Small Congregations: New and Selected Poems

by Thylias Moss

Book by Moss, Thylias

Genres: Poetry

158 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Thylias Moss is a multiracial maker, an award-winning poet, recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" grant, and twice nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry.

Reviews

[Ann]

Please publish more collections of poetry, Ms. Moss! I reread this one two nights ago, and it's just about peerless. There are so many good poets out there; everybody pick one up!

Some favorite snippets (to intrigue):

In the river a woman washes
big white slices of bread
like shirts.

It dries and gets dirty again.
Her children eat
pieces of their crosses.

...


The breast milk is so thin
it turns gossamer and a dragonfly
flies away with it.

...

Once upon a time a little boy felled a tree
that nobody heard in the Dominican Republic or
in Haiti where he was purchased for what usually
is an hour's wage in Texas

...

He boards the train downtown,
same time I get on in Lee's Heights.

He's ashamed of what we have in common.
I just left his house. Spotless.

...

Buckwheat, I honor you
and what was explained as
African ways.

...

A young black girl stopped by the woods,
so young she knew only one man: Jim Crow
but she wasn't allowed to call his Mister.
The woods were his and she respected his boundaries
even in the absence of fence.

[David B.]

This collection by Thylias Moss leaves the world burning with every step. She leaves no means of escape from these poems that make you think about the toughest issues.

[Wesley]

Did not like too much. Felt kinda deflated, flagging. Yet better than most contemporary stuff. Her writing still has a certain free and open-ended way about it.

[Michael]

I am very glad I read this collection of poetry. The images really threw me! They were so startling and imaginative and mind changing - it was a very rich experience. An African-American writer who writes clearly and succinctly out of the American experience - out of community. It is angry in the best ways. It is hilarious in the deepest ways.

[Kayne]

Thylias Moss knows how to capture dreams. My favorite poem is the last one in the book, " This one is for all the Newborns."