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Pecking Order
Nicole Homer's first full-length poetry collection, Pecking Order, is an unflinching look at how race and gender politics play out in the domestic sphere. Homer challenges the notion of family by forcing the reader to examine how race, race performance, and colorism impact motherhood immediately and from generation to generation. In a world where race and color often determine treatment, the home should be sanctuary, but often is not. Homer's poems question the construction of racial identity and how familial love can both challenge and bolster that construction. Her poems range from the intimate details of motherhood to the universal experiences of parenting; the dynamics of multiracial families to parenting black children; and the ingrained social hierarchy which places the black mother at the bottom. Homer forces us to reckon with the truth that no one—not even the mother—is unbiased.
- GenresPoetry
100 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 2017
134 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 7, 2017
I expected my thought to hover around the periphery of this work when I discovered many of its pieces were written from the perspective of a mother, but I found remarkable similarities in the tales of the poem's subjects and my own. Nicole Homer is officially in my head and her voice is a welcome and necessary one. Although I have never experienced motherhood, I have experienced womanhood and responsibility and love and accountability and loss. All of these themes addressed in Ms. Homer's poems are poignant and thought-provoking and I'm glad that I didn't wait any longer to add this gem to my collection!
September 17, 2017
Pecking Order deserves to be On Your Book shelf
A collection of poems from Nicole Homer that accomplish much: some strike hard, some showcase vulnerability, some feel and read as familiar as that one auntie that you know always has the right thing to say--yet all of these poems take up space apologetically. Each poem etches itself upon a surface and refuses to leave.
Pecking Order has a distinct black voice, a distinct female voice that picks up different hats: one of a daughter, one of a mother and so forth and bring you along for the journey. Poems about motherhood, Michonne from 'The Walking Dead', colorism, grandmothers and the occasional racism that pokes it ugly head in supermarkets and at dinners casually find a home here in this book. Pecking Order by Nicole Homer is many things and it deserves a spot on your Book shelf.
A post shared by @carebearsonfire on May 1, 2017 at 8:28am PDT
A collection of poems from Nicole Homer that accomplish much: some strike hard, some showcase vulnerability, some feel and read as familiar as that one auntie that you know always has the right thing to say--yet all of these poems take up space apologetically. Each poem etches itself upon a surface and refuses to leave.
Pecking Order has a distinct black voice, a distinct female voice that picks up different hats: one of a daughter, one of a mother and so forth and bring you along for the journey. Poems about motherhood, Michonne from 'The Walking Dead', colorism, grandmothers and the occasional racism that pokes it ugly head in supermarkets and at dinners casually find a home here in this book. Pecking Order by Nicole Homer is many things and it deserves a spot on your Book shelf.
A post shared by @carebearsonfire on May 1, 2017 at 8:34am PDT
July 1, 2020
Fierce, sometimes dryly funny, necessary poems about mothering and race in contemporary America. They are direct and challenging in the best way.
Some excerpts...
Motherhood:
"Motherhood is like//being pecked//to death//by my//favorite birds//made from my//body..."
Casual Racist:
"I am having dinner with the casual racist when he says, after a thoughtful head tilt--which is clearly meant to indicate that he has considered, at length, what he is about to say, he, the casual racist points to my son, looks like your husband but your girls, he chin nods in the direction of the double helix hurricane of elbows, laughter, and errant silverware, your girls take after you.
This is to say that the casual racist noticed over dinner
only what a stranger might notice in the street
and nothing more."
The Mother Offers Advice (or, I am Doing the Best I Can with What I Have:
"2017
Daughters:
Don't let that hair have you thinking you're cute or you aint black as me. You lighter than me. I'm lighter than grandma. And we all still black. We black women. All of us. Know that aint nobody coming to rescue you but us. No White Feminist got time for this. No black liberation revolution got you on its posters. You know how many black women died the summer Mike Brown did? Me neither because nobody gave a fuck. Get a husband or wife or kids or a house, but don't think you aint this. Everywhere. All the time. You need saving, you call me. I'll come. Pick up grandma on the way. Like we always done."
Some excerpts...
Motherhood:
"Motherhood is like//being pecked//to death//by my//favorite birds//made from my//body..."
Casual Racist:
"I am having dinner with the casual racist when he says, after a thoughtful head tilt--which is clearly meant to indicate that he has considered, at length, what he is about to say, he, the casual racist points to my son, looks like your husband but your girls, he chin nods in the direction of the double helix hurricane of elbows, laughter, and errant silverware, your girls take after you.
This is to say that the casual racist noticed over dinner
only what a stranger might notice in the street
and nothing more."
The Mother Offers Advice (or, I am Doing the Best I Can with What I Have:
"2017
Daughters:
Don't let that hair have you thinking you're cute or you aint black as me. You lighter than me. I'm lighter than grandma. And we all still black. We black women. All of us. Know that aint nobody coming to rescue you but us. No White Feminist got time for this. No black liberation revolution got you on its posters. You know how many black women died the summer Mike Brown did? Me neither because nobody gave a fuck. Get a husband or wife or kids or a house, but don't think you aint this. Everywhere. All the time. You need saving, you call me. I'll come. Pick up grandma on the way. Like we always done."
May 31, 2020
Homer offers up the kind of intense emotionality that may make some people squeamish about poetry, as it can too easily scream the angsty, ambiguous and cliche ragings of beginning writers, but Homer's method shows us what those beginners may be aspiring towards. With mostly close-knit works that muse on motherhood, race and identity, and how the three are eternally linked, Homer rails against the hateful and casually racist, exalts (through tears) of the lesson her blue-eyed son must witness, and shows us poetry that is wonderfully messy on the page, constructed to take us through the wild turns a life of meaning can have. Quite a book.
July 24, 2019
I had the pleasure of seeing Nicole as a special guest at a poetry night in Seattle when I was visiting from Australia.
I read a poem of mine (open mic) and brought a copy of her book.
Nicole is an incredible poet and person. She speaks from the point of you of the African-American woman and Mother.
I cannot personally really relate to her poetry yet I was so moved. It is important to understand what it is like talking to walk in someone else’s shoes.
I read a poem of mine (open mic) and brought a copy of her book.
Nicole is an incredible poet and person. She speaks from the point of you of the African-American woman and Mother.
I cannot personally really relate to her poetry yet I was so moved. It is important to understand what it is like talking to walk in someone else’s shoes.
Want to read
September 26, 2019Homer's "Underbelly," American Academy of Poet's poem of the day for Sept. 25, 2019, is wonderfully innovative without sacrificing coherency, and also is "felt along the blood," so hoping the whole collection is revelatory.
August 20, 2020
I have been a fan of Nicole Homer's work for years and years. It was an absolute pleasure to read this deeply personal collection of hers. Really magnificent writing, Homer writes of how she takes up space in the world, and how the world perceives her.
February 2, 2021
This collection of poems has a different theme than I’d normally pick, it deals with racism and constant criticism from the world/ not to mention unwelcome opinions on a biracial family, all from the perspective of the African American mother who has three children with a white man ( the youngest has white skin, while the oldest two don’t). Loved almost every poem, the writing over all was fantastic.
September 26, 2021
"Motherhood is like being pecked to death by my favorite birds ..." Pecking Order is one of my favorite poetry books. I wish I was blood related Homer but reading her work is close enough.
December 1, 2021
Vivid, incisive, in-your-face and brilliant.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews