Song of My Softening

by Omotara James

Recommended by Cosmopolitan, USA Today, Shondaland, & Book Riot




“It’s not often that fat women feel such thorough representation of themselves not only in poetry but in any media and not only in the beautiful moments but in the sorrowful ones, ranging throughout life. James does a brilliant job of portraying this and all her themes brilliantly; highly recommended.” —Starred review by Library Journal




The raw poems inside Song of My Softening studies the ever-changing relationship with oneself, while also investigating the relationship that the world and nation has with Black queerness. Poems open wide the questioning of how we express both love and pain, and how we view our bodies in society, offering themselves wholly, with sharpness and compassion.

Genres: Poetry, Queer, LGBT

140 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 13, 2024

About the author

Omotara James is the author of the poetry collection, Song of My Softening, (Alice James Books, 2024). Her chapbook, Daughter Tongue, was selected by African Poetry Book Fund, (Akashic Books, 2018), for the New Generation African Poets Box Set.

James’ poems appear in print and digital journals, including the Poetry Foundation, The Nation, BOMB Magazine, the Paris Review, American Poetry Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly, the Believer, Literary Hub, Guernica, Poetry Society of America and elsewhere. Her poetry has been featured in the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day series.

She has performed on various stages including The 92NY, The Brooklyn Books Festival, The New York City Poetry Festival and The Poetry Project. Her work has been anthologised and selected for inclusion in various publications.

James is the recipient of the 2023 J. Howard and Barbara M. J. Wood Prize from the Poetry Foundation. She has received residency fellowships from Cave Canem Foundation and Lambda Literary, among other awards and recognitions.

Born in Britain, she is the daughter of Nigerian and Trinidadian immigrants. She has lived in England, Scotland and was raised primarily in America. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from Hofstra University and an MFA in Poetry from New York University.

Reviews

[Laura Sackton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this whole collection, the way James writes about fatness, and about fat Black bodies and queer bodies, is just so beautiful and revelatory.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a heartfelt collection that I know will touch certain readers more than others. I loved the way Omotara reflected on the intersections of being Black, fat, and queer in her poems with such grace and care. I also appreciated how her poems invited the reader to reflect on how they perceive their own body, how one can make space for themself in the world with the body they have.

[Melblue · Rating 4 out of 5]

i have desired to read this book for ages and it did not disappoint. this work and its preciseness were exactly what i needed without even knowing it

[Laura Corin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been a fan of Omotara’s work for a while. This book of exquisite poems did not disappoint.

[Elizabeth]

this collection was not for me but I think that it would resonate with a lot of people so I’m not rating

[Tutankhamun18 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alot of these did not so much for me but a few were truly wonderful. The collection explores the body as in the flesh, as in fat, as in heart, as in memories, as in growing up, as in identity, as in belonging and in the self. The style is matter of factly with embelishments of place, body and emotion. The poems feel sparse in language even when they describe the vast, the unruly, the beautiful. I liked how this depicted and portrayed fat.

My favourites:

• Autobiography of Thud
• Ceremony
• Proverb
• Bang and a Whimper
• Morbid Subtraction
• Proper Fat
• Portrait of an Uncaged Child on Easter
• Last Days of Summer

[Liv Lansdale · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning, expertly crafted collection. James is a graceful thinker with a smarting heart who’s clearly done The Reading (and more). Give her her flowers. Hers is a name to watch.

[CC Mercado · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the first three poems of this collection, James offers us a naming ritual "The body is an unmarked grave before it is given a name ...;" a self-made creation myth "I made of myself a world / and swelled // bearing it alone ...;" and an elegy for the eventual death of that name "... because / a name is a stake in the grave."

This cyclical nature of birth, life, and death repeats throughout the five-part instrumentation of the collection's Song (brass, string, drum, wind, piano), while the speaker's Softening also cycles from tender innocence and infancy to grief and a mild disgust associated with the soft earth of an open grave - "a kiss to mark the divine boundary // betwixt shit and soil ..."

Throughout each poem, I especially loved the collection's insistent focus on the body as subject of that birth/death.

These poems revel in the best kind of gluttony, "... plying each other all day / with reasons to devour. Desire must be chewed before it's consumed ..." And at 139pgs, the author definitely made me work for it.

I loved the heft of this collection which felt longer than most full-length debuts without being frivolous. I had to sit with, or return to, more than one poem several times. Among my many favorites, I found that Part Two: The Feast held some of the most resonant poems. Of course, I probably loved the Hidden Track best!

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poems about identity, queerness, the body, family, and survival.

from Twice a Month on Sundays with Maxine, My Tender Head and the Truth: "There are things only a hot comb and your mama can tell you / about yourself. Sorry, but you better listen, child. Sure, it's hard // to stand up on that block that leaves nothing to the imagination. / I had to damn well invent my own escape. Who wants to rub tits // with the truth, morning, noon and night. This shit ain't / consensual."

from On Repetition: "No one gives a damn about a poem / until they need a poem. The poet / is a poem. My mother is a poem. / Women are poems. Black women / are poems. Black people are poems / who need poems."

from Bang and a Whimper: "A Black mother will tell you, / with a straight face and stretched belly, that she didn't want you to be a statistic. / Math makes a poet of us all. Made me homeland and diaspora. Half ship and half sea. / Love catches up to loss, eventually, follows the arc of failure."

