Does Your House Have Lions?

by Sonia Sanchez

Poems evoke the Black experience of living in modern America

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, School, Queer, Gay, African American

69 pages, Hardcover

First published July 20, 1997

About the author

Sonia Sanchez was born Wilsonia Benita Driver on September 9, 1934, in Birmingham, Alabama. After her mother died in childbirth a year later, Sanchez lived with her paternal grandmother and other relatives for several years. In 1943, she moved to Harlem with her sister to live with their father and his third wife.

She earned a B.A. in political science from Hunter College in 1955. She also did postgraduate work at New York University and studied poetry with Louise Bogan. Sanchez formed a writers' workshop in Greenwich Village, attended by such poets as Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Haki R. Madhubuti (Don L. Lee), and Larry Neal. Along with Madhubuti, Nikki Giovanni, and Etheridge Knight, she formed the "Broadside Quartet" of young poets, introduced and promoted by Dudley Randall.

Reviews

[Flo · Rating 4 out of 5]

ancestor’s voice

FEMALE where are the gods when we need them?
MALE they are stammering someplace off camera.
FEMALE where are their masks, their substitute emblem?
MALE they rustle in weeds like an old dilemma.
FEMALE where is Buddha? Allah? Jehovah? Ptah? Ra?
MALE will their tongues acknowledge us one day?
FEMALE will their cobwebs remember us one day?

Dec 7, 20

[Xian Xian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Borrowed from the Library

Does Your House Have Lions? is a small collection of micro poetry and haiku. The collection is centered on the theme if family and loss. The little snippets are built as minimal as possible. Sonia Sanchez is known for writing in traditional Japanese poetry forms. I don’t really have much to say about this collection other than the fact that it’s about the self-discovery and loss of an African American family. A father who isn’t always present, a son discovering that he’s gay and exploring that in the AIDS epidemic, and a sister and mother who are caught in between all of the heaviest conflicts of that time, the racism and the fluctuating changes of a generation. And then there’s death and the loss, at the end there’s this really poignant scene where the son connects with his ancestors after death. So there’s a sort magical realist influence going on here and I honestly wished it was a little longer.

Rating: 5/5

Originally posted on Notes on the Shore

[zaynab · Rating 5 out of 5]

I spent the morning reading this in the bath tub while listening to Hex Partner's "Darling, Safe Passage to You". I walked away from it thinking that I want to see this poem performed as if it was a choreopoem, because it has that beautiful potential about it, to come alive on stage and really take on the imagination of the actors as they try to speak to its themes of familial estrangement, death, and reconciliation. I wonder whether she intended to write this to be performed, or embodied on stage in any sort of way. At any rate, while its a short, epic read (depending on your reading speed), this is a book to meditate on, take with you, carry inside of you, especially in these times.

[Java · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crushing yet Captivating with charm.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

This epic poem is absolutely wonderful. Even with the difficult, abstract language, the emotion and tone are so obvious. It is heartbreaking, particularly the last section. I need to read more Sonia Sanchez. Not only does it discuss very beautifully the intersection between being African American and being gay, it also deals with AIDS, which is such a touchy subject. It captures the familial inner conflict when these issues arise, and it captures them through poetry, which in my opinion, is the truest way to capture humanity.

The book was primarily through her brother's perspective, as it was about her brother. I think the language could have been a bit more straightforward, and it would have had a greater emotional impact. However, I am uncomfortable critiquing the style of poetry, because preferences are so relative. This is simply how I feel. I would have been much more touched by the poetry if the experiences of everyone involved had been expressed in a more tangible manner.

[Destiny · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I loved the writing, I couldn't connect with the poems themselves.

[june · Rating 3 out of 5]

"then i beagn to think me alive with form and history / then i made my former life an accessory."

"what does a liver know of peace
or spleen. kidneys. ribs. be still my soul.
how does a city broker its disease
within the confines of a borough"

"i have become a lover sweet water / i worship stone i will not betray you father."

