Because You Were Mine

by Brionne Janae

In their latest collection of poems, Cave Canem Poetry Prize winner Brionne Janae dives into the deep, unsettled waters of intimate partner violence, queerness, grief, and survival.

“I’ve decided I can’t trust anyone who uses darkness as a metaphor for what they fear,” poet Brionne Janae writes in this stunning new collection, in which the speaker navigates past and present traumas and interrogates familial and artistic lineages, queer relationships, positions of power, and community.

Because You Were Mine is an intimate look at love, loneliness, and what it costs to survive abuse at the hands of those meant to be “protectors.” In raw, confessional, image-heavy poems, Janae explores the aftershocks of the dangerous entanglement of love and possession in parent-child relationships. Through this difficult but necessary examination, the collection speaks on behalf of children who were left or harmed as a result of the failures of their parents, their states, and their gods.

Survivors, queer folks, and readers of poetry will find recognition and solace in these hard-wrought poems—poems that honor survivorship, queer love, parent wounds, trauma, and the complexities of familial blood.

Genres: Poetry, Queer, Lesbian, LGBT

80 pages, Paperback

Published July 4, 2023

Reviews

[Vanesa Pacheco · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ Janae’s poems are raw—they stay with you and have you rereading lines just to feel those words sit on your chest like weights. Her poem “Dear Mother I’m Angry” needs to be framed on my desk so I can revisit how she captured every single thought that’s ever crossed my mind. A true poet!

[Mayi Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Affirming, breath taking.

Some of the best lines:
"If love feels good against your skin then call it home and don't worry about the shape it takes"
"If you a shapeshifter then baby you can be anything you like"
"pull everything in / even when your grandmothers/didn't know what to pray for/ they still prayed for you/ if you believe in nothing/ believe in you/ sing to the child in the well/ sing until she unfurls her fist/ until she sings too/ get her out/ take her with you/ straighten your back beloved/ nobody was every promised they'd live"

[Sera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely remarkable and stunningly written. One of those collections you read through and have to take time to reflect upon. I truly did not expect to finish the entire book in one sitting, but wow. After each poem I found myself needing Brionne to tell me more. Some of these poems have truly stuck out and honestly changed the way I look at my own experiences.

I Called It Grace
“Sometimes I Feel Like I’m Almost Gone”
Dear Mother I’m Angry
Androgyny
Geometry Of Love
The Boundary

These poems are some of my favorites. They really resonated with some personal struggles I’ve been dealing with lately. They serve as reminders that I’m not as alone as my anxiety likes to make me feel, and offer up a different perspective.

There are so many other poems I love in this book that I’ll carry with me for ages. Incredible

[kt m · Rating 4 out of 5]

Content warning for sexual assault, family trauma

Quotes:

WANT AND LOVE ARE NOT THE SAME WORD
“... need is not the same as want or love
but perhaps it is more honest

more insistent on our frailty our humanness
personally I can’t stand to be so exposed

if I acknowledge my soft human body
and all the ways it aches to be held

what happens when I still sit lonely
with no one to touch me and say you are real…”

Just the title “Nothing more isolating than a body is gorgeous”

I CALLED IT GRACE:
“...too long perhaps
I called this grace and love
the will of the mind to forget
what the body will always remember…”

“For Devonte Hart” was beautiful

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

These poems are about family, what it means to be unprotected, the fracture, longing, duty, and distance that characterize a mother/daughter relationship, and the long tentacles of sexual harm at different stages of life. They are also about Blackness and gender and legacy. The two standouts for me where “For Devonte Hart” (“and I cannot stop seeing you/reaching from harm to harm”) and “Love Poem to the Motherfucker Who Broke Into My Apartment” (“I wanted you far from me yes/but also I want you alive and free”)

[Brittany Mishra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection cuts to the bone. Janae steers us through trauma, race, family love, and family pain. They look at worth and identity, at acceptance of self outside the acceptance by family and loved ones.

Some noteable poems:

Say it wasn't my fault you suffered
Love Poem
My mother reads her Bible
The Boundary
Against Mastery

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I weren’t so disconnected from my body, these would have me sobbing.

[El cassidy]

I'm never really sure how I feel about poetry

"My Mother Wants to Know I'll Still Be a Bride" and "Against Mastery" were my favorites

[Ryan Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Janae has a talent for bringing readers into her grief, but not overwhelming them. They're incredibly talented and I can't wait to read what they write next!

[Adrian Shanker · Rating 4 out of 5]

“if you can find what gives you joy then the world is all yours / if the world is yours be generous tear open the bread and share it”

[liv · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful and painful

[Elizabeth Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly emotional, vulnerable, and moving. Favorite poems: “My Mother Wants To Know I’ll Still Be a Bride,” “Poem Where My Dog is the Hero,” “Another Black Elder Finds Me Weeping on The Subway,” “We’ve Come This Far By Faith