Bone Language

by Jamaica Baldwin

Jamaica Baldwin's poetry debut, Bone Language, is a testament to the specific ways women survive the world and its attacks on their bodies. At the core of this poet's survival is an engagement with a mother/daughter relationship that lives within the shadows of addiction-a love letter to mothers as they are, not as the world has asked them to be. With precision and vulnerability, Baldwin's lyric "I," signifies her body and its history as it reckons with loss, misogyny, racism, and desire. "I kept answering/your drowned voice with my own, / kept singing along /to our borrowed honey, / kept words, / the dead of women quick / with longing."

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

Published June 15, 2023

Reviews

[Jessica Poli · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and moving debut collection with a singular way of looking at the world and making it appear on the page. I will come back to this again and again.

[Maggie Childers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spectacular playing with magic and body; while I read, I unknowingly held my breath. She is a master, even in her debut, of moving language and navigating relationships with her family and self and other self.
Some stand outs for me:
Seeing in the Dark
Far from Grace
Year in Review
Father Weaver
Like a Soft Horn
As the Nurse Fills Out the Intake Form, The Ocean Speaks Your Name

That being said, you cannot read this without reading it fully. It is a dark and bony piece of work.

In a Cento for Black Women Who Died From Cancer, she says her work, “is to inhabit the silences with which I have lived and fill them with myself until they have the sounds of the brightest day and the loudest thunder.”
This is a beautiful laborious beginning. It will be a wonder seeing what else she has in store for bright days and loud thunder.

[AE Hines · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I swear to you,” Baldwin says in an early poem, “listening / to Nina Simone in the assiduous dark will shatter you on a cellular level.” So does this book! Whether the poet is addressing the past and family relationships, or the brokenness of the body, “no matter how many shovels we break digging / there is always more earth.” This debut sings with language both musical and magic, and you will want to keep going, keep digging, page after page.

[diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

absolutely stunning, my favorites were:

film script: on the open road (an anti-drama)
teaching the beasts to devour my mother
father weaver
naturally

the intertwining of race, femininity, womanhood, sex, and death into delicate webs of locutions made this an exquisite collection of poems, thanks to the bestie for letting me borrow it :}

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

In our downtown library, there is a poetry section of 'local authors'. I'm so glad I came across Jamaica Baldwin on that shelf, my eyes drawn to the title. Her poems speak in a voice both vulnerable & resilient. Bone Language is a thoughtful & skillfully crafted debut collection.

[Anthony Blan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will be reading as soon as I purchase it. I’m sure it’s a great read.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous word play, you will be glad you took the time to read each poem.

[Jill Mceldowney · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeous, gorgeous debut. I keep returning to "Seeing in the Dark" and "Forbidden." Baldwin's use of language is extraordinary.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really tender, moving poems in here, especially the ones that reflect on the body. Loved this collection.

[Bailey Bramer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baldwin creates vivid imagery, imaginative word-play and demonstrates masterful craft. I cannot recommend this collection enough!