Here is the Sweet Hand: Poems

by Francine J. Harris

The poems in Here is the Sweet Hand explore solitude as a way of seeing. In particular, the speakers in francine j. harris’ third collection explore the mystique, and myth, of female loneliness as it relates to blackness, aging, landscape and artistic tradition.

The speakers in these poems are often protagonists. Against the backdrop of numerous American cities and towns, and in a time of political uncertainty, they are heroines in their quest to find logic through their own sense of the world.

The poems here are interested in the power of observation. But if there is authority in the individual versus the collective, Here is the Sweet Hand also poses questions about the source of that power, or where it may lead.

As in her acclaimed previous collections, harris’ skillful use of imagery and experimentation with the boundaries of language set the stage for unorthodox election commemoration, subway panic, zoomorphism, and linguistic battlefields. From poems in dialogue with the artistry of Toni Morrison and Charles Burnett to poems that wrestle with the moods of Frank Stanford and Ty Dolla $ign, the speakers in this book signal a turn at once inward and opening.

Genres: Poetry, African American, LGBT, Queer, Nonfiction, Womens

96 pages, Hardcover

First published August 4, 2020

Reviews

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this sometimes strikingly beautiful but uneven collection of poems, I found myself often a bit lost. Harris's real strength is piecing together imagery that evoke strong emotions, and when I knew what she was talking about, I really got it, other times I felt like the essence connected with my heart and not my brain, and other times I was just lost. I think going in with a certain amount of background info on these poems helps - I could connect with most of Harris's politically related pieces because I could identify the context they were coming from. I also loved her use of science, especially seemingly inaccessible science terms that, for me, trigger a lot of connections (Limulus polyphemus, tardigrades, a few other terms thrown into the body of her poems that make my marine biologist brain light up in pleasure). For example:

"O bed of oxygen, divine surge. Be also brackish sea. Be
seed of the frost, and supercooled. Be shade soup.
Sweet hale of beloved drench and mitchondrial belly,"
- from Ablate the Suncups, not the Ice: an Incantation

I'll have to come back to it again. I suspect her style will get easier to understand the more I read it since I grasped a lot more by the second half of the book.

[Amorak Huey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing.

“She is how I groan, midday. what lapse unnoon. how
the traipse of mirror, if mirrors were dumb.”

[Burgi Zenhaeusern · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Here is the Sweet Hand" starts with a bang. Right from the get-go the reader is plunged into a language that doesn't hold back, that flings any rules to the side or bends them. Each poem requires (and merits!) at least two readings. There is such a torrent of sound, rhythms that echo rap, and suspended sentences that run on or suddenly stall often turning syntax on its head. A boisterous and yes, joyous rebellion against any readerly expectation.

[Renee Morales · Rating 5 out of 5]

these were just so good. so playful. and gay. and sexy. and unrelenting. harris is like dr seuss wine drunk. just so fucking specific and bright and FUNNY like genuinely so funny. but painful. i sound like a thesaurus but i loved this. thank you stuart :)

“I must in color the cum I from within her. redone. / re-myrrh. Remembered of hiss, and tucked // kiss is how I slip.”

“I am haunted / by the memory of a lover who at the end of everything / told me I have no ass”

just soooo fucking good ughhhhh

[Madeline Riske · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am really interested in writing domestic spaces right now and this book was the perfect read. I love the way harris explores feminine isolation through sister relationships (the most accurate tension-filled portrayal of them that I've ever read in poetry), grocery lists, and other unique forms.

[Nuha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to FSG ad NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Available August 4th 2020

I was outside, on a rock in the middle of a babbling brook and reading francine j harris's divine collection "Here is the Sweet Hand". I can't think of a more perfect place for these poems, which felt like peeks of sunlight through the dappled trees. Like the small ant peeking over my zippered lunchbox, harris's poems see the world from a whole new perspective. Echoing with warmth, intelligence and unfrettered black magic, this is a collection that hums and sings through the veins like a new day. Her range goes all the way from discussing opera to rapping over Ty Dolla $ign's signature "Or Nah". We see the immense joy and tears that make the modern black femme experience. "Here is the Sweet Hand" is a collection to return to again and again, seeking and seeing in different lights.

[Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this collection. Harris does a wonderful job of souping together otherwise disjointed images and stretching the limits of language as a medium for spreading information, focusing instead on utilizing language to engage the senses and convey feeling. I was especially interested in her affinity for caesura and sound. The way that Harris plays with punctuation and capitalization. Overall, this collection has thoroughly excited me. I saw fragments of my personal style within it and am feeling propelled to dive deeper into the type of experimental writing I love, as Harris writes so unashamedly by her own definitions with little to no explanation.

[J.D. DeHart · Rating 5 out of 5]

francine j. harris gives us powerful words, lyrical intensity, and a vision of identity packed in verse that demands to be read. I enjoyed this collection as a reader who loves poetry, and I would love to share its pages with others as an example of the work that can done in literary form.

[Zee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful, moving, lyrical, vivid. Each word hits like a knife's pinprick, exacting and precise.

[Kristal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous, all gorgeous

“When I was the red umbrella, her lover, I made a precision of hoist”

[Asuka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoy poetry collections, I also have a very open mind when reading one. I like to space out my time reading through as I feel it gives the poems more impact. These poems are powerful, lonely, and have depth akin to the ocean. I see in a lot of the other reviews people say they found many of the poems hard to interpret and understand, I get why people say this and I feel it is not incorrect. However, I feel some of these poems were meant to be interpreted on an individual level. I feel that some of these poems could be interpreted completely differently based on the person who is reading, and in a way I think that is clever and unique. I think others are too caught up in trying to figure out what the author is trying to convey rather than reading the poems and assessing what they took away from them themselves. It's kind of like when you watch a movie that has an open ending, and you have to decide in your brain what happens after the credits start rolling. I felt this collection of poems was quite great and I do recommend going into this collection with an open and interpretive mind.

[Alina · Rating 4 out of 5]

In short, beautiful and heavy. I'd have to say a lot of these were difficult for me to parse and understand but still I enjoyed the descriptive language which had so much depth. I'd say 4 stars for normal times but 3 stars for COVID times because these poems took my heart, made it heavy but didn't release it back out to the world more open than before. The poems bundled me up and I had to find my own way out. They were good, illiciting emotions that, much like the subject matter of the poems, remain unresolved. I'll be thinking on these poems for a while.

[Antoinette Van Beck · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a nice collection of poems. the style is diverse and also well-executed considering how non-traditional it is. i love poetry that plays, but the subject matter of this play was heavier than i'm used to. the majority of the pieces in this collection didn't affect me as i anticipated, leaving me to consider what it is about the work that i didn't connect with. a truly soul-baring volume, but often to the point of lack of coherence (though i know that feeling all too well lolol). wouldn't really recommend it, but you have to try it to know. a few gems in a pocket of other options.

[Alicia (PrettyBrownEyeReader) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I heard about this poet during an episode of the Vibe Check podcast. One of the hosts, poet Saeed Jones read her work. I was intrigued so I decided to pick up this collection. There are over 30 poems in this book and only one poem resonated with me. I enjoy when poets use different poetic devices and methods. The ones used in this collection did not land with me. I understood the commentary she makes in the various poems but it did not come across as profound. It almost feels forced. I really wish I enjoyed this collection.

[Jayant Kashyap · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s not a very brilliant collection. It does have a few good poems, and I get the thing that’s going on here – “And I remember / watching other light fire and wanting to get inside it.” – but more often than not it feels rather disconnected. If I were to put it honestly though, it’s not a collection that was ready to be published as a collection, when it was.

[Danielle · Rating 1 out of 5]

*ARC was provided by Farrar, Straus and Giroux through NetGalley.

I genuinely did not understand this, and I wish I did. There was maybe one or two poems that I got, but the rest were so difficult for me to follow and interpret. I hope other readers get more out of this than I did.

[Amanda Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here Is the Sweet Hand by Francine J. Harris felt way over my head and I’m actually totally fine with that. As a novice poetry fan, I found the writing style to be extremely intriguing and thought provoking, and I definitely plan on continuing to read more of her work. ⁣
⁣
Thank you to @netgalley and @fsgbooks for the advance copy of this book.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the time I had no idea of what was being spoken. I could pick up pain and loneliness but I could not put it in context. She does, at times, have a good turn of phrase. On the whole, I just did not get it.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m glad I read these poems. The poet’s structure is a little challenging for me, but her word play is spectacular, fun, witty and interesting. I’m glad I came across these poems. I’m going to think about them for a long while.

[Colleen Mertens · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection requires thought and is well written and deep. You have to reach each poem several times to catch the feelings that harris conveys. She provokes you to read and feel all that those in the poem see and live.

[Cecilia Shearon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book I read for my midwest poets class! Tbh associative poetry is probably not my jam BUT this poet is coming to our class next week and will likely share some insight. I hope we keep unpacking this one until then-- it feels like there's a lot to explore.

[David Leftwich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Combines Monk-like angular abstraction with Blakey-like precision to render a razor-sharp syntax that cuts through our overtaxed neural, aural, and oral networks to create a necessary music all its own.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daughter to Gertrude Stein, sister to Harryette Mullen, harris is a masterful language poet and mystic who has created a lovely spell book of loneliness and longing.

[Leslie]

National Book Critics Circle Award 2020

[James Huynh]

I did not understand more than 90% of the poetry therefore I will not rate this book.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5*

[danny liu · Rating 5 out of 5]

i’m too stupid for this book

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

"And somewhere, I have already fucked off forgiveness and died in the grass."

[Alana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dance hesitantly to curse all belied and cumbersome coats and lunge at delight. It is in this uncertainty of misapprehension where we may start to say what we mean. Fragmentation welcomed as the warm intervention of the self with the world, there is something caught breathing, alive to it, as to leap out of the mundane’s saturations of our daily workings that it never risks being called that itself. Finally… a weird girl into Alice Notely, Toni Morrison, and Ty Dolla $ign. I could cry. They are out there, pulsating, intoning, covered in butterfly spit. It’s living the cultural importance of Kanye, not mere recognition, while hurtling brainfirst into the secret tenderness of the surreal no one ever really names. The lone voice could be mistaken. Everybody says so.

[Erik Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

"... Us like a body in a stocking, some
days, lip o' lovely in a rainbow crotch shot. How I love
her stung blue sofa, crouched and ejaculating hifi
hydrant sprung from childhood's articulate couch. Father
disrobed and hung like a thoroughly dented drape, against
the dismantled, fussy mother and burnt afterbirth ..."