You Look Like Hell

 You Look Like Hell by Schuyler Peck, 66 pages.

This is a thematically tight little poetry collection. It is hot with rage a Peck grapples with leaving a bad marriage and rediscovering herself in a new life. I really enjoyed how to emotion encourages really feeling all of the emotions -- the grief, anger, hope, and new joy -- to finally be allowed to grow. This is a really effective poetry collection, and I definitely recommend it. 

The Poet X

 The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, 368 pages.

Xiomara Batista often feels like no one is on her side. She's Afro-Latina and in possession of a body that gets her more attention from men than either she or her traditional catholic Mami would like. Which is just one in a long list of things her Mami blames her for, a tension that would explode if she ever finds out Xiomara is questioning her faith. It feels like the only place she can feel safe being herself and expressing her true thoughts is in the poetry she writes in her journal. But Xiomara is not the type of girl who is content to live her life quietly forever. 

This was an astonishing young adult novel. I listened to the audiobook, which is read by the author and really makes this novel in verse come to life, which is exactly what I would expect for a book of poetry read by an award-winning slam poet. I found this book startlingly honest, tackling hard issues for young adults without ever feeling exaggerated or implausible. Xiomara's troubles are undoubtedly hard, and sometimes seem impossible to solve from inside, but they never seem even a little hard to believe. Their resolution feels similarly believable. I would recommend this very widely to teens, but also to anyone else.   

A selection of April graphic novels

When to Pick a Pomegranate by Yasmeen Abedifard (2024) 80 pages

I'm not certain I understood everything the author/artist is trying to express. In the last couple years I've screened quite a few indie Iranian films, but as an Iranian-American there are symbols from Ms. Abedifard's Persian culture that I don't quite grasp. I do recognize a creation story. The woman and the pomegranate are reflections of each other, as stated in the synopsis. There are many themes expressed. Like Eve in the garden, the woman is naked throughout and there is sensuality portrayed at times. It is quite short without a ton of text, so like poetry it is open to many interpretations.

Poems to See by: A Comic Artist Interprets Great Poetry by Julian Peters (2020) 168 pages

Quick read as all the poems are short. I like the different styles Peters is able to use to share his interpretations of each. Thomas Hardy's "The Darkling Thrush" was especially impactful. The modern day take on William Wordsworth's "The World Is Too Much with Us" is also cool.

Universal Monsters: Frankenstein by Michael Walsh (2025) 112 pages

I love the art and new backstory. The character designs are still Karloff, Clive, and the rest of the cast from the 1931 feature. Many of the panels and pages are screen captures from the film, but there is enough that is original here, scenes that don't appear in the film, to make this worth your time. The new angle of the kid observing Dr. Frankenstein and Fritz works well for a different perspective. Walsh gives us background on where the body parts come from and how each affects the creature, which I like. The last issue is the weakest in this regard. I hope Frankenstein's Bride also gets this comic treatment and I would enjoy one focused on Igor from Son of Frankenstein after the rest of the classic Universal Monsters.

R.U.R.: The Karel Capek Classic adapted by Katerina Cupova (2020) 264 pages

Translated into English this year. I've read the stageplay from the 1920s a couple times. There is a great introduction about the history of the play and how it brought "Robot" to language. The copy I bought had a couple printing errors, two pages were duplicated. The art style looks a bit like Al Hirschfeld, it has that 1920s to 1950s modernism, which is perfect. The adapter was free to change the order of events a little and express things more clearly, especially early on. For instance, Helena from the Humanity League is more resistant to the sudden marriage proposal from CEO Domin than in the play. But it does follow the events pretty closely otherwise. It starts with such big ideas, but as the story moves along it doesn't pay off many of the concepts. Later sci-fi worlds with artificial life like Terminator and Westworld would do better.

Howl: A Graphic Novel poetry by Allen Ginsberg with art by Eric Drooker (2010) 223 pages

I saw the movie Howl back in 2010 and was fascinated by the animated portions. This graphic version is from the art work by Eric Drooker that led to the animation in the film. I don't read poetry that often, so, yet again, I doubt I understand all of its references and the meaning behind it. The poem, of course, overcame censorship trials and obscenity charges. The second section about Moloch is what I mainly remember from the film. Moloch always reminds me of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, the gears and furnace in the factory. With the time to read page by page I enjoyed trying to unpack the first section, which is the longest.

