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Collective Brightness: LGBTIQ Poets on Faith, Religion & Spirituality
Poetry. LGBT Studies. The first anthology of its kind, with poets representing several countries (the United States, Singapore, Korea, Australia, the United Kingdom, India, Malaysia, Japan and elsewhere), COLLECTIVE BRIGHTNESS gathers over 100 established and emerging contemporary LGBTIQ poets writing from and about various faiths, religions and spiritual traditions.
Says Rigoberto Gonzalez of National Book Critics Circle, "COLLECTIVE BRIGHTNESS sheds a shining light on a journey that no longer takes place in the dark. The glory of holding Kevin Simmonds's anthology in one's hands is that it burns as the sacred text of our queer times: heavy with burden, luminous with hope."
Says Rigoberto Gonzalez of National Book Critics Circle, "COLLECTIVE BRIGHTNESS sheds a shining light on a journey that no longer takes place in the dark. The glory of holding Kevin Simmonds's anthology in one's hands is that it burns as the sacred text of our queer times: heavy with burden, luminous with hope."
250 pages, Paperback
First published October 4, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 5, 2017
As is the case with any anthology that incorporates a wide variety of voices, it was inevitable that some of the poems and poets featured here resonated and impressed me deeply, while others I simply didn't connect with. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to love this, I ultimately only ended up loving fragments of it. Thankfully, those fragments (listed at the end of the review) glowed bright enough to make me really grateful to have read the whole thing because they're just that good, and I do think I'm better off after having read all of it nonetheless.
I think two expectations I carried into my reading affected how I received it, too. Firstly, I actually anticipated this being very similar to A God in the House: Poets Talk About Faith, which featured memoir-like essays and reflections from poets about spirituality as well as poems by them rather than strictly just poems. I also expected the poems over all to be more reverent and pro-spirituality. Of course, I certainly recognize why queer poets would have every reason to write the critical, wounded, and scoffing content that exists here given the deeply entrenched homophobia and heteronormativity of conservative religion across the board. However, I had assumed that these were poets who had remained in the faith, finding affirming denominations and communities and integrating their faith with their queerness. For some of those included, that is indeed the case, but it seemed to be the minority rather than the majority.
Bass's "Pray for Peace" was my absolute favorite and worth the whole book in my opinion. I also loved Maitreyabandhu's "Visitation," Miller's "Like the Phalaenopsis," and Wong's "god is our mother" quite a bit. Some other standouts were Anderson-Zavala's "Salvation," Banias's "Some Kind of We," Bellm's "Brand new," Brown's "To Be Seen,"Chowdhry's "The-one-colour-only-countries," Debonis's "Sacred Heart," Delgado's "cure for bad dreams," Dumesnil's "Chosen," Feris's "Passover," Hamer's "Below and beside," Jastrzębska's "Planting Out Cabbage" and "Seeing the Pope on TV," Kolek's "All True Conversations Should Take Place in the Food Court of a Busy Mall," Legaspi's "The Homosexual Book of Genesis,"Powell's "[when he comes he is neither sun nor shade: a china doll]," Rabiyah's "Invisible Man," Ross's "The Upstairs Lounge, New Orleans, June 24, 1973," Schwartz's "The Return," Sexton's "A Tongue on the Road," Sugarman's "Sacred are the Broken," Teare's "Because David & Jonathan," Terry's "I would hold you in my arms," Turtell's "A Prayer," and Ybarra's "Dear Pastor."
I think two expectations I carried into my reading affected how I received it, too. Firstly, I actually anticipated this being very similar to A God in the House: Poets Talk About Faith, which featured memoir-like essays and reflections from poets about spirituality as well as poems by them rather than strictly just poems. I also expected the poems over all to be more reverent and pro-spirituality. Of course, I certainly recognize why queer poets would have every reason to write the critical, wounded, and scoffing content that exists here given the deeply entrenched homophobia and heteronormativity of conservative religion across the board. However, I had assumed that these were poets who had remained in the faith, finding affirming denominations and communities and integrating their faith with their queerness. For some of those included, that is indeed the case, but it seemed to be the minority rather than the majority.
Bass's "Pray for Peace" was my absolute favorite and worth the whole book in my opinion. I also loved Maitreyabandhu's "Visitation," Miller's "Like the Phalaenopsis," and Wong's "god is our mother" quite a bit. Some other standouts were Anderson-Zavala's "Salvation," Banias's "Some Kind of We," Bellm's "Brand new," Brown's "To Be Seen,"Chowdhry's "The-one-colour-only-countries," Debonis's "Sacred Heart," Delgado's "cure for bad dreams," Dumesnil's "Chosen," Feris's "Passover," Hamer's "Below and beside," Jastrzębska's "Planting Out Cabbage" and "Seeing the Pope on TV," Kolek's "All True Conversations Should Take Place in the Food Court of a Busy Mall," Legaspi's "The Homosexual Book of Genesis,"Powell's "[when he comes he is neither sun nor shade: a china doll]," Rabiyah's "Invisible Man," Ross's "The Upstairs Lounge, New Orleans, June 24, 1973," Schwartz's "The Return," Sexton's "A Tongue on the Road," Sugarman's "Sacred are the Broken," Teare's "Because David & Jonathan," Terry's "I would hold you in my arms," Turtell's "A Prayer," and Ybarra's "Dear Pastor."
May 5, 2020
I've been dipping into this book (during the pandemic lockdown) and finding a lot of solace in it. Last night I met online with a couple of friends and we ended up reading poems to each other. I was reading from Collective Brightness and the poem spoke to some of the deeper issues that are coming up at the moment - with beautiful language and imagery but without earnestness. A great combination!
March 1, 2025
4.5 stars
September 23, 2011
Experiencing and Surviving Religions: Outsiders Views
Kevin Simmonds is a poet, a musician, and now with the publication of this anthology, a curator. He has gathered poems from around the world, poems written by LGBTIQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Questioning) poets asking them to respond to the many religions, faiths, spiritualities, belief and non-belief systems from which they have had experiences - either as participants or as outcasts or both. In his introduction Simmonds informs us that he grew up as a Catholic, lived for a time as a Fundamentalist Christian, and experienced the shame, rejection and castigation that often accompanied those affiliations, and it is this search for the more solid foundation of simply 'faith' that he found his 'religion'. Simmonds began his search for poets who have had like experiences and he has gathered some 100 established and emerging LGBTIQ poets form the USA, UK, India, Japan, Malaysia and other countries and climes and the result he calls COLLECTIVE BRIGHTNESS. The title may at first glance seem inappropriate for a book that deals with the trials of struggling with acceptance in a world unfriendly to this group of poets, but in Simmonds' editorial hand he has found the light at the end of the tunnel 'heavy with burden, luminous with hope.'
In a book of this size it would be impossible to credit every poet contributor by offering examples of the many works contained in this compelling anthology. Simmonds has simply placed the poetry in alphabetical order according to the poets' names. But a few examples merit attention to this fine book. Some of these works are sampled below:
INVISIBLE MAN by Amir Rabiyah
My forehead touched the ground...
I whisper the words: Subhanna Rabil Allah ['Oh Allah, glory be to you, the most high']
I thank the gentle prayer rug beneath me
I thank the earth beneath my supplication
In the middle of the room, I appear
as just another Arab man.
The worshippers do not know
that I ask God to give me the strength
to move this world
as both
a sister and a brother.
SINGING IN TONGUES by Katy Price
I wanted to ride my bike and praise the
Lord - spinning hedgerows after the rain,
away into the many shades of green;
escape this vast and shrinking space, over
a thousand voices singing a song with
no tune, no lyrics, straight from the holy
ghost. How many worshippers between me
and the tall unstained window, swaying with
upraised arms, lost from themselves? Bible notes
tell me good deeds won't cancel out the sin
but I still do these things. A rainbow pin,
God's love on my school uniform, I won't
have sex before marriage. He's punishing
me, I must tell more people about him.
EVERYONE WONDERS by Brent Goodman
Told Hell awaited me by 6th grade.
Best friend. More for being a Jew than
wearing my glasses in the showers.
My parents didn't suspect he was
black. So polite on the phone, Dan Rhone.
