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Joseph
A howl billowing up from love’s underworld, Joseph tells the story of passion pitted against patriarchy. Its speaker shifts shapes as she spins her tale: she is mother, mistress, witness, wife, sorceress, nurse, and rebel. She is Joseph’s greatest scourge and his most tenacious survivor.
This book declares that a woman’s capacity for constant change — a timeworn weapon in the misogynist’s arsenal — anoints and serves her refusal to be silenced. The poems themselves veer between domestic, natural, and surreal spaces. After all, love and war have always kept each other company, whether in the forest, the kitchen, or the ether. Joseph himself never appears, but through these psalms of panic, politics, romance, and gore, we trace his missteps with a fascination both forensic and tender.
"There is a salty bloody pulse to Dena Rash Guzman's work that stays with you after you've put down the book. These are not poems for the timid reader. There is muscle and beauty that stares you in the eye and dares you to look away. This work is mouthy and loud and a distinct pleasure to read." —Shannon Barber, Self Care Like A Boss
"Joseph is bawdy and boisterous, profane and profound, personal and political, entertaining and educational, universal and specific, confrontational and humble. These poems embody the complexities and contradictions of living as a woman in contemporary America." —Wendy Chin-Tanner, Turn, American Terrorist
"With poems such as “Back Away From My Bloodhut, Joseph" this second collection by Dena Rash Guzman acknowledges and embraces as it rejects, spits on, and destroys traditional expectations The speaker lives in a gyre of anger, loathing, desire and armor, expressing simultaneously essential power and vulnerability. Joseph has been served notice: 'I will ring your bell,/son./I will ring your bell.'" —KMA Sullivan, Necessary Fire
"Strange, original and profoundly intimate, the work of Dena Rash Guzman interrogates thousands of years of failed love. These poems are classics as well as contemporary in the great tradition of feminist poetry. With her hard-earned, gloriously contemptuous wisdom, she gives us the clarity we need in navigating the modernity of love as embodied warfare." Nikki Wallschlaeger, I Hate Telling You How I Really Feel
This book declares that a woman’s capacity for constant change — a timeworn weapon in the misogynist’s arsenal — anoints and serves her refusal to be silenced. The poems themselves veer between domestic, natural, and surreal spaces. After all, love and war have always kept each other company, whether in the forest, the kitchen, or the ether. Joseph himself never appears, but through these psalms of panic, politics, romance, and gore, we trace his missteps with a fascination both forensic and tender.
"There is a salty bloody pulse to Dena Rash Guzman's work that stays with you after you've put down the book. These are not poems for the timid reader. There is muscle and beauty that stares you in the eye and dares you to look away. This work is mouthy and loud and a distinct pleasure to read." —Shannon Barber, Self Care Like A Boss
"Joseph is bawdy and boisterous, profane and profound, personal and political, entertaining and educational, universal and specific, confrontational and humble. These poems embody the complexities and contradictions of living as a woman in contemporary America." —Wendy Chin-Tanner, Turn, American Terrorist
"With poems such as “Back Away From My Bloodhut, Joseph" this second collection by Dena Rash Guzman acknowledges and embraces as it rejects, spits on, and destroys traditional expectations The speaker lives in a gyre of anger, loathing, desire and armor, expressing simultaneously essential power and vulnerability. Joseph has been served notice: 'I will ring your bell,/son./I will ring your bell.'" —KMA Sullivan, Necessary Fire
"Strange, original and profoundly intimate, the work of Dena Rash Guzman interrogates thousands of years of failed love. These poems are classics as well as contemporary in the great tradition of feminist poetry. With her hard-earned, gloriously contemptuous wisdom, she gives us the clarity we need in navigating the modernity of love as embodied warfare." Nikki Wallschlaeger, I Hate Telling You How I Really Feel
- GenresPoetry
112 pages, Paperback
First published December 21, 2016
About the author
Dena Rash Guzman
7 books44 followersDena Rash Guzman (born 1972 in Las Vegas, Nevada) is a poet living near Portland, Oregon.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 24, 2017
An astounding book. These poems are like the songs of Florence and the Machine, like the essays of Rebecca Solnit: they banish despair, they dispel bullshit, they send the patriarchy running back home to its momma. Joseph is a book of spells, a talisman against evil; read one poem every day out loud for a week, and you'll see what I mean.
February 8, 2019
Joseph by Dena Rash Guzman is not a comfortable book. I found myself gritting my teeth as I was reading. My jaw became tense and when I became aware of that, I forced myself to consciously relax it while I continued to read. It didn’t work.
Some poems, like “This is a Circus of Rats & Masses, joseph,” made me stop breathing for a few seconds. The speaker of this poem is on a roll, and as she gets going, the poem spins out into this beautifully glittery anger, and then: “I do not want to be good today. / I want to hunt rats with machetes / and hate religion and faith / and hate good intentions.” Damn. It’s an echo and subversion of Mary Oliver’s popular poem “Wild Geese”: “You do not have to be good.” But Oliver’s advice to let “the soft animal of your body / love what it loves” is still being awfully good, isn’t it?
Read my full review here: https://entropymag.org/joseph-rash-gu...
Some poems, like “This is a Circus of Rats & Masses, joseph,” made me stop breathing for a few seconds. The speaker of this poem is on a roll, and as she gets going, the poem spins out into this beautifully glittery anger, and then: “I do not want to be good today. / I want to hunt rats with machetes / and hate religion and faith / and hate good intentions.” Damn. It’s an echo and subversion of Mary Oliver’s popular poem “Wild Geese”: “You do not have to be good.” But Oliver’s advice to let “the soft animal of your body / love what it loves” is still being awfully good, isn’t it?
Read my full review here: https://entropymag.org/joseph-rash-gu...
January 25, 2017
More fierce, beautiful rage poetry from Dena Rash Guzman. Unsparing and stunning, JOSEPH is DRG at the height of her powers. Damn, she's so good.
February 20, 2017
While the poems are short, the content is heavy. It took a few sessions for me to finish. I really appreciate this collection/story of poems, especially during these difficult times. I cannot wait to reread it again to see what sticks next time.
Tl;dr: this books is beautiful, raw, and moving.
Tl;dr: this books is beautiful, raw, and moving.
February 8, 2018
Exceptional poetry. I read it three times and will be reading it again. Imagery, rhythm, subject matter, all fascinating and masterful.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews