Welcome to Litsy!

4⭐ rating- a heart-breaking, thought-provoking collection of poetry filled with pop culture references and unabashed grief. It's a difficult read, but one that I think is important.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

I am #currentlyreading my #BookSpinBingo book and am in awe of this cover art 😍

Very good but was more moved by the other collection I read by this author. I don't know why.

AMAZING collection https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3149936089?book_show_action=false&from_rev...

Reading a poetry collection

This book has been seating on my shelves for over a year and it was well worth the wait. Gorgeous cover. Poignant prose. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

people have to mourn the shatter / of anything that they can / look into / and see how alive / they still are

"I look up and ask myself again why the stars have so long tolerated the audacity of clouds."

-"At the House Party Where We Found Out Whitney Houston Was Dead"

"I tell her that we were all born of the 80s. All born of parents who watched the revolution shove itself into a too small suit at the turn of a decade that left them in homes with welcome mats that read: “Your hearts are the lost luggage at the airport of the next generation.”"

-"At the House Party Where We Found Out Whitney Houston Was Dead"

"I wrote my heart in a poem. it took up the whole bedroom. it doesn‘t pay rent. it stays up watching cities burn to the ground. I am so sorry that you have nowhere to sit. I just loved someone yesterday. so you see the dilemma. I just promised someone that I would watch them grow old in a country that wants them dead. so I just can‘t spare any more room."

-"The Music or the Misery"

I love the titles of the poems.

"nothing knows the sound of abandonment like a highway does, not even God."

-"When We Were 13, Jeff's Father Left the Needle Down on a Journey Record Before Leaving the House One Morning and Never Coming Back"

This is what happens when you don‘t read the product info closely enough 😂 You end up with a giant bookplate stamp when you only expected a little handheld one. I‘ll be getting ALL my borrowed books back now.

This is a powerful collection from a poet who weaves heartbreak and joy into nearly every poem. The pop culture references are endless, and charming. Hanif strikes me as one of those boys I would have an undeniable crush on, we‘d both be too polite to mention it, but we‘d buy pairs of tickets to shows knowing we were going to take the other. He‘s on my list of people that Id invite to a dinner party.

If you‘re going to buy a poetry collection to go with your stack of novels about boybands, this seems like the right one.

Got to see Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib read last night - he was brilliant and funny and heartbreaking. I'm so excited to read his debut collection.

Finally.

"but oh well / god knows / we work 'til we fly / god knows grandma worked / 'til sudden wings grew out her back / and now sunday dinners ain't the same"

"No one wants to see the block party broken up"