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Besaydoo: Poems
Selected by Amaud Jamaul Johnson for the 2023 Jake Adam York Prize, Yalie Saweda Kamara’s Besaydoo is an elegantly wrought love song to home—as place, as people, as body, and as language. A griot is a historian, a living repository of communal legacies with “a story pulsing in every blood cell.” In Besaydoo , Kamara serves as griot for the Freeborn in Oakland, the Sierra Leonean in California, the girl straddling womanhood, the woman re-discovering herself. “I am made from the obsession of detail,” she writes, setting scenes from her own multifaceted legacy in sharp the memory of her mother’s singing, savory stacks of lumpia, a church where “everyone is broken, but trying.” A multitudinous witness.
Kamara psalms from the nexus of many languages—Krio, English, French, poetry’s many dialects—to highlight mechanisms not just for survival, but for abundance. “I make myth for peace,” she writes, as well as for loss, for delight, for kinship, and most of all for a country where Black means “steadfast and opulent,” and “dangerous and infinite.” She writes for a new America, where praise is plentiful and Black lives flourish. But in Besaydoo , there is no partition between the living and the dead. There is no past nor present. There is, instead, a joyful simultaneity—a liberating togetherness sustained by song.
Kamara psalms from the nexus of many languages—Krio, English, French, poetry’s many dialects—to highlight mechanisms not just for survival, but for abundance. “I make myth for peace,” she writes, as well as for loss, for delight, for kinship, and most of all for a country where Black means “steadfast and opulent,” and “dangerous and infinite.” She writes for a new America, where praise is plentiful and Black lives flourish. But in Besaydoo , there is no partition between the living and the dead. There is no past nor present. There is, instead, a joyful simultaneity—a liberating togetherness sustained by song.
96 pages, Paperback
Published January 9, 2024
3 people are currently reading
202 people want to read
About the author
Yalie Kamara
7 books16 followersThe current Poet Laureate of the City of Cincinnati, Yalie Saweda Kamara, is a Sierra Leonean-American writer, educator, and researcher originally from Oakland, California, and the 2022–2024 Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate. Invited for a third year of poet laureate service, her tenure will conclude in 2025. She is an assistant professor of English at Xavier University, where she specializes in creative writing and global and diasporic literature. Winner of the 2022–2023 Jake Adam York Prize, Kamara’s debut full-length poetry collection is Besaydoo (Milkweed Editions, 2024).
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
December 14, 2023
Excellent poetry collection about womanhood, Blackness, coming from an immigrant family, faith, and humanity. The audiobook is read by the author and worth a listen. I received an audio review copy from Libro.FM, all opinions are my own.
August 13, 2024
Sealey Challenge 2024: 9/31
I‘ve gone back and forth on what I feel about this one. I listened to the audiobook three times which is not usual for me. However, I kept re-listening because on my first reading of these poems I felt like I was missing something. There were some poems that really stuck out to me while others left me wondering what exactly the poet was talking about or what the gist of the poem was. After listening so many times, my thoughts remain the same; some poems stuck with me and others simply did not. Oh well, not every read can be a new favorite!
I‘ve gone back and forth on what I feel about this one. I listened to the audiobook three times which is not usual for me. However, I kept re-listening because on my first reading of these poems I felt like I was missing something. There were some poems that really stuck out to me while others left me wondering what exactly the poet was talking about or what the gist of the poem was. After listening so many times, my thoughts remain the same; some poems stuck with me and others simply did not. Oh well, not every read can be a new favorite!
February 19, 2024
In a world where everything is political, Kamara reminds us of the deeply personal woven in and through.
April 11, 2024
For me it is always difficult to review a collection of poetry. As is often the case, there were moments I felt lost and moments I felt many other things. The depth of works like these is such that simply reading feels unsatisfactory. I don’t know how to sufficiently celebrate this work.
The most I can say of Besaydoo is that I am so grateful to have read these poems. I can’t communicate a greater praise.
“This is a new skill for me. To find wonder and not expectation in the gift of going on and on”
“Nobody dignifies this loss with memory. I make myth for peace.”
Some favourites include ‘Bloomington, Indiana Part I’, Besaydoo, A Brief Biography of My Name, Soumission Chimique, How to Write an Ekphrastic Poem About a Nia Wilson Memorial Portrait, Aunty X Becomes a Unit of Light
The most I can say of Besaydoo is that I am so grateful to have read these poems. I can’t communicate a greater praise.
