Don't Call Us Dead
Ratings27
Average rating4.6
Every once in a while, I need to be reminded of how awe-inspiring and powerful poetry can be, and this book did just that. 3.5 out of 5, rounded up.
I read this book of poetry and listened to an audio version of it. It is haunting and beautiful and human. I wept through several of the poems.
Damn. So many content warnings but I'm so glad I finally read this. I went with audio for this and it was phenomenal.
hallelujah! today i rodepast five police cars& i can tell you about itnow, whatto do with my internalinverse, just howwill i survive the littlecops running insidemy veins, huntingwhite blood cells &bang bangi'm dead
- from “everyday is a funeral & a miracle”
Incredible collection of poetry. I highlighted something on like every other page, a turn of phrase or way of thinking. The book feels as though it's chronological, though it doesn't have to be - thinking about police violence and black death, always and understandably this fixation on the death of black boys - I wouldn't say all the poems are about death, but most have this undercurrent of acknowledgement about not getting a say in one's own death, and what it would be like to be safe; their experience of being black and gay, and I suppose it could be described as coming to terms with their HIV diagnosis, even if it's really just peering at it from so many different angles that at least it can't sneak up on them anymore.
the test results say i am the fatherof my own end& i ama deadbeat
- from “litany with blood all over”
Smith is an incredible poet, and I want to read more from them. Highly recommend this. My favorite was probably “dinosaurs in the hood,” but so many of these are so excellent.
I will need to return to “summer, somewhere” and “every day is a funeral & a miracle”. Phew.
do i think someone created AIDS?maybe. i don't doubt thatanything is possible in a placewhere you can burn a bodywith less outrage than a flag
the entirety of bare is one of the most beautiful things i've ever read and now i want to read everything that danez smith has ever written