There's something I didn't believe in
and it was all my fault. There's something
he believed in and he was all wrong.
I've never wished ill upon a soul.
To be chosen. Everyone wonders.
THE OMEGA HAS BEEN POSTPONED by Emanuel Xavier
Jesus has decided to hold the second Coming on another planet
to allow other life forms the opportunity of more interesting ways of killing him
while, down on Earth, the cult of Catholicism enjoys
the materialism of crucifixes
and awaits a forced apocalypse
assuring the fanfare of his arrival by claiming everything
from new Orleans to Haiti
as proof that he loves them and only them
Despite the fact he has not even called for over two thousand years
Perhaps someday, fua!, he will grace us with a visit
Until then, Earth remains the a**hole of the universe.
And these are but four almost randomly picked examples of how different peoples form different faiths are coping or are viewing the organizations that claim to be grounded in 'love thy neighbor as thyself' but who continue to close the doors to the unwanted. It is the sterling light of faith that keeps these poets blossoming into spokesmen for us all. There is the expected resentment, pain, isolation and need to belong that comes forth from reading these poems, but there is an equal amount of the tenor of the phrase 'it gets better' that will provide many readers a sense of bonding and security.
Grady Harp
Kevin Simmonds is a poet, a musician, and now with the publication of this anthology, a curator. He has gathered poems from around the world, poems written by LGBTIQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Questioning) poets asking them to respond to the many religions, faiths, spiritualities, belief and non-belief systems from which they have had experiences - either as participants or as outcasts or both. In his introduction Simmonds informs us that he grew up as a Catholic, lived for a time as a Fundamentalist Christian, and experienced the shame, rejection and castigation that often accompanied those affiliations, and it is this search for the more solid foundation of simply 'faith' that he found his 'religion'. Simmonds began his search for poets who have had like experiences and he has gathered some 100 established and emerging LGBTIQ poets form the USA, UK, India, Japan, Malaysia and other countries and climes and the result he calls COLLECTIVE BRIGHTNESS. The title may at first glance seem inappropriate for a book that deals with the trials of struggling with acceptance in a world unfriendly to this group of poets, but in Simmonds' editorial hand he has found the light at the end of the tunnel 'heavy with burden, luminous with hope.'
In a book of this size it would be impossible to credit every poet contributor by offering examples of the many works contained in this compelling anthology. Simmonds has simply placed the poetry in alphabetical order according to the poets' names. But a few examples merit attention to this fine book. Some of these works are sampled below:
INVISIBLE MAN by Amir Rabiyah
My forehead touched the ground...
I whisper the words: Subhanna Rabil Allah ['Oh Allah, glory be to you, the most high']
I thank the gentle prayer rug beneath me
I thank the earth beneath my supplication
In the middle of the room, I appear
as just another Arab man.
The worshippers do not know
that I ask God to give me the strength
to move this world
as both
a sister and a brother.
SINGING IN TONGUES by Katy Price
I wanted to ride my bike and praise the
Lord - spinning hedgerows after the rain,
away into the many shades of green;
escape this vast and shrinking space, over
a thousand voices singing a song with
no tune, no lyrics, straight from the holy
ghost. How many worshippers between me
and the tall unstained window, swaying with
upraised arms, lost from themselves? Bible notes
tell me good deeds won't cancel out the sin
but I still do these things. A rainbow pin,
God's love on my school uniform, I won't
have sex before marriage. He's punishing
me, I must tell more people about him.
EVERYONE WONDERS by Brent Goodman
Told Hell awaited me by 6th grade.
Best friend. More for being a Jew than
wearing my glasses in the showers.
My parents didn't suspect he was
black. So polite on the phone, Dan Rhone.
There's something I didn't believe in
and it was all my fault. There's something
he believed in and he was all wrong.
I've never wished ill upon a soul.
To be chosen. Everyone wonders.
THE OMEGA HAS BEEN POSTPONED by Emanuel Xavier
Jesus has decided to hold the second Coming on another planet
to allow other life forms the opportunity of more interesting ways of killing him
while, down on Earth, the cult of Catholicism enjoys
the materialism of crucifixes
and awaits a forced apocalypse
assuring the fanfare of his arrival by claiming everything
from new Orleans to Haiti
as proof that he loves them and only them
Despite the fact he has not even called for over two thousand years
Perhaps someday, fua!, he will grace us with a visit
Until then, Earth remains the a**hole of the universe.
And these are but four almost randomly picked examples of how different peoples form different faiths are coping or are viewing the organizations that claim to be grounded in 'love thy neighbor as thyself' but who continue to close the doors to the unwanted. It is the sterling light of faith that keeps these poets blossoming into spokesmen for us all. There is the expected resentment, pain, isolation and need to belong that comes forth from reading these poems, but there is an equal amount of the tenor of the phrase 'it gets better' that will provide many readers a sense of bonding and security.
Grady Harp
December 31, 2011
Simmonds has managed to wrangle up a fine extensive collection of poetry grappling with the spiritual experiences of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgenders, and intersexed. In a Whitman-esque fashion, Simmond's manages to enlighten us with the worldly gamut of faiths, from the big players like Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity to old guard transcendentalism, agnosticism, realism, and atheism, as well as all that each entails for the LGBTIQ community: devastation, defiance, rejection, shame, empowerment, castigation, and scapegoating. Above all these experiences rises a commonality: Unity through spiritual diversity that allows us to stake our collective claim on believing and belonging wherever we chose.
The imagery throughout Collective Brightness is alluring, thus earning several dogeared pages throughout the analogy, but the poets who rose to the top for this reader, and not just because of their imagery, were the following:
Jill McDonoough -- Golden Gate Hank
Kamilah Aisha Moon -- A Resurrection
Angelou Nikolopoulos -- Fisting: Treading the Walls
William Reichard -- Clara's Vision (Appalachian Trail)
Joseph Ross -- The Upstairs Lounge New Orleans, June 24, 1973
Jason Schneiderman -- Adorable Wounds
Ruth L. Schwartz -- Bath and, a second poem, The Return
Elaine Sexton -- A Tongue on the Road and, a second poem, Totem
Christopher Soden -- My Kingdom is Far Away
Atsusuke Tanaka -- Like a Fruit Floating on Water
Addie Tsai -- Her lover blushed, and then moved on.-
Crystal Ybarra -- Dear Pastor
I'd like to share some commentary on each book, but as a spiritual person I believe that faith/belief/religion is extremely personal, so I won't attempt to misinterpret one poet's intent and how it impacted another. Suffice it to say, however, that I feel each of these, in its own unique way, authentically highlights our collective reclamation to believe and belong wherever and however we chose in the physical and spiritual worlds.
Happy reading!
The imagery throughout Collective Brightness is alluring, thus earning several dogeared pages throughout the analogy, but the poets who rose to the top for this reader, and not just because of their imagery, were the following:
Jill McDonoough -- Golden Gate Hank
Kamilah Aisha Moon -- A Resurrection
Angelou Nikolopoulos -- Fisting: Treading the Walls
William Reichard -- Clara's Vision (Appalachian Trail)
Joseph Ross -- The Upstairs Lounge New Orleans, June 24, 1973
Jason Schneiderman -- Adorable Wounds
Ruth L. Schwartz -- Bath and, a second poem, The Return
Elaine Sexton -- A Tongue on the Road and, a second poem, Totem
Christopher Soden -- My Kingdom is Far Away
Atsusuke Tanaka -- Like a Fruit Floating on Water
Addie Tsai -- Her lover blushed, and then moved on.-
Crystal Ybarra -- Dear Pastor
I'd like to share some commentary on each book, but as a spiritual person I believe that faith/belief/religion is extremely personal, so I won't attempt to misinterpret one poet's intent and how it impacted another. Suffice it to say, however, that I feel each of these, in its own unique way, authentically highlights our collective reclamation to believe and belong wherever and however we chose in the physical and spiritual worlds.
Happy reading!
April 3, 2013
There are some really, really fantastic pieces in this collection. It's definitely worth the read, even if you aren't into queer culture.
I did not throw this book, but I didn't exactly cuddle with it either.
I did not throw this book, but I didn't exactly cuddle with it either.
Read
October 6, 2017808.819 C6975 2011
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews