American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin
Ratings4
Average rating4.3
15
Ratings4
Average rating4.3
"A powerful, timely, dazzling collection of sonnets from one of America's most acclaimed poets, Terrance Hayes, the National Book Award winning author of Lighthead. In seventy poems bearing the same title, Terrance Hayes explores the meanings of American, of assassin, and of love in the sonnet form. Written during the first two hundred days of the Trump presidency, these poems are haunted by the country's past and future eras and errors, its dreams and nightmares. Inventive, compassionate, hilarious, melancholy, and bewildered--the wonders of this new collection are irreducible and stunning"--
Reviews with the most likes.
Liked hearing him perform his own poems, but weirdly the audiobook was missing a few sonnets (??) so went back to the book. There are a few that I will want to read again, some really powerful pieces here.
The first ever book of poems I've read that gives the same title to each poem, and each poem is a sonnet. Confined within that same structure, and with continuous themes of blackness and artistry in a post-Trump era, each poem feels a little the same, a little different: one can't help but think of a bird singing in a cage.
I laughed, I said “oh damn,” I felt my(white)self challenged, I read poems out loud to feel the sounds. Hayes' wordplay is as much serious sonic genius as it is wonderfully playful. It's heavy and light. It's political but not polarizing.
Long and short is I loved it. Loved the concept, loved the poems, can't wait to read more Terrance Hayes.
A black mans truth, pain and ramblings. I felt the intensity of his words (I listened to the audio book). This book of poems is on the way to me, as we speak. I will refer back to these poems, again.