“This is a new skill for me. To find wonder and not expectation in the gift of going on and on”
“Nobody dignifies this loss with memory. I make myth for peace.”
Some favourites include ‘Bloomington, Indiana Part I’, Besaydoo, A Brief Biography of My Name, Soumission Chimique, How to Write an Ekphrastic Poem About a Nia Wilson Memorial Portrait, Aunty X Becomes a Unit of Light
December 1, 2023
I am beyond thankful to Libro.fm, Yali Kamara, and Milkweed Editions for granting me ALC access to this beautiful collection of poems and prose. Besaydoo breaches the world of those living and surviving in Oakland, California, through the trials and tribulations of a segregated section of their hometown. I laughed, I cried, and I really sat with my emotions after listening to this fantastic work of art.
December 29, 2023
"Besaydoo" is an extraordinary masterpiece that defies expectations and transports readers into a world brimming with wonder and imagination of a Sierra Leonean woman. From the very first page, I found myself utterly enthralled by the vivid imagery and the intricately woven narrative that spans time and continents.
This book offers experiences that linger in the mind and heart long after the final page. I am taken by Kamara's intimate examination of kinship, home, faith, and blackness.
"Besaydoo" is an absolute must-read (or listen via Kamara's audiobook) for anyone who seeks an escape into a world of profound storytelling via poetry. I highly recommend!
This book offers experiences that linger in the mind and heart long after the final page. I am taken by Kamara's intimate examination of kinship, home, faith, and blackness.
"Besaydoo" is an absolute must-read (or listen via Kamara's audiobook) for anyone who seeks an escape into a world of profound storytelling via poetry. I highly recommend!
January 5, 2024
An excellent collection of poetry that spans continents and years.
Yalie Kamara’s poems often rest in the places we want to avoid, like the contradictions within a physical place or the people we know best, or the tensions within a family that linger after the trauma.
Her poems can luxuriate in the senses, or leave the reader on edge with tension, such as in Soumission Chimique.
No matter where the poem takes place or what experience Kamara writes about, a thread that weaves through all of them is her profound and deep embrace of life.
Yalie Kamara’s poems often rest in the places we want to avoid, like the contradictions within a physical place or the people we know best, or the tensions within a family that linger after the trauma.
Her poems can luxuriate in the senses, or leave the reader on edge with tension, such as in Soumission Chimique.
No matter where the poem takes place or what experience Kamara writes about, a thread that weaves through all of them is her profound and deep embrace of life.
February 2, 2024
Gorgeous collection of poems, I particularly loved the one the title is derived from, made my heart happy.
December 1, 2024
I loved every word. This book grabbed me from the start.
never-finished
March 30, 2024I got about halfway through this before I stopped understanding it--I think the poems would need more intense study to get the most of them, and an audiobook wasn't the right format for that. I liked it up until then--it reminded me of "Remember Us" by Woodson. I especially liked the explanation of the title. I think this is an adult title, based on the protagonist being an adult in many of the poems. Thanks to Libro.FM for a free educator copy of the audio.
December 24, 2025
“Dawn is peeling from dusk. And my mama / is teaching me how to depart from that / which does not love us.” — Yalie Saweda Kamara, “Aubade for Every Room in Which My Mother Sings”
Besaydoo is an absolute feast of a poetry collection and more than worthy of the Ohio Book Award. Yalie writes with such tenderness toward every subject, with a clear love for language and lush imagery with particular attention to taste (lumpia, malombo fruit, string cheese). In “A Brief Biography of My Name,” the author says, “I am made from the obsession of detail,” and that rings true across every poem.
Many of these poems explore family mythology, the ways childhood memories and the stories we’re told—and that we tell ourselves—become woven into the fabric of our identities. There are also odes to Black women across time, to Nia Wilson, Nina Simone, and Gabby Douglas. The author’s multifaceted background as a Sierra Leonean American who grew up in Oakland feeds the rich storytelling about place across the collection (arguably, one of the most powerful poems is about finding religion in Bloomington, Indiana—“What doesn’t surprise me is that neo-Nazis sell fresh produce at the farmers market” and “This is where I found my God, nodding me awake”).
