What do you think?
Rate this book
feeld
Selected by Fady Joudah as a winner of the 2017 National Poetry Series, Jos Charles’s revolutionary second collection of poetry, feeld, is a lyrical unraveling of the circuitry of gender and speech, defiantly making space for bodies that have been historically denied their own vocabulary.
“i care so much abot the whord i cant reed.” In feeld, Charles stakes her claim on the language available to speak about trans experience, reckoning with the narratives that have come before by reclaiming the language of the past. In Charles’s electrifying transliteration of English—Chaucerian in affect, but revolutionary in effect—what is old is made new again. “gendre is not the tran organe / gendre is yes a hemorage.” “did u kno not a monthe goes bye / a tran i kno doesnt dye.” The world of feeld is our own, but off-kilter, distinctly queer—making visible what was formerly and forcefully hidden: trauma, liberation, strength, and joy.
Urgent and vital, feeld composes a new and highly inventive lyrical narrative of what it means to live inside a marked body.
“i care so much abot the whord i cant reed.” In feeld, Charles stakes her claim on the language available to speak about trans experience, reckoning with the narratives that have come before by reclaiming the language of the past. In Charles’s electrifying transliteration of English—Chaucerian in affect, but revolutionary in effect—what is old is made new again. “gendre is not the tran organe / gendre is yes a hemorage.” “did u kno not a monthe goes bye / a tran i kno doesnt dye.” The world of feeld is our own, but off-kilter, distinctly queer—making visible what was formerly and forcefully hidden: trauma, liberation, strength, and joy.
Urgent and vital, feeld composes a new and highly inventive lyrical narrative of what it means to live inside a marked body.
80 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 14, 2018
37 people are currently reading
1545 people want to read
About the author
Jos Charles
7 books58 followersJos Charles is a trans poet, editor, and author of feeld, a winner of the 2017 National Poetry Series, selected by Fady Joudah and Safe Space, a finalist for the 2016 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 124 reviews
![Profile Image for s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all].](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gr-assets.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fusers%2F1735525095i%2F6431467._UX200_CR0%2C11%2C200%2C200_.jpg&w=128&q=75)
June 23, 2023
i care so
much abot the whord i cant
reed
Much of the work for a poet is to probe the undercurrents of reality through transformative language, making language malleable as an abstract expression to the abstractness of life. In her 2019 poetry collection Feeld, the trans poet and translator Jos Charles pushes the exploration of linguistic malleability in extraordinary ways. Poet Fady Joudah, who selected Feeld as winner of the National Poetry Series, describes the language as ‘Chaucerian English [translated] into the digital twenty-first century,’ as Jos Charles plays with phonetics to reclaim language for a trans space. The disarming use of language is ripe for interpretations, such as a representation of the disorientation for queerness in an obdurately gendered society enforced through rhetoric control of language, or the need to reappropriate language--’a whord lost inn the mouthe off keepers--from the social gatekeepers. Though, as said in her interview with Frontier Poetry, it is less about reclaiming but more ‘identifying what is useful in what is adjacent’. While the use of language may sound daunting at first, there is a real pureness to it all and it is an utterly pleasant experience akin to childlike awe. Furthering the reclamation, Feeld is primarily poetry centered in nature, reclaiming the traditional cis male tradition of nature poetry for a trans space. Blooming with whimsical double entendres and searing social critique, this empowering and joyously inventive collection puns and probes its way deep into the hearts and minds of readers.
a chylde is wut ideologie
looks lik
Feeld delivers poetry that is simultaneously disorienting and familiar, softly moving through a garden of words at a slow pace as if to take it all in and bask within itself. Charles has a delicate construction that carefully uses both words and blank space to allow the poem to breath and give the reader space to sink into its beauty. While the language is admittedly difficult to initially grasp, Charles manages to make it a pleasant instead of laborious experience with form that encourages slow, careful reading at your own pace. There is a sense that Charles is carefully guiding the reader the way a parent slowly walks their young child out into the world with love and shared joy. While, yes, others have used phonetic spelling before for other purposes, Feeld utilizes it in a breathtaking way that helps to fully embody its messages.
The phonetic spellings, such as ‘mornynge’ for morning, ‘wymon’ for women, or ‘wite’ for white, become something you read not just with your eyes but with your ears and mouth. It becomes a fully encompassing work of the body, and discussions on the identity of the body are quite central to the work. There are more playful moments as well, such as the title term that appears in nearly every poem--‘feeld’--and how it seems all at once both ‘field’ and to ‘feel’. Again this technique is used with ‘breasthes’ as both ‘breaths’ and ‘breasts’ or the pun on ‘queries’ as ‘queerys’ to keep the discussion on queer identity central to the work. The fragile barrier between words breaks down within this collection as representation of the fragility of gender binaries.
i a woake 1 mornynge / 2 see the hole whorld off thynges befor me
The use of the natural world in these poems is both soothing and wonderfully subversive. Drawing on a tradition often associated with masculinity, as she says in interviews, Jos Charles says has made a point to show that this can be a space for queerness as well. Brilliantly, by aligning trans identity with the natural world and incorporating it into that world, she asserts trans as natural. This meshes well with the language of the whole, not just of the body as examined previously, but the wholeness of nature and living beings. The natural world gives way to a political world, however, with imagery of fruit going bad on the tree or when ‘gendre is not the folde but a siteatione ’, particularly in the poems that deal with bathrooms. ‘boyes r not alowd in this pome’, she concludes in a poem heavy with mention of a ‘feemale depositrie room, moving from an image of a tall woman washing their hands to what seems a play on a common outburst experienced by a trans woman in these situations.
it is horribel
off corse to be
tangibel / inside kapitel
Trans identity in a gendered world and the ways capitalism seeks to make us all pawns in its game are major themes running through Feeld. There is the empowerment to become ‘tagibel’, to exist outside the norms and to be yourself, yet this also is examined for the way the world preys on tangibility. Social stigma oppresses trans people in horrific ways, often violent with an alarming number of murders of trans individuals each years--predominantly trans women of color. ‘did u kno not a monthe goes bye’, she writes, ‘a tran i kno doesnt dye’. She writes on the struggles to be open as trans while existing in ‘masckulin economyes’, acknowledging the plight that befalls those who are. There is also the issues of acceptance: ‘ how many/ holes would blede/ befor/ u believ/ imma grl’, writes Charles on the plight of being taken seriously with a trans identity in a world stuck in gender binaries. Much of the work also looks at the ways that sexuality is commodified and ‘bye definision a cruele economicks’. She writes you are born boy, girl, or worker, and that these identities control much of your social and financial life, nodding to the gender pay gap here.
‘i am afrayde / i am riting myeself’, says Charles, playfully teasing authorial intent. While the themes of identity being forced into a political sphere through the weaponization of language is clearly at heart of Feeld, the collection is self-aware and seems to avoid taking itself overly seriously. She concludes a poem almostly blithely with ‘trama lit is so hotte rite nowe’, retaining a sense of playfulness but also reminding the reader that this isn’t being written just to follow a trend but to give voice to those often voiceless. This seems a call out to those who accuse people when they come out as ‘just doing it for attention’ or that it’s ‘trendy’ (a term Charles uses as well to bat away critiques. If you haven’t been following, there is a major backlash against poet who write about non-white, non-hetero identities, particularly on internet communities). ‘Feeld is not part of a trend but a bold and brave voice crying out. The inventive use of language and the carefully constructed use of space make this a complete joy to read and while this collection has teeth it also has a loving sweetness that will certainly last long after you close the book.
4.5/5
much abot the whord i cant
reed
Much of the work for a poet is to probe the undercurrents of reality through transformative language, making language malleable as an abstract expression to the abstractness of life. In her 2019 poetry collection Feeld, the trans poet and translator Jos Charles pushes the exploration of linguistic malleability in extraordinary ways. Poet Fady Joudah, who selected Feeld as winner of the National Poetry Series, describes the language as ‘Chaucerian English [translated] into the digital twenty-first century,’ as Jos Charles plays with phonetics to reclaim language for a trans space. The disarming use of language is ripe for interpretations, such as a representation of the disorientation for queerness in an obdurately gendered society enforced through rhetoric control of language, or the need to reappropriate language--’a whord lost inn the mouthe off keepers--from the social gatekeepers. Though, as said in her interview with Frontier Poetry, it is less about reclaiming but more ‘identifying what is useful in what is adjacent’. While the use of language may sound daunting at first, there is a real pureness to it all and it is an utterly pleasant experience akin to childlike awe. Furthering the reclamation, Feeld is primarily poetry centered in nature, reclaiming the traditional cis male tradition of nature poetry for a trans space. Blooming with whimsical double entendres and searing social critique, this empowering and joyously inventive collection puns and probes its way deep into the hearts and minds of readers.