[Erin Clements · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The day you were born [...], we received you, pulled you through, held you, made an opening and whispered, shouted, urged, pleaded. You are welcome, you are welcome, you are welcome. There were no requirements, no identification, or documentation, you were born without restriction. Not even the supernatural could hold you back from this oblivion. You were born a bold thing. A higher being. A love spell."

I wanted to love this collection desperately, but unfortunately, it just didn't click for me in the way I wanted it to. There were a few lines that stood out to me, like the one quoted above, but overall I feel like I just wanted *more* from each poem. Many of them felt surface-level to me. But I'm hoping that this book can find the audience it deserves!

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't remember where I initially heard about this book, but I got it out from the library this week, and was the first person to read this new copy. I read it in an afternoon, sinking deep into James' lyrical writing and not emerging until an hour or two later. Some of the poems, I read twice in a row to fully absorb her beautiful writing. I especially appreciated her poems about fatness, and sent two of them to a friend who shares about body positivity. I looked up a couple of the people that she referenced and dedicated pieces to. You know a book is good when it gives you a new perspective to see the world in a different light.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems will knock you out of your seat

Omotara James has written a stunning debut collection - powerful, lyrical, and full of love, I mean real love. What does it mean to reclaim oneself in a world that insists on making us small, thin, palatable, white, or otherwise denying of our true ourselves? This book is lyrical, lamentful, joyful, funny, and full of the courage expressed in beautiful language and song that insists on being seen. In awe and grateful to have read this necessary and beautiful work. The poems in this collection have left me speechless and I’ve returned to them again and again and again.

[Andy Oram · Rating 5 out of 5]

James, though still young, has had a hard life (judging from her autobiographical poems). But she finds beauty and thoughtful consideration in it (we will cry out into the insurmountable," she writes). She apparently is obese, and the poems reflect an obsession with that, as well as with racial oppression and pride, abuse and rape, and a homosexual love that it seems her parents frowned on. Her connection to Black history and contemporary culture is also rich (she says in an epilogue, "I devoured everything"). The last section of the book has a more positive tone, but even the references to suicide and other "dark" ideas are a celebration of life.

[Briana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this collection more than I did. Song of My Softening by Omotara James is a collection of poems about Black bodies, fatness, queerness, Black womanhood, survival, trauma, and so much about the experience of all of these things intersecting. This seemed right up my alley and while many of these poems are exquisitely written, I did not feel great about reading this. It might just be the head space. I have a complicated relationship with my body right now and I don't think I was fully prepared to read this at the moment. This is a bit too real and relatable so I was hoping for something a bit brighter.

[Nicole Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

omotara’s work is honest and raw, the kind of voice I always appreciate hearing from. that being said, the first half of the book did not hit for me. it felt like many of the poems didn’t earn their ending—the middle lines fell flat and then suddenly the poem was over.

I started to connect more of with the poems in the second half. I especially loved the poems in the “drum” section because I felt like they were taking me on a ride with each word, each line. I also noticed more skillful musicality in word choice in the second half of the book.

overall, this gave me some great things to keep in mind while I’m writing, but wasn’t for me!

[angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

few works tap dance on the complicated reality of my girlhood. the denials, the challenges, the distancing from my girlhood and femininity. the haunting double edged sword of how my value is affirmed. the convoluted feelings that i'm only now able to immediately honor.

thank you for continuing the valuable metaphor of a bull. i'm excited to see how language is used in your hands.

[J Kuria · Rating 3 out of 5]

a little tenderness
Moose / Leaving Philadelphia
Rufus, I never met you, but I want to tell you
A Mother Can See More Sitting Down than a Child Standing Up
The Butcher: A Love Poem
Sonnet of the Bull
White Cliffs of Dover
A Flair for Language
Bodies Like Oceans
To the Mother of the Boy Found Floating Asleep on the Lake

[K.C. Norton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was beautiful. It's also the kind of poetry where I feel like my reading comprehension is low, not because I don't understand her messages, but because the construction is very specific and at times I was struggling to follow the choices of a specific word or stanza. AJB loves a book with a strong message and a line that challenges me. <3

[Valerie Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

These songs in poetry form speak so boldly of love, joy, pain and sorrow. Omotara explores complex feelings and topics with courage and deep understanding. I’ll be reading these poems again and again - exploring their many dimensions and messages. An amazing collection!

[Grace Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent. Truly a work of art. I knew that I would be diving into a masterpiece when I read “Water, for it has no enemy” in the first poem, “Prologue to a Name”. James’ perspectives and unique takes on the world around us are welcoming and fresh to a beginner reader of poetry. Fantastic!

[CEGatling · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up randomly from the library and I am so glad I did.

[Ayden]

Rating this when I read it again this year. Some very poignant prose in most parts of this.

[renée jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminiscent of Warsan Shire & Roxanne Gay

[Oona Hanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

James's poetry collection is a must-read for anyone exploring their own relationship with their body—as well as those interested in the larger systems of oppression that tell so many folks to shrink themselves and quiet their voice.

The narrative quality of many of her poems makes her work accessible even to those who don't think of themselves as readers of poetry. The imagery is at once familiar and fresh—at times, it can take your breath away.

As a former English teacher, I especially appreciated the way this collection gives space and voice to those who haven't always been given permission to be expansive and to celebrate themselves. If I were back in the classroom, I would be pairing poems from this collection along with Whitman's "Song of Myself" and Langston Hughes's "I, too, sing America."

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A throughly stunning debut collection. I keep picking it up, rereading sentences and stanzas and pages, in awe.