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Patricide
Dave Harris's stellar debut takes a nuanced look at the complexities of black masculinity.
Patricide weighs those complexities and how they impact a lineage of black boys who fight to become men in the image of their fathers. More than just a book about fear or death centered on being black in America, Patricide illuminates the internal struggle to be the best man possible with the shadow of other men at your back.
Through poems on loss, music, college, and family strife, Harris examines how time shifts and changes, despite so much of a life's architecture staying the same. Ultimately, Patricide opens itself up to reveal a story of many threads, one that finds a way to tie together in unexpected and joyful ways.
Advance praise for Patricide
In these poems, Harris wrests language from the havoc white supremacy and patriarchy have wreaked. Which is to these are love poems doused in rage.
-Claire Schwartz Author of Bound
Patricide restricts nothing in its narrative but accomplishes everything in its clear voice and uncompromised mission.
-Will Evans Author of Still Cant Do My Daughters Hair
Particide is no ordinary book of poetry. It's “Bars Poetica” ― where elegy, invective, the contemporary, and pedestrian converge to create a disarming barrage of thudding verse. Read it like you need it.
-Marcus Wicker, Author of Silencer
Patricide weighs those complexities and how they impact a lineage of black boys who fight to become men in the image of their fathers. More than just a book about fear or death centered on being black in America, Patricide illuminates the internal struggle to be the best man possible with the shadow of other men at your back.
Through poems on loss, music, college, and family strife, Harris examines how time shifts and changes, despite so much of a life's architecture staying the same. Ultimately, Patricide opens itself up to reveal a story of many threads, one that finds a way to tie together in unexpected and joyful ways.
Advance praise for Patricide
In these poems, Harris wrests language from the havoc white supremacy and patriarchy have wreaked. Which is to these are love poems doused in rage.
-Claire Schwartz Author of Bound
Patricide restricts nothing in its narrative but accomplishes everything in its clear voice and uncompromised mission.
-Will Evans Author of Still Cant Do My Daughters Hair
Particide is no ordinary book of poetry. It's “Bars Poetica” ― where elegy, invective, the contemporary, and pedestrian converge to create a disarming barrage of thudding verse. Read it like you need it.
-Marcus Wicker, Author of Silencer
104 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 2019
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193 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
August 20, 2020
I usually find myself appreciating poetry on a intra-poem level: the beauty of specific phrases in specific poems. With Patricide there were absolutely some astonishing lines, but I was even more impressed by each poem as a whole. A number them deftly capture multiple levels of meaning even though when poem only explicitly references a linear scenario or one narrative ("And the dog says to the cat" is one example) which is just so masterful. It also remains an extremely cool and rare experience for me to read a poetry collection that exemplifies the collection as a unique text that elevates the content within it: Patricide is indubitably one. Favorites: "After Piccolo," "Preparing a meal," "After Zuko," and "IPhone notes for a powerful poem."
July 14, 2019
"There's nothing to art but imagination. Everyone has that. Think about it. The wallet is a gun. The cellphone is a gun. The hands raised and open is a gun. He reached for the paintbrush and drew: BANG! A child died on canvas."
Dave Harris’s Patricide is a poetry book about growing up black in America and people whom you don't want to turn into and a mother's love. It's richly worded and achingly heartfelt. It is rare for a poetry book to have every single poem hit home. But Patricide was breathtakingly close. It's beautiful and raw and painful at times, but it's honest. 4.5/5
"All my heroes were evil once. But at least they returned in time for dinner. Imagine that. All it takes to be a good man is to come back."
(Thanks NetGalley for providing an advanced readers copy in return for an honest review.)
Dave Harris’s Patricide is a poetry book about growing up black in America and people whom you don't want to turn into and a mother's love. It's richly worded and achingly heartfelt. It is rare for a poetry book to have every single poem hit home. But Patricide was breathtakingly close. It's beautiful and raw and painful at times, but it's honest. 4.5/5
"All my heroes were evil once. But at least they returned in time for dinner. Imagine that. All it takes to be a good man is to come back."
(Thanks NetGalley for providing an advanced readers copy in return for an honest review.)
June 22, 2019
This collection has made me uncomfortable so many times - and sometimes, that's what is intended. I did enjoy reading some of the poems, but not all, and perhaps it comes to a personal preference. I feel like the delivery of some of these poems depends on the tonality and performance of a spoken poet, and may not come across in their fullest vitality on paper.
