“So, I pack up the loudness of the dead girl’s bones and leave to give everyone some quiet.”

Sumaya Enyegue’s collection of poetry, ‘Heavy Is The Head’, is a hard-hitting collection of poems that depict real life experiences that should be talked about more and the impact these moments can have on a person’s life, mental health and being.

Some heavy themes are explored in this collection including trauma, sexual assault, racism and mental health. These are all things that are so easily brushed under the carpet in our warped society and I admire Enyegue for bringing these issues to light by allowing herself to be completely vulnerable in these pages.

Her poems depict the adversity face by black people, from needless shootings that seem to be endless to people’s careless attitudes that seep into everyday life. She shows the trials faced by women of all ages who are objectified much too regularly and how victims of rape are blamed while excuses are made for the perpetrators.

She also touches on the difficulties of suffering with anxiety and depression and how sometimes admitting to the struggle still doesn’t lead to help. She describes how sometimes it isn’t about wanting help but just needing someone to acknowledge the battle that’s fought on a daily basis.

Some of my favourite poems in this collection are “Good Daughters”, “Missing Person’s Report”, “Origin Story” and “Symptoms of Womanhood”. Striking imagery is used throughout that reinforces the messages this collection has to offer.

I highly recommend this read!

(Due to the themes explored it could be quite triggering so please be aware of this)

Release date: 1st August 2023

Heavy is the Head is a collection of poetry that explores trauma, mental health, and Black girlhood in short, sharp poems that don't shy away from the harshness of life or sugar-coat healing processes. In terms of style, there's some prose poems and others more lyrical, some very short and some playing with form using lists. At times the style of poems wasn't quite what I tend to enjoy, but other poems used words powerfully to present painful realities and moments of honesty. Lots of the titles of the poems brought witty, bitter edges to them, playing off phrases or other poem titles (like 'The Black Girl Dies In This One'), and even with the intense subject matter (it's worth noting the content warnings at the start of the collection) there's a lot of wit brought with the anger to make powerful points throughout the book.

4.5
Oh how I loved this collection.
I have highlighted so many passages, I might have to get a physical copy so I can annotate it more efficiently.

"Rather than sugar-coated bullets that enter you lightly, these poems are designed to hurt" and they do.

I am not good at describing poetry but Sumaya Enyegue is able to phrase things in such a way that forced me to take a moment and reflect on what I've read every few lines (this is a good thing!!!).
Heavy is the Head is vulnerable and powerful, pain and strength at once.


List of my favourite poems:
GIRLHOOD
MISSING PERSONS REPORT
PEACHES
JUST ONE OF THE BOYS
A POEM IN WHICH I REPLACE THE WORD BITCH WITH SISTER BECAUSE THE ONLY TIME MEN RESPECT WOMEN IS WHEN THEY'RE ATTRACTED OR RELATED TO THEM
HOW LOVELY IT IS TO BE BLACK
THE NEXT WAR IS GOING TO KILL US ALL
INSOMNIA
WHITE ACTIVIST EXPLAINS ERASURE TO ME
NOAH DOESN'T TALK ABOUT HIS MOTHER ANYMORE
SYMPTOMS OF WOMANHOOD


TW for the book: topics of sexual assault, violence against women, violence against bipoc, struggles with mental health

Thank you NetGalley and Central Avenue Publishing for the opportunity to read this ARC.