Pretty Boys Are Poisonous

 Pretty Boys Are Poisonous by Megan Fox, 176 pages.

I picked this poetry book up mostly as a curiosity, because until it came across my desk at the library I didn't realize that Megan Fox was writing a poetry book. The poems inside deal are at least semi-autobiographical, dealing mostly with her history of abusive relationships. Overall the very short and punchy poems in this book felt like they were designed to be sharable on Instagram, but I found them compelling nonetheless. I especially found that listing the titles in a different color at the end of a poem was a very strong choice. It often re-contextualized the poems after I was done reading them, and the titles themselves often felt as meaningful as the rest of the poem. There are also quite a lot of illustrations by Audrey Kawasaki throughout, which I thought were neat but not all that compelling. I wasn't extremely impressed by this collection, but I do think it was very interesting to flip through.

The Poet's Corner

The Poet's Corner: The One and Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family edited & written by John Lithgow 280 pp.

While at first glance, one would think that the poets contained in this book are memorialized in Poets Corner of Westminster Abbey but this is not the case. Many are in Poets Corner but there are many, mainly American poets, who are not. It is a varied collection with serious and light-hearted examples. This is one book that I highly recommend in audiobook form as the poems are read by a variety of well-known actors including Jodie Foster, Billy Connolly, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Sam Waterston, Gary Sinise, Kathy Bates, and many more. Lithgow gives an introduction before each poem and then a commentary afterward often with an additional offering by the poet and read by Lithgow. 

The Poet X

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (2018) 361 pages

This audiobook on Libby is less than four hours and narrated by the author. It is full of powerful slam poetry. It is a novel, but it feels like it could be a memoir. It has been reviewed on this blog a couple times before. We follow Xiomara Batista, a child of Dominican Republic immigrant parents in Harlem, through her 10th grade year of high school. One of her poems introducing herself repeats the phrase "Pero, tu no eres facil." The first words to describe Xiomara were "You sure ain't an easy one." Through her diary and poetry we get to know her mother, father, twin brother, best friend, boyfriend, and English teacher. I love that she questions her parents' religion. She struggles with the way boys and men treat her now that she has developed curves. She deals with strict parental rules on dating like many teens. Ms. Galiano, the English teacher, encourages her to join poetry club and perform at NYC wide poetry slams. She finds her voice by keeping a diary and writing poetry. The climactic scene with her mother, who goes through her diary and considers the thoughts expressed in her poetry as sinful, gave me a strongly visceral feeling. Thankfully she continues to be empowered by voicing her words through poetry for everyone at the big spring poetry slam to hear.
 

Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

 Gabi, a Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero  294 pp.

Gabi Hernandez is a food loving, overweight, Mexican-American high school senior. In this book she chronicles her life during her senior year with all its joys, difficulties, and tragedies. Her best friends have their own crises, one getting pregnant and the other coming out as gay and getting kicked out by his parents. Through it all Gabi deals with her problems with a restrictive mother and a drug addicted father and her struggles with weight. Her one real joy is the poetry group one of the teachers starts. Through that she finds a real boyfriend and gets accepted to college at UC-Berkeley, her dream school. This story is very well written and really makes you care for the characters and their lives. This is one of the selections for my high school book club and I'm looking forward to discussing it with them.

Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light

 Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years by Joy Harjo, 160 pages.

Despite hearing a lot about Joy Harjo, I had never actually read any of her poems. This collection was on the new shelf, and I was very interested in the title, plus the collection filled a prompt on a book challenge I'm working on, so I decided to give it a try. 

The concept for this collection was extremely interesting. It takes one poem for each year of her writing career and arranges them in order, which allows the reader to see how she developed as a poet really dynamically. As with any collection I liked some better than others, but there were some really exceptional poems in this collection. I read all of the notes on the poems at the end, but I would recommend not doing that and instead reading them as you go, the context is definitely helpful for many of the poems in this collection.