January 17, 2021
Who knew that you could borrow lines from the great Walt Whitman AND 2Chainz and put them into the same poem and make it work?! Really fantastic poetry exploring many themes from being a black man in America to relationships with absent fathers.
July 21, 2019
This was an interesting and thought-provoking poetry collection. One of the major themes was growing up as black in the US, which is far from easy at times and it's refreshing to hear voices talk about such themes.
April 23, 2019
Patricide [noun]: the killing of one's father/ the crime of killing your own father
I think Button poetry have perfected the art of knowing which buttons to push, when and how much, just to elicit a response in their readers. In this collection, Dave Harris takes you through a journey that feels like one he ought to make on his own without an audience, a journey into his own awareness, forgiveness and understanding of what it means to be who he chooses to be-and at the root of it lies an absent father, life of fear, lack, anger, and a rage that he fears but thrills him.
Perhaps the most important question he asks all through this collection is "Who's after me?" and suddenly you cannot help but want to read the entire collection again.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.
I think Button poetry have perfected the art of knowing which buttons to push, when and how much, just to elicit a response in their readers. In this collection, Dave Harris takes you through a journey that feels like one he ought to make on his own without an audience, a journey into his own awareness, forgiveness and understanding of what it means to be who he chooses to be-and at the root of it lies an absent father, life of fear, lack, anger, and a rage that he fears but thrills him.
Perhaps the most important question he asks all through this collection is "Who's after me?" and suddenly you cannot help but want to read the entire collection again.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.
August 1, 2019
*I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
Harris’ debut is a chilling, complex glimpse into black masculinity of African Americans, tackling both its fragility and its strengths, and the construction and deconstruction of its roles. The narrator is angry, but the violence is an active verb, a continuous present action: thinking and pondering and searching; a genuine voice that makes the pain tangible. The narrator is angry, yes, but he’s honest first and foremost. “Patricide” is about black boys chasing after the ghosts of their absent fathers, and about the legacies of slavery and racism and institutional violence. This is a deeply personal book, so much so that I kept thinking I was reading a memoir in verse, getting to peruse private missives between a writer and his journal.
I felt a lot reading this book, and found myself in a constant state of unsettling worry. Many of the poems made me nauseous, the visceral reaction leaving something sour and vile behind. But whenever present, the sickly aftertaste —the raw pain—felt intentional and carefully constructed. Fair, I thought, because feeling sick to the bones is the reaction racial inequality should unequivocally evoke. I found myself punched by one allegory after the other, but I wanted to keep reading. I wanted to know more. Wanted to keep looking into an experience so removed from mine, only solemn silence seemed an adequate response at many, many points.
Harris presents the worst of these experiences without fanfare, and he will make you think.
"…All my heroes were evil once.
But at least they returned in time for dinner.
Imagine that. All it takes to be a good man
is to come back."
“…I long for
specificity. African-
American is so infinitely
vague. I stopped believing
in god because god is
an imprecise metaphor. An absent
father.”
“…There’s nothing
to art but imagination. Everyone has that.
Think about it. The wallet is a gun. The cellphone
is a gun. The hand raised and open is a gun.”
I wholeheartedly recommend “Patricide” to fans of Button’s poets and spoken poetry. To those unsure about this type of contemporary poetry, I insist: Give this —and similar books— a chance.
Trigger warnings: gun violence, racial injustice, homophobia, and police brutality.
Harris’ debut is a chilling, complex glimpse into black masculinity of African Americans, tackling both its fragility and its strengths, and the construction and deconstruction of its roles. The narrator is angry, but the violence is an active verb, a continuous present action: thinking and pondering and searching; a genuine voice that makes the pain tangible. The narrator is angry, yes, but he’s honest first and foremost. “Patricide” is about black boys chasing after the ghosts of their absent fathers, and about the legacies of slavery and racism and institutional violence. This is a deeply personal book, so much so that I kept thinking I was reading a memoir in verse, getting to peruse private missives between a writer and his journal.
I felt a lot reading this book, and found myself in a constant state of unsettling worry. Many of the poems made me nauseous, the visceral reaction leaving something sour and vile behind. But whenever present, the sickly aftertaste —the raw pain—felt intentional and carefully constructed. Fair, I thought, because feeling sick to the bones is the reaction racial inequality should unequivocally evoke. I found myself punched by one allegory after the other, but I wanted to keep reading. I wanted to know more. Wanted to keep looking into an experience so removed from mine, only solemn silence seemed an adequate response at many, many points.
Harris presents the worst of these experiences without fanfare, and he will make you think.
"…All my heroes were evil once.
But at least they returned in time for dinner.
