Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire
"This collection is so present, alive, moving, and haunting (in the best way)!"
- Kayla Thompson, Instruction & Outreach Associate
No Rack Can Torture Me by Emily Dickinson
This has been my favorite poem since I was in high school. As soon as I read it, I felt so seen and inspired, and I often go back to it when I need more of those feelings. I've dealt with various types of chronic pain for most of my life, and this poem is a constant reminder to me that I am more than my physical body. It is a testament to the resilience of women in general. The last stanza is also a reminder to be kind to myself, to be kind to my body, and to find gratitude in the liberties that are available to me in any particular moment.
- Giana Ricci, Librarian for the Fine Arts & Head of Arts, Performance and Humanistic Inquiry Department
I read Sun Ra's poetry more often than I listen to his music. This LP, volume 2 of the three volume "Space Poetry" series, provides the listener an opportunity to hear Sun Ra read his work. There are also some top notch instrumental moments scattered around the edges of the recordings.
You know when you say a word over and over again until it starts to sound strange? Sun Ra uses repetition in his writing to accomplish something similar. The listener's understanding of simple words starts to loosen. Taken for granted meaning evaporates. Cracks form in one's sense existence, time, beginnings, ends, music, and a major theme in his work, Planet Earth. Sun Ra is dealing with phenomenology and existentialism through rhythm and tempo asking us to consider the world as merely one possibility of many. Our position in the world and in time is not always as simple as being here now. Perhaps we are there when."
"as me, I am here always here
but as I
I am always there
the somewhere else of there"
- Alex Kennedy-Grant, Head of Avery Fisher Center for Music & Media
Alive at the End of the World: Poems by Saeed Jones
Saeed Jones is one of the sharpest and most sensitive writers today, and I am constantly amazed and heartened by his work.
- Roxane Pickens, Community Engagement Librarian & Head of External Engagement
I love Kay Ryan's incredibly condensed way of writing poems. They're so brief but they pack such a wallop. I also love her way of structuring a poem around a series of hidden internal rhymes, or a philosophical idea she's exploring, or, often, both. This collection has one of my favorite poems by Ryan, the quietly devastating "Eggs": "We turn out / as tippy as / eggs. Legs / are an illusion. / We are held / as in a carton / if someone / loves us. / It's a pity / only loss / proves this."
- Amanda Watson, Librarian for English and Comparative Literature
Collected works by Lorine Niedecker
I love that National Poetry Month falls during April, which I find to be such a fragile and existential time of year as nature slowly and painstakingly comes back to life. Lorine Niedecker captures the messy essence of spring with her charm and economy of language. Her poems beam like little crocuses popping up between sidewalk squares. This collection has all of my favorites in one place.
- Gaby Garcia, Student Success Librarian