Christopher Paul Curtis, hardcover, 307 pages (Wendy Lamb Books) ****

Halsey Street – Naima Coster, hardcover, 320 pages (Little A)

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#ReadSoulLit Photo Challenge Day 12 “If you like that, you’ll like this.”

The Warmth of Other Suns is my favorite non-fiction for many reasons. It reads like fiction and I learned a lot while reading it. If you haven’t picked it up, you need to. It’s extraordinary! If you like this, you’ll love The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks. This little gem covers her earliest poetry from World War II through the turbulent 1960s until her death in 2000. These poems talk about life in the African-American community – racism, survival, slums, etc. Beautifully lyrical poems that no lover of poetry should miss out on. This poetry collection is a natural extension of The Warmth of Other Suns.

The Warmth of Other Suns – Isabel Wilkerson, paperback, 620 pages (Vintage Books)

The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks – Edited by Elizabeth Alexander, hardcover, 142 pages (Literary Classics of the United States, Inc.)