Most Way Home

by Kevin Young

Encompassing America's African-American landscape and rich oral histories of the South, this poetry collection centers on the concept of "home" and explores conflicts between black and white, North and South, ancestral and modern.

Genres: Poetry, African American

112 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1995

About the author

Kevin Young is an American poet heavily influenced by the poet Langston Hughes and the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Young graduated from Harvard College in 1992, was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University (1992-1994), and received his MFA from Brown University. While in Boston and Providence, he was part of the African-American poetry group, The Dark Room Collective.

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Young is the author of Most Way Home, To Repel Ghosts, Jelly Roll, Black Maria, For The Confederate Dead, Dear Darkness, and editor of Giant Steps: The New Generation of African American Writers; Blues Poems; Jazz Poems and John Berryman's Selected Poems.

His Black Cat Blues, originally published in The Virginia Quarterly Review, was included in The Best American Poetry 2005. Young's poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and other literary magazines. In 2007, he served as guest editor for an issue of Ploughshares. He has written on art and artists for museums in Los Angeles and Minneapolis.

His 2003 book of poems Jelly Roll was a finalist for the National Book Award.

After stints at the University of Georgia and Indiana University, Young now teaches writing at Emory University, where he is the Atticus Haygood Professor of English and Creative Writing, as well as the curator of the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library, a large collection of first and rare editions of poetry in English.

Reviews

[Jessica Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over the weekend I read Kevin Young’s Most Way Home. These are some of my favorite poems I’ve read, and I’m seeing a pattern with what I like and respond to in terms of building a timeline. I think the mid to late nineties produced a ton of excellent poetry and I’m thinking this week about why it might seem that way to me. I just love Kevin Young’s use of language to produce supple imagery and strong story lines. He mixes very well vernacular and colloquialisms with poetic language and has somehow found a balance between the two in this book. He does an exceptional thing which is use the story he wants to tell as a jumping off point into imagistic poetry. I mean to say the poems aren’t strictly dictated by the story, because there are great leaps and moments of unexpectedness that may not have occurred otherwise. The story he’s telling about African American experience comes through with incredible experimentation and diction and use of many many forms. The poems are incredibly accessible to the reader. I feel strongly that he wants to connect with the world and share multiple experiences and stories, he doesn’t want to hide from the poems or the poems to be a barrier between him and the world, and I just appreciate that so much as a reader. Young has a great understanding of language and knows how/when to play with it. I’ve read that people think this book isn’t lyrical enough, and that it has too much narrative. But again, I think that’s the wrong impression that some people have of poetry working on them, and further oppressing the writer by putting him in a box. This story is an important one to tell, and if the poems were beautiful, yet unclear, what good would that do? There is enough lyrical work and music happening in this book along with such tender, tender imagery. I learned a lot from reading these poems and will return to them again and again.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kevin Young came into his talent quite young. This is his first or second book. As such, though the style and perception is mature, the subject matter is a young man's subject matter. He is looking back onto his formative years and experiences and paying tribute to his elders. All of these things are done with a pleasant generosity of spirit. His short-lined style makes for quick, smooth reading as well. So this is a pleasant if not spectacular reading. There is just enough insight and movement within some of the poems to make me favorably inclined to pick up another book by him if it crossed my path. I'm sure he only improved as he matured. My favorite poem in this collection was "Miss Lucille." Here is an excerpt:

she preserved it all
in jars of vinegar
or placed it deep

in the icebox who could afford
what bloomed out of season
her fists only know how quickly

the children grew tired
of the rhubarb that winter
often brings

so she picked and pickled
and put away whatever it was
she thought to save working on

There's some spacing that can't be duplicated here that sort of stands in for or implies punctuation in places.

For those interested in political poetry, he also has a poem about his father's participation in a demonstration titled "Southern University, 1962." I realized it was the only poem I've ever read that is actually a description of a protest. It's well done, especially considering that it's a second hand account.

[Chanecka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am still trying to figure out how to review a collection of poetry. However, this collection helped me realize that in order for ME to review poetry, there needs to be distinction between the poem (its form) and the content.

I found Kevin Young's Most Way Home to be good. His handle on poetry-its form, the stanzas the rhythm is stunning. However, the content of his poems in the collection mostly fell short on me. These very personal poems almost felt too personal for me to care. However, some poems were universal especially for Black folks and I found myself continuing to read.

Overally, Kevin Young created such a beautiful collection and I'll continue to read him (This is the third collection that I've read).

[Nicolas Shump · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kevin went to the same high school I did in Topeka, KS, but I do not think this is the home referenced in the title. Must be nice to study poetry with Seamus Heaney, but that's what getting into Harvard will do for you.
Kevin is a gifted poet with a knack for lyrical descriptions and he keeps the narrative flowing in his verse. However, at times there is almost too much narrative going on. Some of these poems read like history lessons, they are fine but I question the veracity of the experience. His use of the first person seems anachronistic at times, because I don't think he is old enough to have lived through some of these events he narrates. Overall, an excellent first collection of poems.

[Lauren]

From what I can discern, this is Young's most crowd-pleasing work. It is not my favorite - I love his odes to Basquiat the best - but this sad and broken narrative of African American provenance and living will break anyone's heart with its tender, brutal prosody.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poet works with his line breaks in fascinatingly ambiguous ways.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful (first!) book of poetry by Kevin Young, a young American poet and incredible writer.

[SmarterLilac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahhhhh, so good. I remember being mesmerized by this book from the first time I heard even one poem from it.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

no one breaks
a line better

[Maughn Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been a fan of Kevin Young for a few years, but I was floored by how good these poems are. Some are angry, most are sad, and each one is so, so beautiful.

[Coach B · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story begins with the pain of enslavement and ends with the agony of 'freedom.'

[Dave Malone · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the language and the rural settings. Powerful poems. Vibrant. There aren't easy ways out nor tidy endings. A passion and darkness here that I love.