Imagine that. All it takes to be a good man
is to come back."
“…I long for
specificity. African-
American is so infinitely
vague. I stopped believing
in god because god is
an imprecise metaphor. An absent
father.”
“…There’s nothing
to art but imagination. Everyone has that.
Think about it. The wallet is a gun. The cellphone
is a gun. The hand raised and open is a gun.”
I wholeheartedly recommend “Patricide” to fans of Button’s poets and spoken poetry. To those unsure about this type of contemporary poetry, I insist: Give this —and similar books— a chance.
Trigger warnings: gun violence, racial injustice, homophobia, and police brutality.
May 30, 2019
I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for a review.
Content warning: racism, abusive father, police brutality, homophobia
Dave Harris is phenomenal. Have you ever read some poetry or even prose that has just stepped into your soul and shaken it about? Patricide is that poetry collection. As a white person, I can’t even begin to comprehend the pain in this poetry collection. But Dave Harris’ power over his words and truth is undeniable. I stopped numerous times during reading as I was stunned by the precision of his words.
Content warning: racism, abusive father, police brutality, homophobia
Dave Harris is phenomenal. Have you ever read some poetry or even prose that has just stepped into your soul and shaken it about? Patricide is that poetry collection. As a white person, I can’t even begin to comprehend the pain in this poetry collection. But Dave Harris’ power over his words and truth is undeniable. I stopped numerous times during reading as I was stunned by the precision of his words.
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March 23, 2022“Patricide is (i) the act of killing one's father, or (ii) a person who kills his or her father. The word patricide derives from the Latin word pater (father) and the Latin suffix -cida (cutter or killer).” - Wikipedia
This collection made me feel things. I’ve been meaning to read it and now that I did, I’m not sure what to do exactly. Much of it is about the writer’s father, fathers who aren’t in your life, being Black, being your mother’s son, and so on. I loved it. I related in some ways that I don’t exactly wish I did but it felt necessary. Had to listen. Many times I stopped because of how hard a line hit me, sometimes that line being the whole poem essentially. Scroll to see some of the pages I liked the most and get your hands on the book itself to read the rest
This collection made me feel things. I’ve been meaning to read it and now that I did, I’m not sure what to do exactly. Much of it is about the writer’s father, fathers who aren’t in your life, being Black, being your mother’s son, and so on. I loved it. I related in some ways that I don’t exactly wish I did but it felt necessary. Had to listen. Many times I stopped because of how hard a line hit me, sometimes that line being the whole poem essentially. Scroll to see some of the pages I liked the most and get your hands on the book itself to read the rest
May 11, 2021
One of the most engaging books on poetry that deals with the trauma of an abusive father, race, and our humanity within those realms. Dave Harris' honesty is beautiful as he captures so many moments that not many poets write about.
October 26, 2019
I think I need to hear many of these instead of reading them. I’m not going to see myself in poetry by a black man, but a couple of these still hit me pretty hard.
February 16, 2020
This was different from what I normally read but was an incredibly powerful perspective on race and growing up in today’s society. I’m glad that I broke away from my norm and read this powerhouse.
July 30, 2020
Powerful.
I find reading poetry trying. I could not stop reading the next poem. Laughter and heartache and love and sadness. Beautiful and powerful.
I find reading poetry trying. I could not stop reading the next poem. Laughter and heartache and love and sadness. Beautiful and powerful.
February 26, 2022
This was an excellent poetry collection. There's a lot of depth and emotion captured in these pages, and the poems truly move you. All poetry lovers should pick up this book.
March 1, 2023
this collection is angry. and in its anger, it is liberating.
April 4, 2024
Raw, Visceral, incredible. This volume is an experience.
July 29, 2020
I very much enjoyed this collection. The first few poems in the first section, while finely written, didn't really grab me.
Then I read, 'TO THE EXTENT X BODY INCLUDING ITS FISTS CONSTITUTE "WEAPONS",' and Dave Harris hooked me.
I really like the barbershop after Prince died series.
Harris writes in a way that feel so honest and raw it sometimes makes you flinch when you're reading but you don't mind it because it's so beautiful. This will be one I'll read several more times.
Then I read, 'TO THE EXTENT X BODY INCLUDING ITS FISTS CONSTITUTE "WEAPONS",' and Dave Harris hooked me.
I really like the barbershop after Prince died series.
Harris writes in a way that feel so honest and raw it sometimes makes you flinch when you're reading but you don't mind it because it's so beautiful. This will be one I'll read several more times.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews