God Was Right

by Rainer Diana Hamilton

Poetry. GOD WAS RIGHT collects poems that take the form of arguments, essays, and letters. The title poem argues that God was right to make us love cats (and then watch them die); another categorizes the way women like to be kissed; one proposes a sex ed that takes into account persuasion and pleasure; another argues men should write bad poetry; a letter tries to make friendship about love; a five-paragraph essay tries to disarm heartbreak via analysis; etc. These poems/essays are hyperbolic attempts to write something adequate to a feeling.

Genres: Poetry, Essays

144 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2018

Reviews

[Carolyn]

you know what? god WAS right

[yuni]

https://uglyducklingpresse.org/wp-con...

[Steve Brock]

This book was a Best of the Best for the month of November 2018, as selected by Stevo's Book Reviews on the Internet. http://forums.delphiforums.com/stevo1...

[Sarah]

Hands down one of my favorite books of poetry. Or is it hybrid nonfiction something? Lyric essays? Except some pieces were just straight up poems--but long and digressive like essays? Anyway, I was excited every night to pick this back up and and dig back in. Hamilton thinks about the nature of writing, sex and sexuality, animals, and pop culture and weaves them all together into these open-ended meditations that I can't get enough of.

[Taylor Napolsky]

Really interesting. I liked the more essayistic sections the best, but maybe that’s just because I enjoy reading prose so much. But I like how she would split what could be seen as essays into poetic forms, with dashes, commas, all types of punctuation at the ends of lines.

She covers a lot of intriguing topics, and yeah, I love feminist shit in general, so...

[Katie Schmid]

With this one, I had the rare experience of feeling like a book was written for me. Stellar, challenging, interesting reading experience. I love the meditations on the discontents of bisexuality, the narrative theory (BARTHES!! :) ), the meditations on pet ownership. I love the variations of tone, I loved it all. I devoured it.

[Nancy]

I will never forget how she questioned the form of poetry and dared to say it wasn't the best shape for everything. Such an amazing thinker. Brave and bold and I ate it up.

Thank you, Pablo, for this book, gifted on my birthday.

[meesh]

this could’ve just been essays imo but it has interesting takeaways idk it didn’t hit the way i like poetry to hit

[ipek]

Specific, for each who reads it.