Yalie also demonstrates incredible skill with the tonal shift, moving from funny to serious, light to heavy, in poems like “Grab Bag (May 1998),” where her childhood self’s questions about sex become questions of how women’s bodies are taken from their control (“a voice to fight the fear of all the flowers sprouting within me, / words to battle any hands trying to uproot me before my season”).
Like many contemporary poets, Yalie experiments with form and structure, including a list of her mother’s rules, a two-step, and an obverse (a new form for me that is a palindrome poem that can be read both forward and backward, featured in “A Poem for My Uncle”).
I discussed this collection at a poetry book club, and everyone had a different favorite poem, which speaks to the strength and variety of the collection as a whole. Poems that stood out to me, in addition to those previously mentioned:
+ “Space” (“Me and my broken name, less heavy than before / began to float away to somewhere else”)
+ “Eating Malombo Fruit in Freetown, 1989” (I keep rereading this one)
+ “Repast in the Diversity Center” (a poem of bitter contrasts, of artificially created spaces for grieving)
+ “Ulotrichous” (the use of blank space allows the reader to project both bias and experience—I haven’t seen this approach before)
+ “Aunty X’s Dream Door Has” and “Aunty X Becomes a Unit of Light” (a gut-punch of a narrative poem: “While looking in the mirror, my Aunty X surveys her head, wondering if her alopecia has been a lifelong exercise in losing parts of herself.”)
I’m excited to see what this author creates next, and I highly recommend this collection for all poetry appreciators!
Besaydoo is an absolute feast of a poetry collection and more than worthy of the Ohio Book Award. Yalie writes with such tenderness toward every subject, with a clear love for language and lush imagery with particular attention to taste (lumpia, malombo fruit, string cheese). In “A Brief Biography of My Name,” the author says, “I am made from the obsession of detail,” and that rings true across every poem.
Many of these poems explore family mythology, the ways childhood memories and the stories we’re told—and that we tell ourselves—become woven into the fabric of our identities. There are also odes to Black women across time, to Nia Wilson, Nina Simone, and Gabby Douglas. The author’s multifaceted background as a Sierra Leonean American who grew up in Oakland feeds the rich storytelling about place across the collection (arguably, one of the most powerful poems is about finding religion in Bloomington, Indiana—“What doesn’t surprise me is that neo-Nazis sell fresh produce at the farmers market” and “This is where I found my God, nodding me awake”).
Yalie also demonstrates incredible skill with the tonal shift, moving from funny to serious, light to heavy, in poems like “Grab Bag (May 1998),” where her childhood self’s questions about sex become questions of how women’s bodies are taken from their control (“a voice to fight the fear of all the flowers sprouting within me, / words to battle any hands trying to uproot me before my season”).
Like many contemporary poets, Yalie experiments with form and structure, including a list of her mother’s rules, a two-step, and an obverse (a new form for me that is a palindrome poem that can be read both forward and backward, featured in “A Poem for My Uncle”).
I discussed this collection at a poetry book club, and everyone had a different favorite poem, which speaks to the strength and variety of the collection as a whole. Poems that stood out to me, in addition to those previously mentioned:
+ “Space” (“Me and my broken name, less heavy than before / began to float away to somewhere else”)
+ “Eating Malombo Fruit in Freetown, 1989” (I keep rereading this one)
+ “Repast in the Diversity Center” (a poem of bitter contrasts, of artificially created spaces for grieving)
+ “Ulotrichous” (the use of blank space allows the reader to project both bias and experience—I haven’t seen this approach before)
+ “Aunty X’s Dream Door Has” and “Aunty X Becomes a Unit of Light” (a gut-punch of a narrative poem: “While looking in the mirror, my Aunty X surveys her head, wondering if her alopecia has been a lifelong exercise in losing parts of herself.”)
I’m excited to see what this author creates next, and I highly recommend this collection for all poetry appreciators!
January 10, 2024
such a deep and tender look at family, home, language, and self. i'm so excited my salone fam blessed us with her words, questions and considerations.
some memorable quotes:
"while looking in the mirror, my aunty x surveys her head, wondering if her alopecia has been a lifelong exercise in losing parts of herself."
best transition: "i think my flesh, now green, is, by some estimation, a verdant plane."
