All Aboard the ARC: The Collection Plate: Poems (Audiobook) by Kendra Adams

***Note: I received a digital review copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***

I try my best to keep up with fresh new voices in the world of poetry. I like work that sidles up next to you and punches you in the face when you’re least expecting it, and Kendra Allen does exactly that. The Collection Plate covers so much ground in so limited a frame, one could almost call Allen a magician. Herein lies poems (songs? psalms?) exploring Black girlhood/womanhood, religion (its redemption(s) as well as its confines and strictures), sexual politics, family history, the tyranny of memory, and the line(age)s we cross when we decide who we’re going to be.

Herein lies poems (songs? psalms?) exploring Black girlhood/womanhood, religion (its redemption(s) as well as its confines and strictures), sexual politics, family history, the tyranny of memory, and the line(age)s we cross when we decide who we’re going to be.

the pastor is our uncle and our uncle di- / vests me of my volition / back on land / I drip / I dribble, I cough up / who I shoulda been
From “Evening service”

How does one even begin to analyze works this explosive? Poets don’t often compare religious ceremonies, in this case baptism, to a divestiture of one’s own free will, but Allen does so with aplomb and an assuredness that rings true for anyone familiar with charismatic faith traditions.

Poets don’t often compare religious ceremonies, in this case baptism, to a divestiture of one’s own free will, but Allen does so with aplomb and an assuredness that rings true for anyone familiar with charismatic faith traditions.

I don’t want to distract from the beauty of this collection with an overabundance of my own commentary, so I’ll just leave it with you like this: I’ve already bought my own copy so I can read it again and again. And again.

The Collection Plate: Poems is now available to order wherever books are sold. You can follow Kendra Allen on Twitter @kendracanyou.

Thanks as always for being a faithful reader of The Voracious Bibliophile. If you like what you see, please follow, like, comment, and subscribe to my email list to get notified of new posts as soon as they drop. You can also email me at thevoraciousbibliophile@yahoo.com or catch me on Twitter @voraciousbiblog. Keep reading the world, one page (or pixel) at a time.

All Aboard the ARC: I Hope This Finds You Well: Poems by Kate Baer

***Note: I received a digital ARC of Kate Baer’s forthcoming collection, I Hope This Finds You Well, from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***

There is something profound, one might even say holy, about taking back space from those who would push you to the margins. I Hope This Finds You Well does just that. Kate Baer’s newest collection is a reclamation, a clarion call, and a battle cry all at once. Never one to shrink away from her detractors, Baer takes the vitriol hurled in her direction and turns it into verse. Herein lies not only an alchemical affirmation, but a jagged path home. Please read this book.

I Hope This Finds You Well is due to be released on November 9, 2021 and is now available to preorder wherever books are sold.

Book Review: The Undressing: Poems by Li-Young Lee

Every poem in this firebrand of a collection is worthy of its own celebration; taken together, they are a paean to the body and its wonders, an elegy for time lost and time regained in a lover’s arms. The Undressing will do just what it promises: undress you and remake you in your own image —purer, lighter, and free.

Favorite Quotes

It’s really difficult to pull favorite quotes from a collection this breathtaking, but nonetheless I’ve done so. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

“There are stories we tell ourselves, she says. There are stories we tell others. Then there’s the sum of our hours death will render legible.”

“The initiating word embarks, fixed between sighted wings, and said, says, saying, none are the bird, each just moments of the flying.”

“Bodies have circled bodies from the beginning, she says, but the voices of lovers are Creation’s most recent flowers, mere buds of fire nodding on their stalks.”

The Undressing: Poems is available wherever books are sold.

Favorite Quotes: Hybrida: Poems by Tina Chang

I come from the broad birds and the day demons, the ash from a childhood burn, tin cans of dried pens, newspaper, seashells, a phoenix fixed in a souvenir bottle. Every bit saved as if discard were memory itself.

Cheryl Strayed says that quotes are like “mini instruction manuals for the soul”. I love that. It’s always rang true for me. If I’m feeling morose, despondent, angry, or even hopeless, coming across the right quote at the right time can make all the difference.

I keep a series of Google documents filled with quotes from not only the books I read, but the films I watch, articles I read in newspapers and magazines, and even profound things I hear people I know in real life say when I’m with them.

Hybrida: Poems is available wherever books are sold.

All Aboard the ARC: What to Miss When: Poems by Leigh Stein

***Note: I received a digital ARC of Stein’s forthcoming poetry collection, What to Miss When, from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

I’m late to the Leigh Stein party. She made a huge splash with her 2020 release Self Care, and even though I eyed it often, I never picked it up. I probably will now.

In her dazzling new collection, Leigh Stein has managed to create art from the mess of modern life, with poems both elegiac and flippant in equal measure.

Whether she’s commenting on the pervasiveness of social media and its effect on our collective psyche or the vagaries of human behavior amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, she manages to imbue each poem with just enough levity to keep the reader from losing hope. I cannot recommend this collection highly enough.

What to Miss When is out on August 10th and is available to preorder wherever books are sold.