Having not read a lot of poetry in the past, it is an understatement to say that this poetry collection took me by surprise.
Using the motif of a butchered cow and associating individual parts of said cow to aspects of the narrator's life, Butcher tells a story of grief, alcoholism, racial prejudice and homophobia, all while using understandable yet beautiful language.
For seasoned readers of poetry the language throughout this collection may not be viewed as ground breaking, but I strongly recommend that anyone read this collection, solely for the themes and topics that are covered throughout.
For a reader that hasn't read much poetry in the past, the language used is the perfect mixture of being straight forward and easy to understand whilst also being poetic and rhythmical.

"success is not about money or a bottom line / success is sometimes just the lifeline / between your journey and how your story / can inspire or save someone else" - from "The Playground is Empty"

Based on her own definition, Natasha T. Miller's Butcher is a success. I have no doubt that her poetry will inspire many.

Butcher is organized into five sections, each named after a cut of meat. Each section focuses on a different subject, including family relationships, social issues, queerness, and grief. I imagine that, depending on personal experience, different readers will connect more closely with different sections of this book. I found myself most moved by The Brisket--a collection of poems inspired by Miller's grief over the murder of her brother Marcus--however, my favorite poem in the book is "To existing being enough." I plan to print it out and keep it at my desk, and I imagine readers who are tattoo lovers getting the lines "You are no less powerful / in all your stillness" inked into their skin.

Stylistically, Miller's poems are all written in free verse and two are written in prose form. She plays with formatting such as indentations, numbered lists, and italicized text. I know that Miller is a spoken word poet, and you can hear that flow in some of the poems. She also uses grammatical structures from AAVE in The Tenderloin poems. Despite enjoying the different styles of the poems, I would say that the collection does not have a very strong or unified voice overall.

I would recommend this book to poetry lovers, slam poetry lovers, and individuals interested in poetry about race, queerness, intersectionality, family, grief, and coping. Given the language and content, I'd rate this PG-13 (with a strong emphasis on parental guidance for younger teens).

Let's just start this off with the obvious - this cover is GORGEOUS. The title "Butcher" also drew my attention - I love the layout of the book, with each of the five sections representing five different cuts of a cow: The Rib, Tongue & Cheek, The Round, The Tenderloin, & The Brisket. Miller's poetry absolutely cut me to the core & left me completely heartbroken in just 32 poems. Butcher beautifully & vividly discusses going through grief, depression, loss, loving oneself & the struggles of being Black & queer in America. Miller somehow talks about her personal & specific struggles in a way that feels so relatable. I found myself sobbing when she talks about how the world moves on after a loss, but you are still stuck in the middle of grief having to do life at the same time. I’ve recently learned that poems have the ability to move me & make me think more than a narration can. This book in particular pushed me to search out more poetry.

This was a fantastic debut collection that I didn't want to end & I can't wait to see what else Miller does!

Favorite poem:
On days like today you're just existing,
and that's fine.

The ocean is not always a tsunami.
The wind is not always a tornado.

You are no less powerful
in all your stillness.

I would like to say thank you so much to NetGalley, Natasha T. Miller & Button Poetry for gifting me an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and publishers for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this series of poetry. I loved the commentary of recent protests (eg. Black Lives Matter). One of the biggest reasons for a lack of the a fifth star is due to it's choppiness. There were a few poems that lacked cohesion and smooth transition to the next poem's topic. Though this concern wasn't a big impact on the series as a whole and its points were still well understood. I also believed that was partly intentional with the analogy of the Butcher and the cow.

I enjoyed these poems and thought they told a really cohesive story as a collection, tying together the narrower scope (her brother's death) and the wider scope (being black and queer in America). Certain poems felt a little long, and I thought the author could probably pack a little stronger punch with fewer words or more figurative language. I'm sure a lot of this comes down to personal preference, and I am excited to look up performances of some of these poems, because I think a lot of them will shine even brighter through performance than on paper.

This book was so lovely. The poems really captured the story--both the "big picture" of queer blackness in America, and the story of the author's grief over the murder of her brother. These poems were brilliantly written and I look forward to reading more from this author.

4/5 stars

Despite being very short, this poetry collection packs an emotional punch. It was beautiful, painfully honest and unapologetically angry at the world around us. It tackled grief, race, family relationships and being a queer woman. The poetry was both insightful and highly passionate. I felt as if I was glimpsing inside the author's very soul for a few painful moments, that is how emotive her language was. The words flowed with grief, loss, love and reluctant resignation.

I especially enjoyed how the poems branched off each other and intertwined in not only themes but also language and structure. I find that a lot of poetry collections seem disconnected, but this felt like a collection of intertwining and interlinked works that complement each other well. After reading this, I am excited to explore more from this undeniably talented author/poet.

This book is a short read comprised of honest and raw poetry. Natasha explores grief, loss and expectations from others around how it's processed.
They share truths about what it's like being black and queer and make references to significant events e.g. police brutality, deaths people in the public's eyes opinions and statements around black queer people.
The political and personal were weaved together in the most magical. Highly recommend!!

While there are pretty good poems in this collection, I didn't like it as much altogether.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this before publication date.

A huge thank you to Button Poetry for giving me an advanced reader copy of “Butcher” written by Natasha T. Miller in exchange for an honest review via Net Galley . This book is available February 23rd, 2021.

