SINK

by Desireé Dallagiacomo

Desireé Dallagiacomo's debut book grapples with the intersections of family and mental health. Sink asks and answers hard questions about grief, lineage, death and all manner of inheritance. What is one left with when they come from a family that has nothing to its name but loss? Throughout, Dallagiacomo weighs the cost of what it is to be alive and a woman in a landscape that makes being alive and a woman uninviting. Sink approaches grief and depression not as a tourist, but instead with the power and nuance of someone who has survived and made the most of their survival.

Genres: Poetry, Feminism, Womens

104 pages, Paperback

First published March 12, 2019

Reviews

[Emily B · Rating 4 out of 5]

A raw and hard hitting poetry collection. Desiree honestly explores a range of deep and emotional topics including self image, addiction, love, suicide and dementia in such a real and relatable way.

‘People never really leave, they just hide inside of me’

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an incredible book of poetry.
Desireé Dallagiacomo is a poet with plenty to say and she says it with passion and with not self-control.
This isn’t parlour room poetry to pontificate and please. This lines and verses are raw, emotion laid bare and complacency undermined.
Nothing here to just lift the spirit, as to listen is to be moved. To hear is to be disturbed. To read is to have all your senses assailed as by a lexicon of besieging soldiers. A vocabulary of invading force.
Poems has a metre but Sink rips that up with an outpouring of concepts and memories, hopes and fears, bruised bodies and broken spirit. Poetry however still formulates a pattern, a series of waves. A variation of pitch and length that initially not everyone can hear or understand on first encounter.
Never just read a poem once. This book will be a treasure possession in anyone’s collection. Those who like intensive and sushi emotive verse. One day a book like Sink will overrun our coastal defences of conservatism like a tsunami.
“I cannot remember his laugh though I thought I would by now. His face and folds into each year. I do not know any of his scars”.
“I do not know what children with fathers dream about, what they long for if not for someone with their same face to tuck them in at night.”
“My mother scratches at her skin so viciously she is a field of ripened sores.”
“My thighs are always the elephant in the dressing room.”
“nobody wants to develop my negatives in their darkroom”.
My favourite poem on first reading was:
Your Doctor Says Dementia.
A mind-blowing, opinion changing piece. When browsing and picking up this book, turn to this one.
For example “They’ve lifted the lid off of you and found your memory is evaporating rain, ....”
One to look out for. Buy or borrow. Read and read again.

[Rana Najjar · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Pregnant, my mother worked
in the hospital laundry room
folding sheets and washing
towels for 8 months. She did
this in exchange for a place
to have her 5th child.
Each year I get older,
a quiet ceremony for the girl
that was born in a bed
because a woman woke
every morning, building me
inside of her, and found
me a home before I had a name.
I do not know what you believe
love to be, but in out house it is that."

[Oviya Balan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very story telling -poetry types. Not my ideal poetry kind but enjoyed the story nevertheless. I wish the writing was a bit more deep but overall it was a fine experience reading it.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Look I know I couldn't make this last even 24 hours what I'm saying is it was JUST THAT GOOD

[inkspillreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book directly from button poetry to review for this author.
I always tend to read or listen to Button Poetry when I am most vulnerable. After a bottle of wine I sit down and let the words seep thru the pages into my hands, like the hand of another teaching they to comfort me.
@desireedallagiacomo hit every hard point there is to life and her poems spoke volumes to me. Though the things she has been through are some of the most difficult of subjects, you can feel her strength vibrating through her words.
I listened to her “I forgive you” poem on Youtube before receiving her book and I enjoyed even more being able to hear her voice thru her poems as I read them. She is phenomenal. She is brave and strong. And absolutely an inspiring woman to look up to.
Thank you for your words, love. Not only just for myself that hit home in so many places, but for so many others trying to get through the same battles. Keep Writing! Thank you for all that you do.
#buttonpoetry #poetry #indiepoetry #shewhowrites #indiesareworthit #slampoetry #toughtimesdontlasttoughpeopledo #carpelibrumin

[Nusrat Farzana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Either I did not get what this book is about, or it really was that repetitive. Either way, not for me. The poet is not without potential, I hope she gets better.

[Mackensie Malkemes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had been anticipating this book so excitedly, as I’ve been a huge fan of Desiree’s work from the Slam scene, and it completely delivered what I knew it would. These poems are honest: she dives into some of the most painful experiences and processes them into artful iterations of wisdom, beauty, and strength. I love intelligently-written realness, and these poems, as the book progresses (I loved the order/build/storytelling), embody the depth and talent to take me both there and completely through. I exclaimed or sighed or cried aloud pretty much for every piece. Smiled a lot more towards the end, which I think it suitable/indicative to this collection’s arc. This book, to me, is so many things: a profound study of self, a journey of recovery and healing, a testament to bravery, a redemptive yet real account of the stories that cut us but also shape our lives into something all the more precious, sacred, and celebratory. Cathartic and inspiring, soul-speak and sisterhood. I am so grateful for not only her courage to do this work but the precision and style in which she expresses it.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sink by Desireé Dallagiacomo is a raw, passionate, and adventurous exploration into the state of our world and our minds. I liked it a lot.

This wasn’t my first introduction to Desireé Dallagiacomo, I’ve seen her perform her poetry on Button Poetry’s channel on Youtube. I loved her then and I love her even more after reading this tender and emotional addition to her work.

Sink dances between tough topics with a lack of inhibition that is rare and special in the world of Poetry. Between love, grief, addiction, the patriarchy and self image, Dallagiacomo alights on these subjects with deep empathy and a heart laid bare.

I read a lot of poetry and would recommend this to any of my poetry-loving friends and followers, as well as those who are looking to try it out. Dallagiacomo’s poems are readable and relatable, brave and uplifting, and ultimately a very enjoyable collection.

This book was provided to me through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Rachel Drenning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This is now one of my favorite books of poetry. So heartfelt. I could literally feel it in my bones. A very talented lady.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heavy. Powerful. Important.

[Leslie Schwartz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew Desiree’s work from the slam poetry world, and was so excited to read this. She puts into words some of the most intense things a person can experience and really made me feel deeply. The courage it must have taken to write this collection is astounding.

A huge thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[irene ✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

it took me one month to read this book and that says a lot about what my impressions are. i know the poet is doing a hard work talking about some personal topics, but i did not enjoy the book.

Note: I received a copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Kirsten Tattersall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was really hard for me to get through. It was incredibly raw and vulnerable and it had a LOT to say.

[Zackary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I let out an audible and elongated "No" when I saw that I had finished the final poem in this stunning collection.

[xander ツ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 only because there are poetry books i like slightly more that i’ve left 5

[Corinne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dallagiacomo’s debut collection, Sink, reads as much as an autobiography and feminist anthem as it does a collection of poems. I devoured it. This is the type of work that is brave when it shouldn’t have to be, raw, beckoning, honest. The opening poem, My First Altar, started off clunky for me, but returning to it later, I appreciated how it tied the collection together and spoke to all the things we sacrifice in order to rise up. It’s generational; it honors the pain (poverty, abuse, mental illness, addiction, loss, abandonment) and glory (physical bodies, resilience, love) we inherit, how we process it, and the output we pay forward. For Dallagiacomo, this output appears to be fierce love, forgiveness and empathy, for others and herself.

I’ll tell you of the time/ she dug me out of the worst/ grave in the cemetery/ of my life. I’ll tell you of the time/ she was so high, she forgot/ I was living. And I will tell you that I love her/ still, still, and again.

It is an homage to becoming a woman, to the process of falling in love with a body that society rejects, to overcoming shame, and to thriving against all odds. It is at times a eulogy to those she has lost to suicide, abandonment, prison, patriarchy. It is a story of a mother’s strength, a father’s ghost and a daughter who swept the shards of her childhood into effigy of beauty: her body, herself, her book.

[Tamar Alexanian · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I say my mother is strong, what I mean is she did crank 17 years & still has all her teeth. Smiles & teaches god about resilience.

& this is how we want our women: devour herself & we applaud. Say be open as coffin, except keep the dead in.

What I mean is she is where strength goes to enjoy a view

We are the seeds of the monsters poverty makes of men.

I, too, know the begging ledge on the high bluff / of my heart whispering for me to leave the simple pain / of having a body at all.

I look remarkably / like all the women I love. / And how did I learn to hate it so fiercely?

Some say you went mad / in 2004, but I think you've always been and it won this time.

The best way I can tell you about the resiliency of tenderness is with a portrait of the pitbull I share my bed with / Spend half his life on a chain in the Louisiana heat / and still hides behind my legs when the door slams.

That is the most resounding work song. To say: I forgive you. / I forgive you. And when I do not, I forgive myself for that, too.

Let me name myself for all the women I could have been.

[Kait]

"Sink" is a volume that washed over me in an evening, echoing in me the transformation of broken bottles along the coast to beautiful, if not raw, sea glass. Dallagiacomo has created a collection that had me vanish into it, only to be returned to myself at the very end. I am not the same person having read it, but I am without a doubt a better person, more sensitive, more open to emotion.
I am impressed by the way the poet has portrayed her universe and made it come alive with risky poetic forms. In spite of this, I was immersed in the violence of the language that portrayed vulnerability in a new and unique light. With her spectral personification of trauma and the variety of ways it can take shape, "Sink" has become one of those books I'll take wherever I go, no matter how much luggage I'm allowed (or not). Without a doubt, this poet is one to watch; there is no one writing quite like her today.

[Erin Clements · Rating 4 out of 5]

eBook provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Actual rating: 4.5 stars.

I love every single Button Poetry book I've read on my own, so I was excited to pick this up on Netgalley despite not previously knowing much about Desireé Dallagiacomo -- and I'm so happy I did. This book is beautiful, gut-wrenching, and I devoured it in one sitting just to start it over again to see what else I could glean from its pages.

Sink is a collection of poetry primarily about Dallagiacomo's childhood, relationships with each other parents, and her experiences with sexual assault and rape. I found myself relating to a lot of pieces -- albeit not as many as I tend to in most Button Poetry publications, which is the reason for the four point five star rating -- but even the pieces I couldn't relate to were still well-done.

[Bailey Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was sent this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Every time I think of Desireé Dallagiacomo, the first thing that comes to mind is her performance of "Thighs" on Button Poetry. That's the poem that first made me a fan. Sink has that gem, but it also shows you another side of the poet. Here, you learn about what it's like to see your brother go to jail, to grow up fatherless, to live with someone you don't love and to share moments more intimate than sex with someone that you do.

There's a poem that she wrote in the style of "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens that absolutely destroyed me. You'll know it when you see it. Brace yourself for that one.

[avatanis · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s hard for me to not rate poetry books 5 stars because they so easily make me feel seen and therefore get deeply attached, but this book is, without personal bias, 5 stars. Desireé Dallagiacomo is thoughtfully and unabashedly honest in a way that paints everyday struggles in a completely new & profound light. She writes about all of the worst parts of life (SA, abusive parents & partners, etc.) so powerfully and beautifully that the reader is able to take away more than the anger that these things even exist (although you do still rage at the ways she, and most women, have suffered). Reading her work is just as incredible as watching her perform spoken word- very very very excited to delve into more of her stuff

[Taylor B|books.withtay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew I had to buy her books after watching a video of her performing on Facebook. And when I started reading, I didn’t know it was possible to love every single poem in a book before. She has such a way with words that aren’t in the least bit cliche and make you want to snap or say “yesss”. Her vulnerability, hurt, and willing to receive and give love are present within every poem and throughout the whole book. Every poem is so raw and relatable in some way or another. I appreciate the author for writing these poems and am very grateful that I could read them.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of everything Button Poetry publishes and this book shook me to the core. Sink took me on a roller coaster of emotions. My heart is still pounding from the amount of pain I could feel coming from the author's words. Dallagiacomo takes you with her through a variety of experiences as she journeys from trauma to healing. Very powerful. I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard hitting, raw and vulnerable. Many hard subjects are explored here, racism, poverty, mental health, family secrets but written with a lightness making it easy to read and ensuring the phrases and created images that stick with you, do so unnervingly well.
One of the books I have shared poems from, not because I liked them but because they said something that stuck with me and I needed other people to sit with those feelings.

[Syrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful and heart wrenching collection of poetry. Desireé opens up and brings the audience in to bear witness to her realities and the realities unfortunately shared by many others. It is difficult at times, raw and honest always, and inspiring in the most sisterly way.

“Lineage is a wild animal that tames us and tethers us. Pulses us into being, pulls us from the ego of ourselves.” - My First Altar

[Aquila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sink drops us right into the deep end of life wrestling with remembrances of childhood, a childhood some might call rough, and some might just call familiar. Death in the family, drug use, physical abuse. Desireé pieces all these experiences together into a tapestry of survival and makes me want to revisit writing. Turn my childhood into poetry. Maybe make these rusty memories beautiful somehow, too.

[Olivia Case · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal! I usually enjoy the work Button Poetry publishes, but didn’t know what to expect from this one since I hadn’t heard much about it. I came across it at the library and checked it out and immediately fell in love. I may just have to purchase a copy of my own. I’m a big fan of Mary Lambert, Andrea Gibson, and Megan Falley and I know consider Desiree right up there.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorites (in no particular order):
- Thighs Say
- I Break Like a Fever
- Sum of Her Parts
- Your Doctors Say Dementia
- At Last
- A Series of Portraits More Intimate than Sex
- You Became in a Town No One Has Ever Heard of
- All the Plus-Size Models in Magazines are Actually Regular Size
- I Forgive You

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Thighs Say" is probably one of my all time favorite poems.

And "Ode to My Stap-On Dildo and Ode for My Love On His Hands and Knees in Front of Me" is EXACTLY THAT!

So yeah 5 stars for 2 necessary poems.

My friend Carrie let me borrow this book. Cudos to her. I've let her borrow some of my books. The good good community. Now I just have to remember to give it back to her. Lol