"come down and i will defend your skin / against the threat of constant confession."

"imagine him country and exact"

[Laura B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

not my favorite of Sanchez for sure, but all the trademarks of why she's one of the greats are still here. the construction of these short poems is gorgeous and the verse here is smart, snappy, and lends itself to the musicality of her language. love a narrative arc in a collection, and this feels like a perfect example of how to do that without ever reaching stagnation. not crazy about the final third, but that just felt like personal preference.

[Tristan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first work by Sonia Sanchez I have read and I very much enjoyed it. Does Your House Have Lions? is a massive book length poem that chronicles family, loss, pain, and illness. It is apparently based on the death of her brother to AIDS, although that is apparent in the book primarily (perhaps entirely) through oblique indications that his illness was unusual and unusually virulent as he dies in the latter portion of the book. Told in the voices of an entire family, the work captures the narrative with its fragments and questions and uncertainty. Sanchez builds a family that feels real with bits like

i checked myself out of the hospital
sister. i'm back at work on a new skyscraper
i'm peiceing together the city in a recital
of steel and windows. no rice paper
walls here to destroy my design. no bootlegger
wires light this expensive east-side dwelling
up here, my limbs sequester themselves in lightning

emerging naturally from the web of feeling that grabs this family, like any family that endures fear and loss. Sanchez's family epic is filled with emotion and the arrival of the "ancestors" in the final section--with their sometimes formalized voice ("do you remember me, huh? / when our teeth were iron, huh? / did you drum about me, hey? / and not babylon, hey?") whips that feeling up to a pitch. I liked the fourth section of the poem best, but it needs the first three to begin the feeling and the story, painting a family that knows what it feels. I here is a passage in the brother's voice to illustrate

how to erect respect in a country of men
where dollars pump their veins?
how to return from exile from swollen
tongues crisscrossing my frail domain?
how to learn to love me amid all the pain?
how to look into his eyes and be reborn
without blood and phlegm and thorn?

Finally, I was very interested in the title of his work. I think it is possible that it shapes the piece by framing the conflict and power of lions, or maybe is helps situate it in a particular urban environment (the kind of neighborhood where there are old houses with lions out front). It also might draw in associations with strength and with the structure of a pride of lions, the first of which is important when one is living such an experience and the second may mirror the dynamics between characters in the text. (I'm not so sure about that one). If people have thoughts on how the title reflects on the poem, I'd really appreciate hearing about them.

[Chaneli · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautiful, powerful, and emotional poetry collection that Sonia wrote about the relationship between her brother and father. There's so so much love, loss, estrangement, a son/brother dying of AIDS and each family member dealing and reconciling with his lost. I love the various voices Sanchez chose to write the poems from the sister's voice, to the brother's voice, moving to the father's voice and then familial/ancestor's voices. All of which were very powerful.
one of my favorite poets and always in constant awe and appreciation for every work written by this woman.

[ALICIA MOGOLLON · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful collections of poetry that read like a story in 4 0r 5 voices. I meant to jot down an exerpt but didn't get around to it. Sanchez writes beautifully and lyrically and tantalizes the imagination with her verbal imagery. I was particularly drawn to the 'brother's voice' poems in this book. It is a small compilation, so not a long read.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this for the first time last night. I'm reading about loss - today's Because What Else Could I Do by Martha Collins. This, last night - Sonia Sanchez on family, loss, aids, a father who left, a mother who died, love - all with urgency, a strong sense of defect, the inevitability of character overshadowing responsibility; personalities. Strongly recommend.

[Ijeoma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ms. Sanchez a poet... transcendent spirituality - vivid talent and aptitude for reawakening the past - summoning the future and all it's hope for revival.

P.s.
A piece of literature to be re-read and re-read to grasp the allusions, allegory, historical and political references completely.

[Marie]

Powerful group of poems about the poet's brother's struggle with AIDS. These poems are told from the perspective of sister, brother, father, mother, and ancestors. The poems speak about being gay in African American families, which is rare to find outside Baldwin and others...

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sanchez writes here about her brother's death from AIDS. She does so through the voices of her family members, as well as the voices of African American ancestors. The result is rhythmic, haunting, and (as is to be expected) poignant.

[Angélique (Angel) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 Stars. This is a poem rooted in Black traditions of epic, ancestral story-telling. This is a poem of loss and disconnect and healing and hope. This is a poem full of living and of dying. This is a poem I look forward to re-reading again and again.

[Chloe Glynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed the way I saw Philadelphia. Strange that so much courage and boldness can be so subtle until called out by poets' eyes. It's simple, strong, coherent, you can almost hear breaths between the words. True poetry from a true poet.

[Taryl Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sonia Sanchez is one of my favorite poets and I have read this book about 20 times. It is a collection of short poems. It speaks of family and loss, being estranged, love, and ultimately reconciliation. Sanchez is an amazing writer and this book pulls at my heart everytime I read it.

[Donnelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sonia Sanchez does it again - so much music on the page.

[Cherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Beautiful poems

[Rickey Laurentiis · Rating 5 out of 5]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[she.likes.books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another amazing book of poetry from Sonia Sanchez. Her poems always go straight to the heart. Very deep and retrospective.

[reading woman · Rating 3 out of 5]

An historical tapestry pieced together with images from the present past and an ancestral past. There is rhythm and cadence in this body of poems however sad and heart wrenching.

[Holly Raymond · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw Sonia Sanchez read at the Free Library of Philadelphia and decided to borrow my girlfriend's copy of this book. It was good, although I found the persona elements a little thin.

[Rosalind · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty good book of poems. None of them really touched me deeply, but I enjoyed reading them.

[Randi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really lovely. I got choked up at the end, and I can't remember the last time a poem made me teary, if ever.

[Lisa Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

good reading

[Jamie Zaccaria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful, heartbreaking poetry story.

[Jim Robles · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second read for the "Sin and Redemption in Contemporary American Literature" course I am taking at Duke.

My answer, of course is, "Yes, my house does have lions." In fact lions have walked with me all of my life.

Four stars for this story of some whose lives are so different than mine. Perhaps it would be five if I understood poetry better or if my life had been touched by tragedy, but though I have done nothing to earn it lions do walk with me.

Lions are "king of the beasts." (Of course this not really true. Anyone who has seen "The Battle of Krueger" on YouTube knows that Water Buffalo are the real "king of the beasts.")

We take lions to to represent strength, courage and dominance. I take the title to be asking does your house have lions protecting it: in other words are you safe in your house. Being White and privileged, my answer is of course yes. I was 19 or 20 when my wife to be was in the hospital having her appendix removed. That was the first time it really occurred to me that I could walk anywhere visiting hours, making eye-contact with everyone I met, and no one would challenge me: lions walk with me.

From theDuke online Oxford Dictionary:

n. 1. a. . . . . It is very powerful, and has a noble and impressive appearance; whence it is sometimes called ‘the king of beasts’.

2. Proverbial and allusive phrases.
a. Proverbs (chiefly referring to the strength or ferocity of the lion).

d. the lion's share: the largest or principal portion.

5. c. British Lion, the lion as the national emblem of Great Britain; hence often used figuratively for the British nation. Similarly Scottish lion.

[Joann Schatz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, not to grief-gatekeep, but I can’t help but feel like this is one of those books that you won’t FEEL unless you’ve experienced the death of someone you were really close to. And maybe that’s me romanticizing my own experience, but regardless this book made me feel seen in a whole lot of ways. My heart dropped and my breath stopped, I truly felt this poetry in my body. Here’s my favorite passage: i hear the water whistling in squads
of blue comings, the ocean has become a thief
i see our souls transported, lightning rods
of apocalyptic disbelief
the sea opens and shuts with our grief
new fathers have come to record their loss
old fathers know this accustomed chaos.