Brute: Poems

by Emily Skaja

Selected by Joy Harjo as the winner of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets

Emily Skaja’s debut collection is a fiery, hypnotic book that confronts the dark questions and menacing silences around gender, sexuality, and violence. Brute arises, brave and furious, from the dissolution of a relationship, showing how such endings necessitate self-discovery and reinvention. The speaker of these poems is a sorceress, a bride, a warrior, a lover, both object and agent, ricocheting among ways of knowing and being known. Each incarnation squares itself up against ideas of feminine virtue and sin, strength and vulnerability, love and rage, as it closes in on a hard-won freedom.

Brute is absolutely sure of its capacity to insist not only on the truth of what it says but on the truth of its right to say it. “What am I supposed to I’m free ?” the first poem asks. The rest of the poems emphatically discover new ways to answer. This is a timely winner of the Walt Whitman Award, and an introduction to an unforgettable voice.

Genres: Poetry, Feminism, Fiction, LGBT, Queer, Contemporary, The United States Of America

72 pages, Paperback

First published April 2, 2019

About the author

Emily Skaja was born and raised in rural Illinois. She holds an MFA from Purdue University and a PhD from the University of Cincinnati. Her poems have appeared in Best New Poets, Blackbird, Crazyhorse, FIELD, and Gulf Coast, among other journals. She is the winner of the Gulf Coast Poetry Prize, an AWP Intro Journals Award, and an Academy of American Poets college prize. She lives in Memphis.

Reviews

[Roxane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poems in Emily Skaja’s Brute speak of brutality, of breaking, of endings, of beginnings. Brute is an elegy for a relationship’s end, an intimate excavation, but also, these poems are a rhapsody, a rage. Skaja’s poetry is deft, nimble, willing to inhabit contradictions— What is this impulse in me to worship & crucify/anyone who leaves me… Each poem is exquisitely crafted, visceral, indelible. Brute will cut right through you, cut deep, but the writing is so assured, so necessary that you will welcome the wound.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This powerful debut collection deserves multiple readings and I've read most of them out loud as well. The end of an unhealthy relationship comes with damage and these poems reflect all of it. Some reposition the narrative to defend the person who finally got out, some are confrontational, some speak to the shared experience many women have. When I marked favorites to share it was practically every poem but my two top poems are probably "Brute / Brute Heart" (read in Crab Orchard Review) and "No, I Do Not Want to Connect with You on LinkedIn" (also posted on The Rumpus.)

This past year has been my first subscribed to the Graywolf Galley Club, and they sent this debut collection as a gift for a debut donor. Neat idea and I'm glad this is the collection they chose.

[Jerrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a powerful collection of poems about the rage and heartbreak of a relationship in which she gave her love and attention to someone who didn’t deserve it. The poems are often bleak yet fierce and display the conflicting emotions involved in loving someone who may not be the best for us. Strong, raw emotions here in this deeply engaging poetry collection.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

A garden of pain illumed by blue moon - beautiful wounding, yet very cathartic. Emily Skaja has a unique way of presenting the pain we all feel in a condensed way; as such it is more approachable, the knowledge that once examined it will be easier to accept that which was ignored.

[Edgar Allan Hoe · Rating 1 out of 5]

white women writing poems comparing themselves to witches is the same thing as men comparing themselves to the joker im right about this

[sophie esther · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the themes that Emily Skaja used in her poetry, pertaining to nature and femininity. However, I did find her poetry to be largely redundant, as I have found most collections of poetry by modern poets tend to be. Oftentimes, I have found that these poets focus on the events of their life and their empowerment in a way that comes off as self-important to the poetry itself. As in, the poem is about Emily Skaja for Emily Skaja and maybe her friends that helped her through the struggles. Her language is beautiful, although oftentimes congested and jumping from Biblical allusion to a quotation of something someone once said to her.

I enjoyed this collection in the beginning, and I like many of the poems as concepts, but it eventually did start feeling too much like most modern poetry, just prettified by a better use of language. I think Skaja is a good writer but I found her poetry weak most of the time and underwhelming in terms of a lack of emotional reach, a redundancy in her language, and a congestion in her composition.

"We observe the moon at opposite intervals.
By now you've seen my constellations, the jaw of a wolf.
Can you tell that the stars are on fire with longing?"

[Margaryta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some poetry collections are difficult to form an opinion on not only because it feels like they push the boundary between the poet’s and the speaker’s life and experiences, but also because they focus on such universal themes that it’s difficult to engage with them in any way other than to filter the poetry through one’s own personal response and enjoyment of them. Brute is another new addition to this category and can probably best be summed up in a line from “Aubade with Boundaries”: “In an argument, it is better to be drunk than to be right” (p. 41). Skaja’s debut collection storms out of the gate with the first poem, “My History As”, with a cohesion and targeted attack that hits successfully with each successive line. However, this momentum isn’t carried consistently through the collection. In fact, the only other poem that captivated and moved me in a similar way was “No, I Do Not Want to Connect with You on LinkedIn”, the first poem in the final section of the collection. Skaja has a way with imagery – the emphasis on birds, flight, and eggs in the first half of Brute was especially memorable as Skaja reminds us that there truly is such a thing as “savage beauty”. But it became difficult to go beyond the individually intricate and clever lines and consider the poems individually in their entirety, to have any response other than to marvel at Skaja’s craft. Brute is therefore a rather strange beast, for Skaja really delivers a striking, often bittersweet, perspective on break-ups of complicated or unhealthy relationships. Yet the poems are often left licking their own wounds while leaving the reader to sit and look at them, wondering from which angle to approach them and if they should be approached at all.

[Arie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Third day of attempting to read a daily poetry collection and this one's another great one. Unfortunately the local library doesn't have a physical copy (I almost never buy books unless I've read them/loved them first: the problem with having a limited income and limited shelf-space - also I re-read all the things I love frequently enough that it's a system that usually makes sense) so I had to read this in e-format, which is not the best, but proved how strong the poems are, to be still an excellent experience through my clunky in-browser e-book rendering.

If you're curious: the cover gives a good indication of the poems inside. Beautiful, blunt, bold, brutish. This one might need to make its way onto my overcrowded shelves.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Painful but riveting poems about the end of a relationship/s. Also who we are within a relationship, especially women, but these poems stay personal. Beautiful bird imagery. Skaja is unsparing in her self-examination and in allowing her vulnerability show to the world while containing all of this in carefully constructed forms, with a wide variety of structures. There is also clearly a reason one of the sections is headed with a quote from a Sylvia Plath poem.

[David J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone really should be on the lookout for Emily Skaja’s debut collection of poetry, Brute. Skaja ruminates on gender and violence, self-discovery and self-reinvention, agency and survival as she rises out of a tumultuous relationship. It’s Adele’s 21 in poetry form, and it’s just as emotionally satisfying as that album. She works through some tough shit and asks us to see this Brute in all of its forms. And as she works through her emotions, we see how debilitating it can be; but we also see how it’s not all-powerful and that she, and we, can overcome. Skaja won the Walt Whitman Award with this collection and it’s much deserved. I wholeheartedly recommend.

[meow (semi hiatus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

there were alot of lines that i annotated and liked but there was also alot of crap lol

[fer · Rating 1 out of 5]

nossa achei uma bomba. mt ruim.

eu nao sou grande leitora de poemas, mas durante a leitura desse livro fiquei me questionando se eu talvez perdi toda a capacidade de ler poesias e coisas mais abstratas pq simplesmente parecia que eu tava lendo palavras uma atras das outras mas sem conexao nenhuma entre elas, nada fazia sentido. mas ao final do livro cheguei a conclusao de que 1. eu posso ser burra sim, mas 2. o livro é ruim tbm

nao querendo cagar regra em poesia, mas o jeito que a autora escreve sem pontuaçao e sem nenhuma logica pra separar as frases deixa a leitura muitooooo confusa. ela começa uma frase com letra maiuscula no meio de outra frase, sem troca de linha nem pontuaçao nenhuma. e as vezes pula a frase pra linha de baixo sem motivo nenhum, ela usa os recursos de poesia de estrofe, linha e etc sem logica nenhuma. ela nao pula a linha pra começar outra frase, ela simplesmente quebra a frase em 2 linhas sem motivo, deixando a leitura mt confusa pq eu nao sei onde começa ou onde acaba uma frase, ela nao faz essa divisao de frases com pontuaçao, com linhas novas, com nada.

parecia que eu tava lendo um monte de palavras abstratas juntas sem sentido nem coesao nenhuma entre elas. vai pra um campo mt de ai coisas podres, dor, sangue, navios podres, aves, riachos. traz essa coisa meio de ambiente meio rural medieval com esses elementos, mas SO. Nao tem coesao, nao me diz nada.

e sao 80 paginas de poemas que nao dizem nada, e qndo dizem estao falando de homem. essa coisa da mulher que sofreu em relacionamento com homem e etc, com um pézinho la naquela coisa de " mulheres bruxas que andam com lobos e sofrem com homens violentos", tudo nessa embalagem mt brutal com elementos de violencia, podridao e etc mas de forma puramente estetica, qndo na vdd ela ta falando de um cara que terminou com ela por mensagem ou sla. mas no final é so isso: 80 paginas falando de homem.

achei chatoooo dmais, e qndo nao tava achando chato nao tava entendendo nada.

a capa é lindissima, mas so.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75 stars

This was one of my most anticipated poetry books for 2019, and it did not disappoint. Perhaps most impressive is the cohesiveness of the collection, and its structure. It's a pet peeve of mine when poetry collections are broken up into sections that have no rhyme or reason, but here the section demarcations feel purposeful. Also, A+ choice of epigraphs for the section titles! I appreciated the frequent use of repetition, not just within individual poems but throughout the collection: the use of "brute" in different ways; the multiple elegy, letter, and aubade poems; and Greek references. There's a sense of momentum and full immersion into the speaker's world.
Skaja writes about well-tread subjects but frankly does them better than most. For example, this collection has one of the best break-up poems I've ever read ("In Defeat I Was Perfect"), and it hit me like a brick wall.
I recommend this collection to anyone, honestly, but especially to women who have felt the impotent rage of being gaslit, betrayed, or otherwise hurt by gendered violence. Skaja's poems made me feel both seen and empowered with their tenderness and unflinching observation. I can tell this collection will be even more rewarding upon re-reading.

Update 7/31/20
Finally had a chance to reread this collection and it was a very rewarding reread. This time around I was most impressed with Skaja's ability to subvert clichés and write towards the negative space in a poem (see "Elegy With A Shit-Brown River Running Through It" for a good example of this). I was also ruminating on the fact that this collection functions as a modern example of confessional poetry. Skaja deals with so many of the same themes and subjects that you see in Insta Poetry, but her craft transcends the simplicity of those contemporaries. I still thoroughly recommend this collection!

[emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

a girl handles grief and nature watches. i love it.

[johnny ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

ugh one of the best poetry collections i've read this year.

[bryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was beyond my capacity to consume. I will totally admit that it’s likely my inexperience or ineptitude but I found the content not digestible for me.

[Salem ☥ · Rating 1 out of 5]

...

[Kathie Yang · Rating 5 out of 5]

glad emily got this award and got a chance to publish this book. insane. hope you went to therapy emily <3

thanks to the librarian who recommended this to me. i WILL be rereading

[Sandra Del Rio]

”I was so sick With belonging … I wanted girlhood circled around me Like a coat”

[merce · Rating 3 out of 5]

“everyone if we’re going to talk about love please we have to talk about violence”

a primera vista, brute encapsula una buena parte de los temas que a mí me suelen obsesionar: pájaros, naturaleza para significar lo despiadado y visceral, referencias e imaginería bíblicas, entre otras. todo esto lo emplea para retratar el final de una relación abusiva, con un discurso muy interesante sobre la culpa y el duelo. me deja un poco confusa en su conjunto, porque tiene momentos de muchísima fuerza y se vislumbra entre sus líneas un genio y una soltura con el lenguaje que, a veces, se ven truncados por la repetición innecesaria de ideas o por el afán de yuxtaponer lo complejo y lo bello con lo directo y común, que no siempre funciona bien (tiene sus momentos). no estoy en contra de esto último, pero siento que pierde su efecto cuando es la única forma en la que sabemos construir un poema. aún así, he disfrutado mucho con ciertos poemas y, sobre todo, con algunas imágenes que crea (“a bridge swung over the water / with direction, like a fist”). creo que puede ser una colección a la que vuelva y a la que, quizá, iré apreciando más con otras lecturas.

[Book Riot Community]

Emily Skaja’s debut poetry collection chronicles the end of an unhealthy relationship, the speaker a “Soldier for a lost cause, brute, mute woman / written out of my own story” (“Brute Strength”). Using striking metaphorical imagery (“I drop my hands in the sink. They come up feathered”) and allusions ranging from Eurydice to Rihanna, Skaja circles around themes of grief mingled with guilt, rage, and regret, all a part of the brutal process of reconstructing a life after such a breakup. Brute also caught the attention of Joy Harjo–the new U.S. Poet Laureate—who selected it to receive the Academy of American Poets’ Walt Whitman Award.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily one of the best poetry collections I’ve read in awhile that was of a non political theme

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved all of it, but my favorites were "March is March" and "Elegy for Rabbits"

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of poems that contemplates a brutal breakup and will cause some visceral reactions. There is distinct imagery, and many of them recurring (cedar is the first that comes to mind), as well as references to myth and pop culture, demonstrating the complex emotions that inevitably come after the end of a relationship. There’s an honesty in Skaja’s poems that point out conflicting thoughts during this period, whether it’s longing to return to the relationship or a burning anger because the relationship even existed.

What I quite like about these poems is Skaja’s not interested in pushing forward a narrative of finding hope at the end of the tunnel. She contemplates the conflicting space of anger, grief, loss, regret, and heartache, and there’s something so cathartic about that. And I like that she is subtle about finding hope or a new beginning during this breakup process.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of some poems, mostly due to form, but that’s a nitpicky thing for me.

Some favorites: “I Have Read the Whole Moon,” “Dear Katie,” “Indictment,” “Rules for a Body Coming Out of Water,” “How to Mend a Faucet Dripping Thread,” and “I Do Not Want to Connect with You on LinkedIn.”

[Ruby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to pull up the dictionary for this! I think I need to review vocab because man, I felt uneducated at times, but once I pulled up the meanings or references, it made the poems that much more raw. Beautiful metaphors. Here are some of my favorite lines:

"I am paranoid about how much grief a tree can witness. That these woods grow older & never break their silence seems unfeeling."

"Before anyone fucked with her, Eurydice was just a woman walking alone through a field of snakes."

"If ghost, if whore, if virgin -same origin story: because X was a face too lovely, Y was a corpse in the lake. Our sisters said Wait. Our mothers said Stay the hell awake."

"I was stung my tongue swelled I was spitting crushed bees."

[kate]

just reread …. capital O Obsessed this time around …. plath carson siken …… one of the chapters is called ‘girl saints’ do with that info what you will …. accidentally starred every poem in the last section lol PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH … anyways 😌

[emma charlton · Rating 5 out of 5]

definitely on of the top 5 poetry collections I’ve ever read

[Olga · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an impressively cohesive debut. The poems are painful, fierce, and evocative, offering some of the most beautiful lines I've ever read.

[Andrea Blythe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Winner of the Walt Whitman Award, Emily Skaja's Brute is a stunning collection of poetry that navigates the dark corridors found at the end of an abusive relationship. “Everyone if we’re going to talk about love please we have to talk about violence,” writes Skaja in the poem “remarkable the litter of birds." She indeed talks about the intersections of both love and violence, evoking a range of emotional experiences ranging from sorrow and loss to rage, guilt, hope, self discovery, and reinvention.

One of the things I love about this collection is the way the poems reflect the present moment — ripe of cell phones, social media, and technologies that shift the way humans interact with each other, while maintaining a mythic quality, with the speaker feeling like a character struggling to survive in a surreal fairy tale world just waiting to eat her up. Gorgeous work from Skaja, who I recently interviewed for the New Books in Poetry podcast. I need to finish preparing the episode and hopefully I'll be able to share it soon. 

[Care · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not all the poems in Brute spoke to me, but when they did, it was with a fierceness that made me shiver. This is a collection of poetry that demands your respect and attention when reading. It's sharp, brutal, and emotional. If you're not careful, you may cut yourself on the edge of one of these selections.

Some poems leave you cold and sad while others are furious fire. The collection was violence and love lying side by side. It was the before, during, and after of a cruel, manipulative relationship, break up, and then dealing with the aftermath. The beauty of natural life and unnatural death. The attention to the nature made this a step above for me; when the narrator is overcome, she returns to the wilderness, to the lake, the forest, and the fresh air.

I recommend Brute for poetry lovers, feminists, and those going through abusive relationships and devastating break ups. Skaja's work reads like a battle cry and a dirge, never a lullaby.