"68. bless all who suffer the weight of witness."
the best message, affirmation, mantra - "i dance an ugly dance, but my god it is an honest one."
some memorable quotes:
"while looking in the mirror, my aunty x surveys her head, wondering if her alopecia has been a lifelong exercise in losing parts of herself."
best transition: "i think my flesh, now green, is, by some estimation, a verdant plane."
"68. bless all who suffer the weight of witness."
the best message, affirmation, mantra - "i dance an ugly dance, but my god it is an honest one."
December 12, 2024
“What makes me forget that gift comes from the same root as the German word for poison?” While listening there were things that jumped out at me and then there were points that I missed. Listening to the author read their poetry is amazing because we learn their cadence, but I would also need to read them because I feel like that would help me to connect with them. Overall, this was great to hear.
January 4, 2024
Beyond the fiercely personal poems, we get an internal glimpse of a family’s closeness and distance, and family wisdom and advice, and “the familiar scent of kin . . .” and its broken tree. The book closes with a powerful look at family mourning, an insightful look at how a mother is affected by her child’s death.
April 7, 2024
4.5 rounded up
Really lovely little poetry collection that interrogates Black womanhood, the poet's home of Oakland, and their cultural and familial roots in Sierra Leone. The title poem is so heartwarming and made me smile. Highly recommend! Thank you to Libro.FM's educator ALC program for a copy of this audiobook.
Really lovely little poetry collection that interrogates Black womanhood, the poet's home of Oakland, and their cultural and familial roots in Sierra Leone. The title poem is so heartwarming and made me smile. Highly recommend! Thank you to Libro.FM's educator ALC program for a copy of this audiobook.
December 30, 2024
From the back cover by Ross Gay; "I love this book...I love how hard it tries, how much it loves. I love how it sings and how it talks. I love what it does with its hurt and its sorrow, and its loss and its longing. And I love, maybe most of all, that Besaydoo is a prayer for all of us, which Yalie Saweda Kamara reminds us a book sometimes can be."
December 1, 2023
This was a beautiful set of poetry making use of not just the verbosity of language but a diversity of dialects and languages as well. Thoroughly enjoyable. I received a complimentary audiobook from the publisher via libro.fm.
April 26, 2024
Stunning debut poetry collection, born from experience, tied to family and location, distanced only by a world who chose to forget the "i" in this poet's name, Kamara returns to claim that space with a resounding sense of self and a profound noticing that goes beyond the spectator's eye.
April 28, 2024
A Haiku for the Bus: 54 Fruitvale BART Station/Merritt College
"She mouths psalms while the
other reads Sojourner Truth.
A bus. An alter."
The 54 is my bus.
THIS HITS HOME HOME HOME HOME!!
Kamara knows where I live. Literally.
"She mouths psalms while the
other reads Sojourner Truth.
A bus. An alter."
The 54 is my bus.
THIS HITS HOME HOME HOME HOME!!
Kamara knows where I live. Literally.
January 12, 2025
“Nobody dignified this loss with memory. I make myth for peace.” A beautiful collection of poetry. Solid forms & cohesive word plays. Read “Bloomington, Indiana, Part I”, “In Our New Home,” & love letters to Nia Wilson again, again, and again.
February 4, 2025
Powerful.
Two of my favorite lines in this collections are:
1.'The object that casts the biggest shadow is the one closest to the light."
2."The dead only die when the living refuse to sing for them."
Two of my favorite lines in this collections are:
1.'The object that casts the biggest shadow is the one closest to the light."
2."The dead only die when the living refuse to sing for them."
December 16, 2023
Thanks to libro.fm for the ALC. I hadn't really thought about listening to audiobooks for poetry, but it was perfect. Especially since the author read them. Powerful poems that everyone should ponder.
January 19, 2024
This is an incredible book of poetry. The title poem is illustrative in so many ways. I’m extremely grateful for Dr. Kamara’s exquisite work. More please!!
January 15, 2025
Such great work!
March 5, 2025
Deserves many more readings, dog-eared lots to come back to. So many favorites but the titular poem is an all-timer
Read
December 15, 2025Absolutely loved this collection and was really moved by them. So many themes/topics covered, and I would highly recommend it. Audiobook was lovelyyyy.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews