Anagnorisis: Poems

by Kyle Dargan

Winner of the 2019 Academy of American Poets Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize

In Poems , the award-winning poet Kyle Dargan ignites a reckoning. From the depths of his rapidly changing home of Washington, D.C., the poet is both enthralled and provoked, having witnessed-on a digital loop running in the background of Barack Obama's unlikely presidency—the rampant state-sanctioned murder of fellow African Americans. He is pushed toward the same recognition articulated by James Baldwin decades that an African American may never be considered an equal in citizenship or humanity.

This recognition—the moment at which a tragic hero realizes the true nature of his own character, condition, or relationship with an antagonistic entity—is what Aristotle called anagnorisis . Not concerned with placatory gratitude nor with coddling the sensibilities of the country's racial majority, Dargan challenges "You, friends- / you peckish for a peek / at my cloistered, incandescent / revelry-were you as earnest / about my frostbite, my burns, / I would have opened / these hands, sated you all."

At a time when U.S. politics are heavily invested in the purported vulnerability of working-class and rural white Americans, these poems allow readers to examine themselves and the nation through the eyes of those who have been burned for centuries.

Genres: Poetry

104 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2018

About the author

KYLE DARGAN is author of the poetry collection Anagnorisis (Northwestern UP, 2018), which was awarded the 2019 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and longlisted for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in poetry. His four previous collections, Honest Engine (2015), Logorrhea Dementia (2010), Bouquet of Hungers (2007) and The Listening (2003)--were all published by the University of Georgia Press. For his work, he has received the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. His books have also been finalists for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and the Eric Hoffer Awards Grand Prize. Dargan has partnered with the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities to produce poetry programming at the White House and Library of Congress. He's worked with and supports a number of youth writing organizations, such as 826DC, Writopia Lab, Young Writers Workshop and the Dodge Poetry high schools program.

Reviews

[Vicky "phenkos" · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

I found this poetry collection a bit uneven -- there are some powerful verses there and some not so much. The collection begins with a cycle of poems entitled "Dark Humor", a word play on 'black', which can be used as an adjective to describe 'people' ('black people') or 'humor' ('black humour'). Dargan brings the two together with his epigram from Richard Pryor:

'You all know how black humor started? it started in the slave ships, you know? Cat was on his way over here, rowing. Another dude said, "What are you laughing about?" He said, "Yesterday, I was a king".'

This bringing together of words and concepts, of the humorous and the sad, of rage and laughter, stamps the poems in this book. Dargan's poems are very political; themes include the Zimmerman acquittal, Barack Obama's presidency, racial relationships in America, growing up, being a beauty queen in a disaster zone (Miss Iraq). The verses are permeated by sadness and a keen sense of grief punctuated by a staccato rhythm. Consider this, for example, from 'Poem Resisting Arrest':

'This poem will be guilty. It assumed it retained
the right to ask its question after the page

came up flashing against its face. The purpose
this poem serves is obvious, even to this poem,

and that cannot stop the pen or the fist
choking it. How the page tastes at times -- unsalted

powerlessness in this poem's mouth, a blend
of that and what news the poem has swallowed. it spits

blood --inking. it is its own doing and undoing.
This poem is trying to compose itself. [...]'

which reminded me of the rhythm in 'The revolution will not be televised'.

There is a cycle of poems on China. I was moved by 'Economy Class' and the verse:

'To be born human is to be tendered
this challenge to live larger than your woe.'

There is also some prose poetry, which I'm not very keen on, but I appreciate others may enjoy. Overall, a fine collection including some poignant themes.

Thanks to netgalley and Northwestern University Press for providing me an ARC.

[Kent Winward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anagnorisis is the term when the character comes to a realization of his/her true nature and identity, leading to a resolution. I didn't find much in the form of unique resolution or discovery in the poems.

[Evelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short and simple is that I really liked it.

This collection is divided up into four parts: Dark Humor, Distances, China Cycle, and Dear Echo. Dark Humor was my favorite and Dear Echo a close second. I felt like I shouldn't read Distances, like I was peeking in on something private, but because I'm nosy, of course I (re)read it. China Cycle felt different from the rest of the collection and is what kept me from giving this five stars. I think I was so grounded in DC, and Americana in general that it was difficult to make the leap to another country.

Some of the best poems in Anagnorisis are White.Bread.Blues, Olympic Drive, Poem Resisting Arrest, La Petite Mort, Sublimation, and several others. A handful of these poems are available online, so get a taste, and then get this book.

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anagnorisis: Poems by Kyle Dargan is a collection of poetry, in part, focusing on being African-American in today's America. Dargan is the editor and founder of POST NO ILLS magazine and an associate professor of literature and creative writing at American University. He earned his BA from the University of Virginia and MFA from Indiana University, where he was a Yusef Komunyakaa fellow and poetry editor of the Indiana Review.

A powerful and moving collection of poetry that begins with a focus of being black in America. From the opening Richard Pryor line of the first Africans in America to what change can be expected when you put a black man in the White House, Dargan focuses on race in America and legacy. The opening salvo is from a poem titled "Failed Sonnet After the Verdict" reflecting on the Zimmerman verdict and immediately follows up with the Obama presidency with "Avenger":

Behind 1600’s gates, the President sits bound
to the presidency like a superhero sidekick,
his mouth gagged by what “originalists” believe
the constitution says. Live streams, meanwhile,
pump night-­green footage from Ferguson’s
punctured lung into our timelines. Flash
grenades gush like stars spangling from a flag
drawn and quartered.
....

Somewhere is the negro’s imagined America,
where we have Iron Man on our side,
though it does not matter if the hero is “black”
so long as the body inside is. But super suits
and costumes don’t function like the Oval
Office. Vote a “black” man into a white house.
It’s still the White House—symbol of everything
we’ve been escaping—not a beacon, never rescue

Voice against the system or perhaps more commonly called the Resist movement is a common theme. Dargan joins the poets and artists resisting with words and art in his commanding couplet poem, "Poem Resisting Arrest" :

This poem will be guilty. It assumed it retained
the right to ask its question after the page

came up flush against its face.

The power of the early poems is followed up by a prose poem "Lost One" relaying personal experiences with what has been making the news. Dargan's next section of poetry centers on working in China, the difference in the peoples perspective, and his attempt to fit in. The pollution, the language barriers, and the people offer a different setting, yet there is no racism in a society that he is clearly an outsider. The collection closes with a section entitled "Dear Echo" which is much more reflective than the previous sections. Although starting with a poem about guns he quickly moves into nature, rain and dragonflies, and finally settles with the natural future of Earth.

Powerful, contrasting, current, assertive, and reflective this collection speaks volumes on America and man.  Anagnorisis is a collection that lives up to its name. 



Available September 15, 2018 

[Mersini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kyle Dargan is an award winning poet, so it comes as no surprise that his latest collection has something to say about America and the world as we know it. Or rather, as we are coming to know it. “Anagnorisis” is happy to point out flaws in the way we navigate the world, as behaviours and attitudes change. It is a book about racially motivated micro-aggressions, like crossing the street to avoid a couple of young African-American men, as well as what it is to be a person of colour in an America that swings violently between left and right extremes.

Dargan is unrelenting in his reminders that America is a country for white people by white people, and that it was built on the backs of black and indigenous peoples. He is unflinching in highlighting the dichotomy, the unstable power structures that lean in favour of the white, with phrases like:

“Vote a “black” man into a white house. It’s still the White House – symbol of everything we’ve been escaping – not a beacon, never rescue” (avenger., loc 58 Kindle edition)

Referencing Barack Obama’s presidency and the thought that it would result in a cultural shift towards more racial equality, while pointing out that this is inherently impossible in a country where coloured bodies are seen as other, even when they occupy the highest rank in the nation. And so we have a recognition of reality, a slow dawning that things are not quite as they seem to be.

With poems looking at gentrification, the displacement of people who cannot afford to move anywhere else, as well as inevitably talking about police brutality against black Americans, it is a hard look at the reality of living while black in a place where the legacy of the white people is the oppression of the black. It is increasingly relevant to have artists coming out with these stories, immortalising experiences, dissecting events; not allowing silence to fall when there should be discussion, especially when it comes to the mistreatment of an entire subset of people.

He also juxtaposes western ideas of race and culture against those of the Chinese, with Dargan depicting his time in Beijing, Washington DC’s sister city. There is finds himself struggling to fit in though in a way far different from his home nation. Where in the United States there is distrust and suspicion, in Beijing there is curiosity and laughter at an inability to pronounce words correctly. It is almost a relief to get to this part of the book after the horrors written about earlier.

Throughout “Anagnorisis” we get a deeply thought though sometimes harsh insight into the state of the United States today. Easy to read, with its rhythm and elegant style, it nevertheless is not easy to digest, and will leave you thinking about it for some time afterwards.

[Jeffrey Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars if I could, and here’s why. The beginning sequence of poems was compelling in its language and flow of raw, yet lyrically refined frustration and rage. The poems felt close, like hearing someone speak, and the rhythms felt natural.

The prose poems about Michael Brown towards the middle didn’t grab me the way the preceding poems had and I was glad to move on to the China Cycle.

But for me the China Cycle wasn’t much different. It did overflow with the awkwardness of a foreigner in a foreign land, but I was ok with that since I sensed this was part of a larger narrative. This felt a bit too much like excerpts from a diary or a memoir (see the Kanji lesson in part XI).

As a collection overall, I wasn’t blown away. The energy of the first half seemed to fade and I was left, however guiltily, to grind my way to the end. I will be looking forward to exploring his earlier books because the good poems were compelling enough to make me want more.

[Laura Mc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dargan's incredibly important new book Anagnorisis examines what it means to be a Black man in the United States today. From the everyday murders of innocent African-American men and women, girls and boys, to climate change, gentrification, and the complacency of white people toward social injustice, Dargan cries out in the most poignant, poetic way possible for it to stop. Is he angry? Yes. And if you're not, wake the f**K up, WHITE PEOPLE.

This book is a tragedy and rightly so as our society is downright tragic right now.

Buy this book. Read this book. And if you tell yourself and others that you don't read poetry, that you don't "get" poetry, or that's it's just not for you, this book is for you.

When you read contemporary/current poetry like Dargan's conversations unfold and you open yourself up to the world.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection took me a while to read because I would keep coming upon poems which stopped me in my tracks, and had me go back to re-read them. This is one of those books where you start off reading by marking out and tabbing the pages of your favorite poems until you realize the whole thing is covered in tabs. Among the poems that I can still hear after reading are: "Death Toll" which gives you the sensation of being on a road where bodies continue to pile and pile. In another section titled "China Cycle," a poem called "Beautiful Country" follows a speaker who learns of the Chinese word for America. What I most come to appreciate in reading this collection is just how well it demonstrates the way poems can act as mediums for understanding complex social-political issues and help us come to a better understanding of them. Highly recommend.

[Nathaniel Darkish · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of poetry exploring race and racism in America that was powerfully written while also being thoughtful and confused at the same time. I felt that it was wonderful-- each poem was very elegantly written by a clearly skilled poet. I loved that there was a lot of complexity in what it addressed, showing anger toward things like police brutality toward blacks while also wondering what it meant to cross the street out of concern for being mugged, or the fact that so much of the racism and violence was taking place in America with a black man as president.

[Andrew Bertaina]

Normally, I play basketball with this poet. But it's a pleasure to sit down on the weekend and read some of his poetry. https://theadroitjournal.org/2019/03/....

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of poems. It is very aptly named (look it up!). These poems are full of insight and the poet wields a knife which cuts away the cloth covering the ways we fool ourselves. These poems are brilliant, bright, and revealing.

[Sam T. Frost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Takes No prisoners in this, himself or other.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful collection... love especially the Michael Brown inspired poems, the China cycle, and the Obama poem

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The boy: the incarnate will of the forest”

“Maybe I’m not sufficiently worn by this world. (Not old enough, what everyone tells me).”

[J.D. DeHart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anagnorisis explores powerful contemporary issues and expresses the author’s worldview through carefully chosen words, verse by verse.

A challenging and enriching collection, these poems are ready for reading and discussion. Highly recommended.