On the Come Up

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This contemporary YA novel features a protagonist who knows what she's about, genuine friendships (complete with friend feuds), relevant family dynamics, and a brilliant breakdown of the process of creating raps (or, another way to write poetry).

Bri is fun to cheer for, and easy to love - even when she makes questionable (teenager) decisions. She's ready to hit it big as a rapper, ready to be a star on her own terms, and desperate to not be the face of a movement, a social media blip, or "just" the daughter of her legendary father.

I recommend reading this one by listening to the audiobook, then check out the Spotify playlist for the book!


Extras: More Angie Thomas, Another (Head)Strong Protagonist, Another Expert in Her Craft, or View All My Reviews.

Friday Night Links 45

Somehow April never truly feels "cruel" until right at the end of the month. Only then do I realize what an exhausting month this is. Whew. Here's what's been keeping me going until the sun comes back again:

"Pockets mean no purses, and that's more freedom."

Thoughts on various reactions to the Notre Dame fire.

Why do we (I) love retellings? (You know I'm a sucker for almost all of them.)

We learned about Simba during our (free) tour of Milwaukee Public Museum on our last MKE trip!

Yes, I'm a librarian. I'm also a person with hobbies and a social life that aren't related to work.

This is an old article, but every now and then I dig it up for a reread: "I believe we have an obligation to read for pleasure, in private and in public places. If we read for pleasure, if others see us reading, then we learn, we exercise our imaginations. We show others that reading is a good thing."

VS the Podcast

One of my favorite poetry discoveries this year has been VS - a podcast by and about poets from the Poetry Foundation. Each episode, hosts Franny Choi and Danez Smith (contemporary poets themselves) talk with various poets about "the ideas that move them". I appreciate this podcast because 1) It's a simple way to hear current poetry; 2) I've gotten to "meet" new (and local!) poets; 3) I get to hear from the poets themselves as they discuss relevant and interesting topics; and 4) Franny and Danez are simply delightful as hosts. They bring out the best in each guest, and add so much meaning to the conversations.

After listening to each episode, I try to find each guest's most recent works (whether they be online or published collections) to explore even more poetry, but listeners don't need any sort of poetic training or knowledge to get something out of the conversations had. I especially loved one of the first episodes with Eve L. Ewing and her explorations of utopia/dystopia and desire-based narratives vs damage-based narratives [w/ credit to Eve Tuck's research & writing on the topic]: "To only tell the story of damage is such an incomplete story that if you only tell that story it's actually an act of aggression."

Here are a few of VS's guests collections:

Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Electric Arches by Eve L. Ewing

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Citizen Illegal by Josẽ Olivarez

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Calling a Wolf a Wolf by Kaveh Akbar

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Build Yourself a Boat by Camonghne Felix

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Extras: More Poetry Collections, or View All My Reviews

Voices

Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc by David Elliott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Poems told from the voices of the various people and objects who were witness to Joan of Arc's life (and death). There is a great variety of poetic forms represented here - and the author's note at the end explains these, and the thought process around which forms were used when. Writing poetry from so many different perspectives could not have been easy, but Elliott does it with authority.

I'd love to see this paired with some nonfiction in a classroom setting - a history or literature class (and teacher) could do so much with the text!


Extras: Another Verse Novel by Elliott, More Verse Novels, or View All My Reviews

Desunt Nonnulla by Kaveh Akbar

DESUNT NONNULLA

Kaveh Akbar

as a child I wasn’t so much foreign as I was very small      my soul 
still unsmogged by its station      I walked learning 
the names of things each new title a tiny seizure 
of joy      paleontologist tarpaper marshmallow      I polished them like trophies
eager in delight and colorblind      though I still loved crayons 
for their names cerulean gunmetal and corn- 
flower more than making up for the hues I couldn’t tell apart      even 
our great-grandparents saw different blues owing 
to the rapid evolution of rods and cones      now I resist 
acknowledging the riches I’ve inherited      hard bones and a mind full 
of names      it’s so much easier to catalog hunger to atomize 
absence and carry each bit like ants taking home a meal

