blud

by Rachel McKibbens

McKibbens's blud is a collection of dark, rhythmic poems interested in the ways in which inherited things―bloodlines, mental illnesses, trauma―affect their inheritors. Reveling in form and sound, McKibbens's writing takes back control, undaunted by the idea of sinking its teeth into the ugliest moments of life, while still believing―and looking for―the good underneath all the bruising.

Genres: Poetry, Horror, LGBT, Mental Health, Queer, Feminism, Fiction

88 pages, Paperback

First published October 17, 2017

About the author

Poet, activist, playwright and essayist Rachel McKibbens is the author of the poetry collections Into the Dark and Emptying Field (2013) and Pink Elephant (2009). The Rumpus wrote of Pink Elephant, “McKibbens awakens and haunts with selfless honesty.” Her poems, short stories, essays and creative non-fiction have been featured in numerous journals and blogs, including Her Kind, The Los Angeles Review, The Best American Poetry Blog, The Nervous Breakdown, The Rumpus, The London Magazine, The Acentos Review, World Literature Today, Radius, and The American Poetry Journal.

McKibbens is a well-known member of the poetry slam community: she is a nine-time National Poetry Slam team member, has appeared on eight NPS final stages, and coached the New York louderARTS poetry slam team to three consecutive final stage appearances, was the 2009 Women of the World Poetry Slam champion and the 2011 National Underground Poetry Slam individual champion. McKibbens appeared on two seasons of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam and was featured in the poetry slam documentary Slam Planet in 2006 at SXSW. In 2011, McKibbens was commissioned by The Getty Center in Los Angeles to write and perform an ekphrastic poem for their multi-media poetry event Dark Blushing.

Reviews

[Roxane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very powerful collection, really well assembled and composed. McKibben tackles blood of family, blood of wounds, all manner of blood, as well as sexuality, mental illness, womanhood, conjuring. The poem "leverage" is simply spectacular, but really, every poem offers something remarkable, unforgettable.

[fantine · Rating 5 out of 5]

poetry that makes the heart beat

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Angry--enraged actually--in a way I found liberating. McKibbens deals with mental illness and family, gender, her personal experiences in language that is both precise and powerful. I was going to return the book to the library without reading it (due to lack of time) but out of curiosity I opened the book to read a few poems. I found I couldn't put it down. Lines like "What I once had mistaken for death was, instead, a door" and "it was the only moment in this wretched life a god was on my side" and so many more I can't possibly quote them all, as well as the lines that can't be removed from their context: you have to read the entire poem to understand them.

I've already read the book a second time. Obviously, this is one I need to buy. McKibbens expresses pain and need and longing as well as love and regret. A painful but amazing book of poetry.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back then, I wasn't shit.
Just electrified violence.
All fists, piss & safety pins,
an unwed teenage mother
with no address.

You had parents. Freckles.
A three-story house. I'd listen
to you spit your angsty
fiction while I slept in parks
& ate from garbage cans.

[Laura Brower · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome, angry and righteous collection of poems which remind me of all the times I sat on public transport in my early 20s, fuming about the state of the existence and issues of self-identity and trauma. Somehow these poems articulate such a state of mind into words, which is quite a miracle.

[steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

“you have my permission not to love me. i am a cathedral of dead bolts and id rather burn myself down than change the locks” woooooow

[Salem ☥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Each time I see a woman
walking in a grocery store
or sitting on a bench
in a park or a funeral parlor,
I want very much
to taste the woman,
lick every blessed
inch of her from the
bottom of her calloused
heel to the top
of her glorious head.
If she is wearing an eye patch,
I want to lift its smooth
& sleeping lid,
whisper something sweet
beneath it, push my tongue
around its spoonlike edge.
If the woman is older,
I want to taste the history
carved into her flesh,
learn each translucent hair
of every fragile limb.
If she is missing a breast,
I want to taste the bright
& rugged scar of it,
press its ghost-soft nipple
against the bridge of my
mouth. If she is a mother,
I want to soothe her many hands,
trace each silver bolt of
childbirth etched along
her torso, taste the salted
hole of her, this sacred,
this blood-hot church.”

[Ali Enchanted · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS IS POETRY

Blud hit me like a ton of bricks. Honestly.

This collection is so different than what's currently out there right now. It's not cute poetry. It's not written for the mass market. It's not written to appeal to an instagram audience.
And I'm glad.

These poems are raw and honest and brutal. They make you stop and say "Fuck."
When I say I had goosebumps multiple times while reading, I'm not exaggerating.

This collection deals with childhood trauma, abuse, abandonment, toxic family, loss, love, and grief. The language and imagery used is so powerful.
I'll never forget it.

5/5 stars.

[Karla Strand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why do I think I don’t like poetry? I’ve read three books of poetry this year and fell in love with each of them. This one included. It tore my heart out. In all the best and worst ways.

[Scarllet ✦ iamlitandwit · Rating 5 out of 5]

you write poems to understand what you cannot understand. finally name the snapping beast you've tried to outrun your entire life. stop avoiding. stop the scorched fog of language the redirects the eye. say what you mean. quit saying better when you mean eviscerated.

This poetry collection bites into your flesh, leaving vivid indentations in your rotting skin. Its dark and heavy imagery skins you alive bit by bit with the way we are almost spying on Rachel McKibbens's life and trauma that is constantly building. I cannot say I enjoyed reading this collection because it hurt to be trapped in the horrors of inherited trauma and mental illness, but the heady witchy atmosphere and the way she used language to capture family, blood, lineage, and womanhood were fascinating to read and digest.

"Listen: anything holy is not reversible.

There isn't a man alive who could undo me."

Listen, I am just.. in awe in the way poets can use language to help explain complex themes from their lives. It's so powerful because she digs deep into the crevice of your chest (even if you haven't lived through the trauma, her trauma) and makes herself at home in you.

I know I'm going to be going back to read through this collection again and again to understand her usage of diction and prose and how it elevated everything for me.

[Jamie (Books and Ladders) · Rating 5 out of 5]

After the whole plagiarism thing came out, I thought I'd read the original source. McKibbens' poetry collection broke and repaired my soul. She understands mental health and illness are two sides of the same coin. I think there are so many amazing and poignant poems in this that I absolutely love. If you're are a fan of dark and gritty poems that highlight reality as it is not as you wish it was, this is the collection for you.

[Antonia M · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

Aunque empezó intenso y brutal al principio no me gustó tanto, ya para la segunda mitad se levantó y toda la emocionalidad que expresaba me llegaba.

Los poemas no seguian un orden muy claro, excepto los primeros que al ser los más explicitos daban contexto para los demás, pero en sí se podrían leer en cualquier orden y el efecto sería el mismo.

Encontré buen detalle que en las notas después de los agradecimientos te comentan quienes o que situaciónes inspiraron algunos de los poemas, me hubiera gustado hicieran lo mismo con algunos más de los de la coleccion.

[Thao · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

An incredible interrogation of inherited trauma. The only reason why it wasn’t a 5 star is due to personal preference (I’m squeamish with body horror, even though I understood and felt viscerally why and how it was used)

[Ruby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poems that emerge in one's deepest lowest darkest times in life...

Powerful, Vivid, Sad.

"You have my permission not to love me. I am a cathedral of dead bolts & I’d rather burn myself down than change the locks.”

Wonderful works, I could feel the writer's pain and anger!

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a solid collection until I hit “* * *” (aka “To my daughters I need to say:”). Then I was sobbing. This wrecked me in the best way possible.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

"There isn't a man alive who could undo me."

[Yuna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dark and gritty, but ultimately not really my thing. Poetry is super hit or miss for me, and nothing in this one really stood out or grabbed me. Glad I read it, but probably won't seek out more.

[Raechel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dark, brutal collection. Fantastic.

[silas denver melvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

suckerpunch!

[⋆.˚ livia .☘︎ ݁˖ · Rating 5 out of 5]

my heart hurts

[jazzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

You have my permission
not to love me. I am
a cathedral of dead bolts
& I'd rather
burn myself down
than change the locks.


Amazing

[mauso · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.6 stars

[abby j. · Rating 4 out of 5]

made my blood curdle and my bones get hot. it’s been too long since a poetry book has left me gasping for air like this.

[Avery Guess · Rating 5 out of 5]

'blud' does what all of Rachel McKibbens books do - break the reader open and suture them back together in the best way. In "una oración (bruja’s soliloquy)" McKibbens asks, "What greater burden, what more / unconquerable revolt is there than that / of a resurrected woman?" The answer, given in all of the poems in this collection, is none. I highly recommend this collection out from Copper Canyon, and if you haven't read McKibben's previous books, consider picking them up as well.

[Laurel Perez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can I give this ten stars, or more? This project is important, and after reading poetry collections all week I did know if this would jump at me, and I feel as if I was held by the throat while I read. My attention never waivering.Within this searing narrative, McKibbens turns survival into an invocation. This collection is not for the faint of heart, but you should find a way to read it immediately.

[Vee · Rating 5 out of 5]

took me a long while to finish this because I genuinely couldn't read more than one poem at a time without needing to lie down and stare at the wall. very, very good but you gotta be in the right headspace to read this, wouldn't recommend if youre feeling down

[Lyd Havens · Rating 5 out of 5]

A harrowing and dazzling reread on this Samhain.

[B]

I can't rate this. It's a powerful collection, and some parts really spoke to me, but at other points I almost felt like a voyeur.

[Roxanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

McKibben’s poetry is gut-wrenching. This collection is cohesive and it felt like every word was contemplated and necessary. I definitely want to read more of her work!

[em :p · Rating 4 out of 5]

no, no! i never meant to stay dead. i simply wanted a sweeter life.
4.5 stars.
you have my permission not to love me. i am a cathedral of dead bolts & id rather burn myself down than change the locks.
this poetry collection was so much more than i could've possibly thought. i struggle to find the correct words to explain just how much emotion i felt seeping through each and every poem in this collection. reading this felt like a stab to the heart, though id gladly welcome more brutality if it happens to be as beautiful as this one.
if no child of mine becomes a poet will the absence of my tongue shimmer like betrayal in their mouths?