poetry collections – Equal Opportunity Reader

[REVIEW] Can You Sign My Tentacle? by Brandon O’Brien

A Black woman's (my) hand holds the paperback of Can You Sign My Tentacle up in front of a fancy hotel elevator. The cover depicts an elder God, half human half writhing tentacles, eyes fathomless, purple dreadlocks poppin', holding a sharpie marker in one outstretched, ageless hand.

(Buy this book.) The author of this speculative poetry collection is from Trinidad and Tobago. I’ve never been there, but I imagine that being islands, there are beaches there, with waves that flow across the sand and lap against the rocks in the same way that these poems flow across your eyes and lap againstContinue reading “[REVIEW] Can You Sign My Tentacle? by Brandon O’Brien”

[READING CHALLENGE] Read Some Diverse Poetry

(Click here to skip straight to the booklist.) Y’all, I know it’s late, but the month I’ve had, with all its glorious ups and downs? Bear with me. Anyway, all whining and crowing aside(more about that crowing coming later) November is a great time to read poetry. The year is almost over, our brains areContinue reading “[READING CHALLENGE] Read Some Diverse Poetry”

[REVIEW] Engine Empire, by Cathy Park Hong

A black Kindle Paperwhite with a white electronic book cover display, lying on a table in front of a wooden tray containing a half-drunk latte and a half-eaten chunk of cake

(Find it HERE.) The bleached ruin of light lasts and lasts, no night/to repair our miinds, no white clip moon to give us rest. / Only pitiless noon where our sleep-starved consciousness/patters faintly behind our squinted eyelids. ~ Ballad of Tombstone Omaha Have you ever read something and not been exactly sure if it wasContinue reading “[REVIEW] Engine Empire, by Cathy Park Hong”