I am insatiable      every grievance levied against me 
amounts to ingratitude      I need to be broken like an unruly mustang 
like bitten skin      supposedly people hymned before names      their mouths 
were zeroes little pleasure portals for taking in grape 
leaves cloudberries the fingers of lovers      today words fly 
in all directions      I don’t know how anyone does 
anything      I miss my mouth sipping coffee and spend 
the day explaining the dribble to strangers who patiently 
endure my argle-bargle before returning 
to their appetites      I am not a slow learner      I am a quick forgetter      
such erasing makes you voracious      if you teach me something 
beautiful      I will name it quickly before it floats away

Sedna by Kimiko Hahn

Sedna
Kimiko Hahn

Come to find out, Sedna,
is the Inuit woman,

whose father cast her from their kayak,
thus transforming her into the spirit of the sea—

but also the name of 2003 VB12,

a planet or something beyond Pluto.
It is the first body to be discovered

in the Oort Cloud, a hypothetical region
of icy objects that become comets.

But questions remain: how
can a region be hypothetical?

how can a scientist not know

what a planet is? how could a father
throw his daughter from a kayak

even if she did write poetry
that hurt his feelings?

I am not sorry.
He always said, art comes first.

But that is a murky region

for fathers and daughters—
what comes first.

And what my daughters wish to know is
did she drown for his sake

or to learn how depths betray? 

Poetry Collections for Teens

Poetry is for everyone, but some poetry is particularly for teenagers. Love poems, heartbreak poems, sad and moody poems, I don't give a damn poems, and I'm on top of the world poems seem to be popular, as are collections of poetry about being a teenager. These are a few I've read recently and enjoyed, if not as a 30-year old, then as a former teenager.

Shame Is an Ocean I Swim Across by Mary Lambert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I now have a poetry hangover. Lambert's lines are so sharp and hold nothing back. And that cover!! Reading this was therapy - and I had to slow down/not read anything for a bit after finishing it.

Favorite lines:

"this is how I learned to dance
with half of my body on fire."

Favorite poem: "Language Barrier"

The Princess Saves Herself in This One by Amanda Lovelace

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I appreciate the pacing of this collection. It's not a novel, but there is a narrative. There are some truly sweet lines here. Some crushing ones, too. I'm recommending it to so many of my teen readers who feel like they are the only ones to experience their feelings. There's a strong sense of being seen in this collection - and it is part one of three!

Favorite lines:

"I am so glad
we were born
during the same
lifetime

I may not believe in fate, but I believe in you."

Favorite poem: "be a mermaid (don't allow the world to take your kindness)"

If My Body Could Speak by Blythe Baird

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This collection has a tender honesty. It read me as much as I read it - but I still felt cared for. While I've grown past the time and space of the emotions of the poems, it was easy to reconnect to a time in my life when so much of the lines were true for me. Others spoke to me - 30-yr old Rachel - directly.

Favorite lines:

"Still, do not mistake
how open I am

for emptiness"

Favorite Poem: "Pocket-Sized Feminism"

Extras: More Poetry Collections, or View All My Reviews

Spring by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Spring

BY EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

To what purpose, April, do you return again? 

Beauty is not enough. 

You can no longer quiet me with the redness 

Of little leaves opening stickily. 

I know what I know. 

The sun is hot on my neck as I observe 

The spikes of the crocus. 

The smell of the earth is good. 

It is apparent that there is no death. 

But what does that signify? 

Not only under ground are the brains of men 

Eaten by maggots. 

Life in itself 

Is nothing, 

An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs. 

It is not enough that yearly, down this hill, 

April 

Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

We Lived Happily During the War by Ilya Kaminsky

We Lived Happily During the War

BY ILYA KAMINSKY

And when they bombed other people’s houses, we

 

protested

but not enough, we opposed them but not

 

enough. I was

in my bed, around my bed America

 

was falling: invisible house by invisible house by invisible house.

 

I took a chair outside and watched the sun.

 

In the sixth month

of a disastrous reign in the house of money

 

in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money,

our great country of money, we (forgive us)

 

lived happily during the war.