Welcome to Litsy!

Brilliant poetry collection 5/5⭐️

Watching the NCAA basketball tournament—Go Zags! You can come from behind! Great to see an ad featuring one of my favorite poets, Terrance Hayes. The tag line is “honor black men off the court too.” Thought of you @Mitch ! And thanks so much for the lovely #LitsyLove card.

I'm not sure I've understood all the poetic bits - why sonnets? Why a repeated title for every sonnet? Why 14 per sub section? But this politically charged work is loaded with emotion. It's sad & angry, questioning & reflective. Its funny & connects us to history both of the recent & distant past. It's full of beauty and terror, fear and family. So much to think about - I‘m going to re read I think! Thanks for pushing me to ‘read harder‘ @SamAnne

I have actual work to do today - and I know I should be super grateful because lockdown means paid work is super scarce - but I‘m loosing focus and being drawn to this instead! #poetrymatters

This package has everything I love about swaps - books to positive challenge me ( can‘t wait to delve into the poetry), new to me authors and a book I‘ve been waiting to read for a while. As well as very local things with stories behind them. I love it! Really love it. And the slogan on the T shirt is fast becoming my 2021 anthem. Thank you so much @SamAnne

#blitsyswap
#blitsy

This was good, even if I feel like a good handful of them went over my head. There were some really great lines and images. Not much else to say #wintergames #wintergames2020 #teamreadnosedreindeer @StayCurious 16 points

This was some of the best poetry I‘ve ever read, absolutely certainly, as well as the most blindingly original modern sonnets I‘ve ever seen. I read almost every poem in the collection twice and I think I‘ll reread it a lot more times. I can‘t even think of adjectives for what the poems did to my mind, all I can say is that they seemed to draw all of life together in such a profound but also effortless way.

#poetrymatters

(Every poem in this collection is called “American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin.”)

📚💙📚❤️📚💙📚❤️📚💙📚❤️📚💙❤️📚💙

#poetrymatters

Reading poetry published 2 years ago. New places, new victims, but nothing much has changed.

I'm trying to read more poetry! I didn't love it as much as last month's pick but it was pretty damn good. A few pieces went over my head but a lot of really striking ones here

This collection of 70 sonnets, all with the same title, packs a brutal punch, although one or two of the poems are a little too on the nose. Hayes is a remarkable poet; I'll be seeking out more of his work.

A poem for Trump. Terrance Hayes is my new fave.

“In a second I‘ll tell you how little Writing rescues. My hunch is that Sylvia Plath was not Especially fun company. A drama queen, thin-skinned, And skittery, she thought her poems were ordinary. What do you call a visionary who does not recognize Her vision?”

The only time I doggy-ear my books are to mark especially good poems in especially good books of poetry

Book haul today. Two volumes of poetry and a second copy of The Overstory! Lent my out and need to reread!

A few poems were really good, while others were just okay. A couple didn‘t make much sense, and I‘m not one to think something is good just because you don‘t understand it. New to me poet, and while I didn‘t love it, I‘d still give his other work a try.

#poetry #poetrymatters

Fiona approves!! 😻. Seriously, this is one awesome book of poetry! Read it! #poetry #poetrymatters #diversebooks #readsoulit #catsoflitsy

http://bookcritics.org/blog

There‘s a lot going on here, even skipping racial and political discussions (those alone will keep you thinking for a long time and you should think about them). Past, present, and future. Love, lust, and uncertainty. A desire to live longer matched with a desire to kill yourself. Mom and dad as hero and villain. There are complicated ideas he figures ways to articulate. The repetition of words and images begs you to read this in a single sitting.

“The names alive are like the names / In graves.”

Oh @batsy, what a wonderful collection of poetry and treats! Thank you!! Such a fun mix of old and new, and new-to-me.(I've already dipped into the Pessoa and can tell I will love it! 👍) And the editions are gorgeous! 😍 Now I want to collect all the volumes of Penguin Modern Poetry! And for the sweet treats, bookmarks, and adorable notebook. Love it all!
You have excellent taste! 😘
Thanks @lazydays for organizing an excellent #favoritepoetswap

From this year‘s NBA longlist for poetry comes another great collection from Terrance Hayes. This collection is a series of sonnets looking at a culture that continues to allow racially-motivated killing of black Americans to occur. There is both an anger and a sadness evident in these poems, along with a defiance against accepting the status quo. 4⭐️

Okay, gotta say I actually really enjoyed this collection of sonnets. There is so much incorporated in each sonnet and so much to work out and work through. It's incredible. The way the sonnets all connect to each other and create an image of past and present and even future. He shows how the cycles of past, present, and future have repeatedly themselves and will continue to repeat themselves if people can't or won't change the way they think.

I'm starting this one for my sonnet class. My professor was really excited for it so hopefully I can get into it. I'm not a huge fan of poetry, which I think is the fault of the American education system and the way it drills poetry from a young age and not in an enjoyable way.

Finally found this book on a bookstore shelf! #PosmanBooks #poetry

Brilliant collection of poems, all harshly critical of the political and cultural here and now. Fiercely anti-Trump: "America, you just wanted change is all, a return /To the kind of awe experienced after beholding a reign /Of gold. A leader whose metallic narcissism is a reflection /Of your own..." Hayes critiques Trump, approaching Spike Lee's Agent Orange: "Are you not the color of this country‘s current threat Advisory?" Exquisite.

🔥🔥🔥