Step one: Read this collection to see what powerful, language-driven poetry looks like. Step two: Set fire to your Rupi Kaur collection.

The author writes from a unique purview, which was refreshing to read. Bennett expresses his experience as a Black man navigating racism, stereotypes, and identity in a world that lacks imagination beyond negative tropes. I enjoyed the collection and can't wait to read more.

This is an *excellent* contemporary poetry collection. I loved it all. Many of the poems are odes to objects and places like the durag, the plastic on your grandma's couch, the school bus, the barbershop. The collection is an ode to Blackness in America, weaving together images, stories, memories about family, friends, growing up, politics post-Ferguson and post-2016. These poems have heart and soul and passion. It feels silly to say because it's so obvious, but Joshua Bennett is a master with words. I could sit in his head ALL DAY and was sad when I finished reading because I could have kept going.

Highly recommended for lovers of poetry. I'll read anything Joshua Bennett feels generous enough to share with us in the future.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Penguin Books for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautiful collection of poetry. From the opening piece "Token Sings the Blues", the collection invites us to feel the perspective of someone othered, isolated, and alone in rooms full of people, in everyday situations...a perspective that will resonate with many people of color. What follows is a collection of astonishing poems that explore the past, childhood, family relationships, identity, and memory among many other themes. Bennett has a gift for setting a vivid scene throughout his stanzas, building a rich scene within such a small frame that I often felt like I was reading a full story. The imagery is beautiful, often startling. Among many other standout images:
"Consider the garden
of collards & heirloom
tomatoes only,
her long, single braid
streaked with gray
like a gathering
of weather" -- from "Owed to the Plastic on Your Grandmother's Couch"

Bennett also uses wordplay throughout the collection (owed/ode) in an effective, never forced way. Overall the meditations, nostalgia, voice, and characters within this rich collection are near perfect. Recommended to fans of Gregory Pardlo, those who appreciate wordplay in their poetry, and anyone who wants to experience a collection of incredible poems.