a chylde is wut ideologie
looks lik
Feeld delivers poetry that is simultaneously disorienting and familiar, softly moving through a garden of words at a slow pace as if to take it all in and bask within itself. Charles has a delicate construction that carefully uses both words and blank space to allow the poem to breath and give the reader space to sink into its beauty. While the language is admittedly difficult to initially grasp, Charles manages to make it a pleasant instead of laborious experience with form that encourages slow, careful reading at your own pace. There is a sense that Charles is carefully guiding the reader the way a parent slowly walks their young child out into the world with love and shared joy. While, yes, others have used phonetic spelling before for other purposes, Feeld utilizes it in a breathtaking way that helps to fully embody its messages.
The phonetic spellings, such as ‘mornynge’ for morning, ‘wymon’ for women, or ‘wite’ for white, become something you read not just with your eyes but with your ears and mouth. It becomes a fully encompassing work of the body, and discussions on the identity of the body are quite central to the work. There are more playful moments as well, such as the title term that appears in nearly every poem--‘feeld’--and how it seems all at once both ‘field’ and to ‘feel’. Again this technique is used with ‘breasthes’ as both ‘breaths’ and ‘breasts’ or the pun on ‘queries’ as ‘queerys’ to keep the discussion on queer identity central to the work. The fragile barrier between words breaks down within this collection as representation of the fragility of gender binaries.
i a woake 1 mornynge / 2 see the hole whorld off thynges befor me
The use of the natural world in these poems is both soothing and wonderfully subversive. Drawing on a tradition often associated with masculinity, as she says in interviews, Jos Charles says has made a point to show that this can be a space for queerness as well. Brilliantly, by aligning trans identity with the natural world and incorporating it into that world, she asserts trans as natural. This meshes well with the language of the whole, not just of the body as examined previously, but the wholeness of nature and living beings. The natural world gives way to a political world, however, with imagery of fruit going bad on the tree or when ‘gendre is not the folde but a siteatione ’, particularly in the poems that deal with bathrooms. ‘boyes r not alowd in this pome’, she concludes in a poem heavy with mention of a ‘feemale depositrie room, moving from an image of a tall woman washing their hands to what seems a play on a common outburst experienced by a trans woman in these situations.
it is horribel
off corse to be
tangibel / inside kapitel
Trans identity in a gendered world and the ways capitalism seeks to make us all pawns in its game are major themes running through Feeld. There is the empowerment to become ‘tagibel’, to exist outside the norms and to be yourself, yet this also is examined for the way the world preys on tangibility. Social stigma oppresses trans people in horrific ways, often violent with an alarming number of murders of trans individuals each years--predominantly trans women of color. ‘did u kno not a monthe goes bye’, she writes, ‘a tran i kno doesnt dye’. She writes on the struggles to be open as trans while existing in ‘masckulin economyes’, acknowledging the plight that befalls those who are. There is also the issues of acceptance: ‘ how many/ holes would blede/ befor/ u believ/ imma grl’, writes Charles on the plight of being taken seriously with a trans identity in a world stuck in gender binaries. Much of the work also looks at the ways that sexuality is commodified and ‘bye definision a cruele economicks’. She writes you are born boy, girl, or worker, and that these identities control much of your social and financial life, nodding to the gender pay gap here.
‘i am afrayde / i am riting myeself’, says Charles, playfully teasing authorial intent. While the themes of identity being forced into a political sphere through the weaponization of language is clearly at heart of Feeld, the collection is self-aware and seems to avoid taking itself overly seriously. She concludes a poem almostly blithely with ‘trama lit is so hotte rite nowe’, retaining a sense of playfulness but also reminding the reader that this isn’t being written just to follow a trend but to give voice to those often voiceless. This seems a call out to those who accuse people when they come out as ‘just doing it for attention’ or that it’s ‘trendy’ (a term Charles uses as well to bat away critiques. If you haven’t been following, there is a major backlash against poet who write about non-white, non-hetero identities, particularly on internet communities). ‘Feeld is not part of a trend but a bold and brave voice crying out. The inventive use of language and the carefully constructed use of space make this a complete joy to read and while this collection has teeth it also has a loving sweetness that will certainly last long after you close the book.
4.5/5
Read
August 4, 2018Astoundynge
October 10, 2018
First of all, understand that this review is coming from a trans woman who loves poetry.
The fact of the matter is that after you get past feeld's High Middle English gimmick, there is very little of substance here. Charles repeats phrases ad nauseam, so much so that reading this book feels like reading the same poem sixty times. While the spelling allows for some puns and double meanings ("tran" = "trans"/"train," "hors" = "horse"/"hours"/"whores," "feeld" = "feel"/"field" etc.) what it adds in wordplay and aesthetics it detracts from accessibility and comprehensibility. I had to spend several minutes deciphering each poem, and ultimately they were not very good aside from a few beautiful and moving individual turns of phrase ("i was inn love with a famyne / i was inn love with the ded," "did u kno not a monthe goes bye / a tran i kno doesnt dye").
I get what Jos Charles is trying to do with the Middle English, really, I do, but the promising concept falls flat in its execution. "i am a mothe / i am a brocken hors / in a feeld of linden treees / outsyde the feemale depositrie room / mayde off a sirfase off folde and metall / gendre is not the folde" pretty much sums the entire collection up.
feeld simply isn't worth your time.
The fact of the matter is that after you get past feeld's High Middle English gimmick, there is very little of substance here. Charles repeats phrases ad nauseam, so much so that reading this book feels like reading the same poem sixty times. While the spelling allows for some puns and double meanings ("tran" = "trans"/"train," "hors" = "horse"/"hours"/"whores," "feeld" = "feel"/"field" etc.) what it adds in wordplay and aesthetics it detracts from accessibility and comprehensibility. I had to spend several minutes deciphering each poem, and ultimately they were not very good aside from a few beautiful and moving individual turns of phrase ("i was inn love with a famyne / i was inn love with the ded," "did u kno not a monthe goes bye / a tran i kno doesnt dye").
I get what Jos Charles is trying to do with the Middle English, really, I do, but the promising concept falls flat in its execution. "i am a mothe / i am a brocken hors / in a feeld of linden treees / outsyde the feemale depositrie room / mayde off a sirfase off folde and metall / gendre is not the folde" pretty much sums the entire collection up.
feeld simply isn't worth your time.
May 8, 2021
1st read: Read this book and you will dissolve and its reclaimed language will command you.
2nd read: I had to take up temporary residence in this book again. The thought and care with which the landscape of language embraces the narrative. I love it.
2nd read: I had to take up temporary residence in this book again. The thought and care with which the landscape of language embraces the narrative. I love it.
February 26, 2019
Okay, I'll make this review short as this is a very short collection of poems.
We had to read this for my poetry course. I felt like Charles' work had great potential here - they just didn't do much of it.
I know Charles was using "unique" language when writing out the words phonetically and/or the way they'd be spoken on the street, but it just came off as sloppy rather than creative. The narrative of the poem was weak as well. Overall, just give this one a pass.
We had to read this for my poetry course. I felt like Charles' work had great potential here - they just didn't do much of it.
I know Charles was using "unique" language when writing out the words phonetically and/or the way they'd be spoken on the street, but it just came off as sloppy rather than creative. The narrative of the poem was weak as well. Overall, just give this one a pass.
October 4, 2018
Reading this collection of NBA longlisted poems takes some serious work. The language is a blend of Old English and some modern twists, such as using numerals for words like “one(self)” and “to”. The poems focus mainly on trans identity, but the language made it a little hard to access for me.
November 9, 2021
A total trans-formation, destruction, and reordering of language. I urge you to read this out loud to yourself, the experience is nothing short of amazing.
Read
November 21, 2022 VI.
the copse in mye guarden /
inspeckting hews / & i am
depositing myeself
lik a fum / am trap
inn ther blak & blu / invagynation meens
everie hole is an extremitie / u
rite long enuff inn 2 its sirfase
/ it rites inn 2 u / hah /
thees treees / cannot be insied me /
not with all thees copse arond / pleese /
i am afrayde
i am riting myeself
metonymic off deth / agane
i am so afrayde / off wut is it ur holding
inn ur souwre hande /
this sirfase has a colore
XVI.
gendre is not the tran organe / gendre is yes a hemorage / the nayme scrypt & the stayte scypt preseed laping the milke in mye sacks / gendre lik all sirface is a feemale depositrie room / in that clowde moses wept & wee exspeckte a lawe /
his fase lik lite & r bodies goldenne in vagynoplastycitie / if u evre get downe mye mountain / he sade pirge me with hysop / offer mye bulock on the alter / a tran is noting but the scens off sum burning / i a lone hav scaped 2 tell u this
the copse in mye guarden /
inspeckting hews / & i am
depositing myeself
lik a fum / am trap
inn ther blak & blu / invagynation meens
everie hole is an extremitie / u
rite long enuff inn 2 its sirfase
/ it rites inn 2 u / hah /
thees treees / cannot be insied me /
not with all thees copse arond / pleese /
i am afrayde
i am riting myeself
metonymic off deth / agane
i am so afrayde / off wut is it ur holding
inn ur souwre hande /
this sirfase has a colore
XVI.
gendre is not the tran organe / gendre is yes a hemorage / the nayme scrypt & the stayte scypt preseed laping the milke in mye sacks / gendre lik all sirface is a feemale depositrie room / in that clowde moses wept & wee exspeckte a lawe /
his fase lik lite & r bodies goldenne in vagynoplastycitie / if u evre get downe mye mountain / he sade pirge me with hysop / offer mye bulock on the alter / a tran is noting but the scens off sum burning / i a lone hav scaped 2 tell u this
January 9, 2019
With her old/middle english take on a contemporary issue (at least in terms of rhetoric), Jos Charles's Feeld simultaneously envelops and distances the reader from the narrative of trans experience, while providing an accordion-like layer structure to each phrase in her fascinating book. The unorthodox spellings (based on earlier forms of the english language—I'm not sure how close an approximation was made to middle or early english, but the word "chaucerian" was bandied about at book club) allowed a multiplicity of interpretations for almost every line when read instead of heard, which opened up the space for intricate punning and for metaphor. The very word "feeld" becomes conflated with the female experience; a "field" as an open vessel for things to be grown/something fallow and waiting—but also with the past tense of "feel", when spoken aloud it sounds like, "feeled", a clumsy "felt"; does it mean literal touch, the sensation of physical contact, or an admission that the book is something emotive and personal? One more example—"hors" became both horse and hoarse, broken to bridle and without voice. Striking and subtle at the same time.
This interplay of possibilities makes the book something that could be linguistically unpacked for hours on end, but it also is a potential barrier between the reader and the material—and the argument could be made that now is not the time in history to put barriers between the reading public and reading material about the experience of someone from a marginalized community.
TL;DR: It's brilliant, but only if you're going to be dogged enough to do a good bit of work on trying to manage its wildness. And maybe that asks too much.
This interplay of possibilities makes the book something that could be linguistically unpacked for hours on end, but it also is a potential barrier between the reader and the material—and the argument could be made that now is not the time in history to put barriers between the reading public and reading material about the experience of someone from a marginalized community.
TL;DR: It's brilliant, but only if you're going to be dogged enough to do a good bit of work on trying to manage its wildness. And maybe that asks too much.
July 12, 2020
often when i'm stuck, a book will come to me and it will resolve what i'm stuck with. feeld is a reminder of the possibilities of language and the possibilities of poetry and the possibilities of sound and for that i am grateful.
(reading this in the fall for my speech, politics & poetry of 20th/21st century lit course & wanted to get a headstart)
(reading this in the fall for my speech, politics & poetry of 20th/21st century lit course & wanted to get a headstart)
April 11, 2019
somehow even more mind-blowing than the first time i read it
Read
November 3, 2022gathred the hole inn the guarden / conted the rites inn a streem / it takes so manie feelds 2 make a hole / see the sirfase befor the rupture / i kno thees gastric exursizes r boreing / but pleese / i see the boyes inn the playe pin juggling mye holes / i see mye trama lit lik candie in ther cotten mothes / they wisper weres ur bird soot / u sed ud were a bird soot / & i tuch the urinals / i washe eech aynchent clawe / agane / & agane / & agane / & agane / i get reel spesifick / abot the hemorages i tend inn mye yard / eech hole is a vote / they tel me / tend ur hole / they saye / remember contry cums firste / ur feelds r privyt / this is godes contry
(IV.)
(IV.)
October 5, 2024
i weesh i was smarte enuf to understandt thes boook
December 19, 2021
Pretty interesting book of poetry. There were some really heartbreaking lines, but most of the collection felt repetitive in a way I felt didn't really serve the overall narrative. But hey more poetry by trans about trans people is always good in my book.
August 3, 2025
My fat crush of jos got even bigger. Who knew who knew!
April 10, 2019
Absolutely remarkable. I've been struggling to find contemporary poets that I really like and this is one of my favorite poetry books I've ever read. The poems are beautiful even if they take a bit of getting used to. I need to find more of her work soon.
Favorites: VII, VXI, LIII
Favorites: VII, VXI, LIII
December 30, 2019
I'm conflicted about feeld. The formal experimentation is enough to warrant three stars. Every poem appears alien, but when you begin reading you realize these poems aren't as impenetrable as they may appear initially. The form mirrors a facet of people's reluctance to understand identity struggles. To one accustomed to a particular appearance, the trans individual and their identity may feel alien or odd, but they are human all the same, like these poems are English all the same. It's an ingenious way of forming a poem around a subject.
My qualm lies with moments where imagery collides in a way that leaves me dizzy and disoriented. I'm not sure where Charles is trying to go. Where some homonyms feel novel and pithy, others feel cheap and unnecessary, even given the estrangement in spelling. There's an inchoate theme of nature and ecology, but by the final poem the theme still feels inchoate. It demands rereading, but some of this imagery will still collide at the cost of cohesion.
November 22, 2018
A brilliant resuscitation of Ye Olde (Middle) English style. feeld is a field of experiments in bent language, frequently very funny, with winkingly bad puns somehow made not bad but deadpan in the faux medievalist transliteration, which also thrills, campily, in textspeak. I might compare feeld to Dodie’s Cunt-Ups (and the equally marvelous, more recent Cunt Norton, particularly “Cunt Chaucer”) in its mirth and fluidity. But “there is noting / funye bout this” (ha). Where Cunt-Ups performs a feminist carnivalesque with queer and trans effects, feeld is explicitly trans in its framing and politics, and the realness with which Charles addresses trans experience is not lost in the language play.
January 9, 2019
So beautiful
This is a challenging work that requires rereading; you won't finish it in an afternoon! Stick with it though, it unfolds and becomes more accessible the more accustomed you get to Charles' new vocabulary. When you get to this point be prepared for moments of astonishing beauty and incredible sorrow. I loved this.
This is a challenging work that requires rereading; you won't finish it in an afternoon! Stick with it though, it unfolds and becomes more accessible the more accustomed you get to Charles' new vocabulary. When you get to this point be prepared for moments of astonishing beauty and incredible sorrow. I loved this.
September 20, 2019
Language, identity, life, the identity of language, identity in language, meaning, and much more. This is a work to reread. Something different arises with each read of a poem.
October 24, 2018
Read my review here: https://www.usi.edu/sir/reviews/the-m...
December 26, 2018
the hybrid of ancient and modern language is powerful and dynamic but leaves spaces at times that I can't fill.
September 1, 2024
I'm completely taken by the un-still language of this collection, a language that is literally "tran" (quote) /transitional. Each word resonates with multiple possibilities such that a reader might be tempted to try and hold a prism to its light to see the rainbow. All spelling is rooted in sound combining and re-combining to pun-like intimations that in their refusal to be pinned down impart an elating sense of all is possible. Repetitions offer sign-posts like buoys bobbing in the sea. These poems nudge the reader to dance to their rhyme and pulse without trying to count the steps but rather to move in their "feeld."
August 5, 2019
I loved this collection. It takes a moment to get into it, but after getting few the first few poems the language is much easier to follow. I still read each poem more than once. I feel as though I'm just starting to get into poetry again and still don't quite have the background knowledge to review it adequately. But one of the things that I found most powerful about this work is that, because of the Middle English, the reader is required to focus on every single word. The poems are processed in this way, word by word, and then as a whole. A better and more meaningful take on poetry of the "calendula and golden rod" variety, I highly recommend this collection.
Update 8/5/19: just read a stanza aloud from this collection to my mom and she started crying and then I started crying. Must reread aloud.
Update 8/5/19: just read a stanza aloud from this collection to my mom and she started crying and then I started crying. Must reread aloud.
January 6, 2020
I honestly have no idea what most of this was about. But I know that I was moved by it nonetheless. I stared at the words the way I'd start at a massive painting that was only black from edge to edge. I can see future English majors writing 10 page essays about one 15 line poem. There's a lot in here. It's mostly bizarre and abstract but it's still somehow moving.
March 3, 2020
I really wanted to love this.
March 25, 2020
I wanted to like this collection, but I just don't. I think the Middle English (which I very much dislike) threw the whole thing off for me so I couldn't even focus on the content.
Read
August 28, 2023this is what conservatives are afraid is being taught in universities
Read
January 28, 2020yum yum yum this is v good
April 15, 2019
Read the whole thing today and found it electrifying (and it's now a finalist for the Pulitzer in poetry!).
Displaying 1 - 30 of 124 reviews