The Poet X

 

The Poet X: A Novel by Elizabeth Acevedo  361 pp.

This is one of those books I planned to read back when it first came out. But I didn't get around to it, until it became one of the selections for the Great Stories Club Grant. Now I'm sorry I waited so long. The novel is written as a series of poems written by the main character, Xiamara called Mara, a teen from the Dominican Republic living in New York. Her mother, who once planned to be a nun, is extremely strict with Mara bordering on abuse. Mara is a teen with typical teen wants and needs who is being stifled at home. She faces her first "forbidden" love, wants to be a part of a school poetry club, and participate in an upcoming poetry slam but all of that goes against her mother's permissions. The emotions expressed in the poetry ring true as Mara learns to express herself, not just on the page, but to her family and the world. Heart-wrenching at times and gloriously composed, this is the winner of the National Book Award, the Pura Belpré Award, and the Michael Printz Award.

Time Is a Mother

 Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong, 128 pages.

This poetry collection by Ocean Vuong delves into a lot of personal themes after the death of the poet's mother. Now that I've read it I can say that his style of poetry doesn't really work for me, but I'm sure it would for others.

All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis

 

All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. Edited by Drs. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson. One World, 2020. 448 pp.

In this FABULOUS collection of essays, poetry, and illustration, Dr. Johnson and Dr. Wilkinson have collected wisdom from women (some famous, some little known) all over the world to address climate change in all its forms. Here you'll find doctors to journalists, models to attorneys, young and old from many races and backgrounds and activists all, expressing their hopes and fears about the crisis we face on Earth. The collection is structured in a very organic way (surprise, surprise!) starting from Root and ending with Rise, to provide a context and leave readers feeling empowered and inspired themselves to continue on their journey.

I first learned about this book when listening to the podcast How to Save a Planet, which is co-hosted by Dr. Johnson, and readers/listeners will find a pleasant overlap. I can confidently say that I learned something new or felt something new in every essay, and I am certain I will draw inspiration from it for some time to come. I am excited to have a new roster of organizations and media to further explore to continue action as a globally-conscious citizen.

Dearly

 Dearly by Margaret Atwood, 124 pages.

This was the first poetry I read by Margaret Atwood and I adored it. This collection is less thematically linked than many books of poetry I've read, with the most obvious linking "theme" being the feelings of empathy and anxiety that permeate these poems. The way Atwood uses words seems to elevate them to something greater than themselves, to something that sounds so distinct from everyday language that it is just a little magical. I would recommend in particular "Plasticene Suite" and "Oh Children."

 

A History of Kindness

 A History of Kindness by Linda Hogan, 142 pages. 

This collection of poems by Linda Hogan is mostly interested in exploring individual and cultural heritage, as well as the interactions both between humans and between humans and the natural world. 

I had previously read and greatly enjoyed Dwellings, an essay collection by this same author, so I was very excited to get my hands on this book! Unfortunately, I found that I don't enjoy Hogan's poetry nearly as much as her prose. I found many of the poems sort of dense and hard to follow, and had a really hard time staying engaged in this collection. 

I believe that people who enjoy poetry that further removed from standard grammar may enjoys this collection more than I did. It seems there were interesting themes threaded through this collection, but I couldn't get through the language enough to appreciate them.

Sight Lines

Sight Lines by Arthur Sze, 69 pages.

Sze, the first Poet Laureate of New Mexico, won the 2019 National Book Award for this book of poetry.
His poems, to me, are like passing through cool air or cool water. You remember the feeling but not in a way you can really retain.


The Far Norway Maples

Silver poplars rise and thin to the very twig,
but what thins at your fingertips?

The aspirations of a minute, a day, a year?
Yellow tangs veer in the water and, catching

sunlight, veer again, disappear from sight.
The unfolding of a life has junctures

that rupture plot: a child folds paper
and glues toothpicks, designs a split-level

house with white walls and pitched roof,
but his father snatches the maquette

and burns it. If you inhale and spore this moment,
it tumors your body, but if you exhale,

you dissolve midnight and noon; sunlight
tilts and leafs the tips of the far Norway maples.

Life on Mars

Life on Mars: Poems by Tracy K. Smith

Here's an edited version of what I wrote five years ago, when I first read Smith's poetry:Smith's 2011 collection of poems won the Pulitzer Prize. I failed to notice this until I recently saw her memoir, Ordinary Light, hanging around the Library.
There are beautiful poems, (really great poems) like "Sci-Fi," "Ransom," and "Challenger," that explore the world, and the larger universe as we imagine it might be. Smith has a great villanelle (or maybe a semi-villanelle, I'm not sure), "Solstice" and it is another example of the author's greatness, as it's ostensibly about JFK airport, but also explores the terror inherent in the lives we're living. "our time is brief, we dwindle by the day."
Strikingly, there are more David Bowie references than I expect from prize-winning poetry. I checked out four of Bowie's CDs after reading these, so I could re-acquaint myself with the source material and get more from Smith's excellent poems.
Let me just add, several hours after I posted this that I believe Smith is the best poet alive. Cool.

Evoking Tang : An Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry

Evoking Tang : An Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry by Qiu Xiaolong, 162 pages.
Early in the pandemic, wandering around the empty library, I found this book. I wanted to read a book of Chinese poetry and was delighted to find this signed copy of verse translated by local author Qiu Xiaolong. The poems featured here were written between 618 and 907. The poets highlighted in this volume include Bai Juyi, Wang Wei, and Li Bai. The love poems of Yu Xuanji, who was executed in her late 20s for fatally disciplining one of her fellow nuns, include:

"Look Out from the Riverside"

Myriads of upon
myriads of maple leaves
silhouetted against the bridge,
a few sails return late in the dusk.

How do I miss you?

My thoughts follow you
like water in the West River,
flowing eastward, never-ending,
day and night

Library of Small Catastrophes

Library of Small Catastrophes / Alison C. Rollins, read by Janina Edwards 96 pgs.

It is poetry month and thus the perfect reason to read some poetry.  Even better reason?  Find an author from St. Louis who is a librarian, then you know you really have something. Rollins writes about race, women and all sort so tragedies.  I am still a poetry neophyte but enjoyed listening to this collection. There is even a MARC record poem so you know this has to be good.

A doll for throwing

A doll for throwing: poems / Mary Jo Bang, 76 pgs.

Carefully read for poetry month, I had to look up more information about this book to understand the subject and intent.  Very interesting creative way to give voice to an artist run out of Germany before the war.  She was a member of the Bauhaus school and found it difficult to reclaim her work after the war.  I enjoyed reading but still have very low abilities to interpret and understand poetry.

Swing

Swing by Kwame Alexander with Mary Rand Hess, 448 pages.
Noah and Walt have been friends for a long time. They are in high school, but, despite their best efforts, they are not cool. Both would play baseball if they could make the team, and each of them are feeling the pangs of unrequited love.
Noah is in love with his childhood friend Samantha, Sam. Walt falls for Divya, the slightly older woman who works at Out with the Old, the local thrift shop.
Divya shares Walt's taste in music, Sam and Noah share a fondness for poetry and art.

Part of the charm of Alexander's YA writing is the form he uses, the novel length free-verse poem. Many of his works are long, colorful, poems which illuminate the thoughts and feelings of the author's protagonists.

Alexander also uses his stories to subtly recommend his favorite books and music to his readers.
After reading Swing, I have put Dexter Gordon's Go on hold because of  the recommendation by Divya.

Also, I got the last signed copy of Swing for the Library at ALA. I saw the author sitting at a booth with a very short line (which should have been a warning that the line was closed). I got in line and then the three people in front of me and I were informed that the line was indeed closed. I asked if I could just stay in line and tell the author how much I admired his work, and was rewarded with the display copy.

Milk and honey

Milk and honey / Rupi Kaur, 204 pgs.

Poetry and prose walking through a love affair and breakup.  I think there are some beautiful ideas here but as usual, my inability to read poetry well leaves me a little blank.  This was recommended by a friend and I appreciate that I read it.