I always feel honored when reading or listening to contemporary poetry, as it’s a vulnerable state for the writer to be transfixed in. This applies tenfold for Natasha T. Miller’s memoir-adjacent poetry collection. In these pages, Miller writes about the ongoing struggles one experiences when grieving immense losses- in this case, it’s the loss of her brother in combination with stormy familial relationships.

Miller also writes about being both Black and Queer in a world where so many somehow still do not want to accept that Black Lives Matter or that LGBTQA+ people are valid and deserve representation. There is a topical sense to some of these poems, like “An Open Letter to Raven Symone” in which Miller references the celebrity, who was a part of so many of our adolescences, stating that she refuses to identify as anything but human, erasing all other aspects of her identity that millions of people cling to and find solace in using.

The poem “Ten Things You Sound Like When You say ‘all lives matter’ in Response to Black Lives Matter” stood out to me as something necessary, powerful, and fed up with the ignorance and cruelty of so many people who choose daily to ignore the continued racial injustice and instead decide to make it about them. It’s something I want those people to read over and over, to begin to understand how their words and actions are not only ignorant, but hurtful and violent.

This entire collection was beautiful and bittersweet and told the story of dealing with pain and loss in the only way we can- continuing on and creating something from it all and hoping that it makes change where it lands. It gets 5 stars from me and I am eager to see what else Miller creates and shares with the world.

I urge you to pick up a copy of Natasha T. Miller’s book when it officially comes out later next week, on the 23rd! Right now, you can pre-order a copy through Button Poetry, where Miller is signing an additional 50 copies after her first 200 signed additions already sold out!

Butcher is a short (~56 pages and ~32 poems) collection of poems by Natasha T. Miller about her mother's addiction, her brother's death, race, and sexuality. The poems are powerful but a little rough with a few typos and inconsistent font ("theatt" with two t's, potentially missing words in some poems, switching between serif and san serif font in the same poem, etc.), but it's clear Miller is a talented writer. It's organized in parts: The Rib, Tongue & Cheek, The Round, The Tenderloin, and The Brisket, and Meat/Butcher imagery is used throughout to represent pain, loss, and grief. The poems flow well on the page, so you can imagine how they would be performed.

Some of my favorite pieces are "To existing being enough:"

"On days like today you're just existing, and that's fine
The ocean is not always a tsunami.
The wind is not always a tornado"

From "Correction:"

"America is on fire.
Correction: America is burning again.
Correction: America has always been on fire.
We are just paying closer attention to the flames."

*I was given an electronic ARC from Net Galley to review*

I felt so captivated by the poems in this. It felt more like a collection of short stories and I resonated with a lot of feelings in them. It also made me realise and help me understand that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Miller's collection of poems feels real and conversational. They're less like poems and more like beautifully written short stories weaving the tales Miller's life. I felt as though Miller was developing trust with the reader before sharing some of her more personal details. Each chapter is named after a part of the body, ending with the most vulnerable organ of all.

The gorgeous cover is initially what drew me this book, but the poems inside are the most beautiful part.

This is a beautiful collection of poems talking about family, grief, addiction, and what it means to be black and Queer in America. There are some really gorgeous poems in here—ones that are extremely moving, and ones that feel like a punch to the gut. It's quite a small collection, but I think it shows promise for Miller's future work so I'll be keeping an eye out for anything else she publishes.

Butcher is a collection of poetry about love, loss, and being unapologetically black and queer in America. I was keeping note of all the poems I absolutely loved and realized it was almost the entire book. However, my favorite section was Tongue and Cheek, I think I loved every single poem in that section and could just relate to them so much.
The poems are very well written and they flow easily, which made the reading experience all the better. There are some that aren't technically poems, but I found those parts amazing as well. "An Open Letter to Raven Symone" and "Ten Things You Sound Like When You say "all lives matter" in Response to Black Lives Matter" are two really important ones, and they will definitely stick with me.

This collection was good but not great. I typically prefer more lyrical style poetry, so this wasn't totally my style. Some poems were really fantastic. I do think many people would love this and connect with these poems.

Thank you, NetGalley for allowing me to review this beautiful and heartbreaking collection of poetry.

If you like poetry, especially poems from queer, black voices...make sure to add this one to your list.
These are words about grief, race, family, and sexuality. Powerful words. I will never understand this kind of loss or this kind of struggle, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t appreciate what is said here. Having experienced some painful losses of my own in life, all of the poems about grief cut right to my heart.

“We are all hurting and as a result
all hurting each other

Until you learn to be grieving and gracious

Until you learn that this shit is never just
about you.”

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this Arc in exchange for a honest review...

I loved this! Everybody, every page you could feel the emotion dripping of the page. Its a powerful collection of poems about lose, death, family and relationships.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an insightful poetry collection, particularly the poems about grief, anger, queerness and family, but ultimately it fell a little flat for me. It's deeply personal and raw at times

"I know that death is an alarm clock without a snooze button."
"You are no less powerful in all your stillness.'
"I want to feel how I feel, even when it's not happiness"
"On days like today you're just existing, and that's fine."
"Grief is more contagious than joy."

"The question kindness The answer always, always, my mother."

A beautiful gut-punch of a book. The author navigates through childhood memoir and Black Queer identity, while grieving for her murdered brother. Her pain is palpable but her prose is deft and precise. I would definitely read more by this author.