White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia

by Kiki Petrosino

In her fourth full-length book, White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia, Kiki Petrosino turns her gaze to Virginia, where she digs into her genealogical and intellectual roots, while contemplating the knotty legacies of slavery and discrimination in the Upper South. From a stunning double crown sonnet, to erasure poetry contained within DNA testing results, the poems in this collection are as wide-ranging in form as they are bountiful in wordplay and truth. In her poem 'The Shop at Monticello,' she writes: 'I’m a black body in this Commonwealth, which turned black bodies/ into money. Now, I have money to spend on little trinkets to remind me/ of this fact. I’m a money machine & my body constitutes the common wealth.' Speaking to history, loss, and injustice with wisdom, innovation, and a scientific determination to find the poetic truth, White Blood plants Petrosino’s name ever more firmly in the contemporary canon.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Read For College, African American

112 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 2020

About the author

Kiki Petrosino is the author of White Blood: a Lyric of Virginia (2020) and three other poetry books, all from Sarabande. She holds graduate degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop. Her memoir, Bright, is forthcoming from Sarabande in 2022. She directs the Creative Writing Program at the University of Virginia, where she is a Professor of Poetry. Petrosino is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a Fellowship in Creative Writing from the National Endowment for the Arts, the UNT Rilke Prize, & the Spalding Prize, among other honors.

Reviews

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

From "Heritage Tourism in Central Virginia"

Your waiter
hands you a single oyster fork, which you’re at liberty

to advance through your skull at any time.
No one here shall say a word.

[Basia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crisp erasures. Stunning villanelles. A heart-stopping sonnet crown. Looks Virginia’s complicated history right in the face, tilts its chin toward the truth. Holds an ear up to its archives, pulls ancestral voices from the documents. A very solid book. I can see it side-by-side with Tracy K. Smith’s Wade in the Water.

[Patricia Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating study of ancestry and inheritance.

Some of my favorite lines:

The human face, its pine doors painted like mahogany.

I’m a money machine & my body constitutes the common wealth.

You wore a suit of woven water & learned to speak in rippling syllables.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

6/31

I am in awe of Petrosino's documentation and exploration of her family, the commonwealth of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, and the history of enslaved people and their descendants. Her erasure poems where she locates the poetry of a genealogy report (à la 23andMe, Ancestry.com, or National Geographic) are so astonishingly moving. What does this report reveal? What does this report conceal? Where are the gaps? She writes on/about/from cookbooks at the time of Jefferson, her ancestors' lives in Louisa County, and the architecture of Monticello, looking at what is revealed, what is concealed, what is unable to be unearthed. Oh and she also writes a crown of sonnets. Dang!

#SealeyChallenge #KikiPetrosino

from "Farm Book"

I live in language
on land they left. I have no language to describe this.




https://poems.com/poem/farm-book/

[Ashley]

"I live in language / on land they left. I have no language to describe this."
-from "Farm Book"

Recommended poems:
-"Farm Book"
-"Message from the Free Smiths of Louisa County" poems
-"Approaching the Smith Family Graveyard"

[rae · Rating 1 out of 5]

I cannot believe that this author is a professor of poetry at UVA

[Mya Matteo · Rating 5 out of 5]

what I aspire to write like.

[karenbee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled over White Blood while I was trying to fill a challenge prompt, and the title and subject matter made it impossible to resist.

I love poetry but I am terrible at understanding poems. But I live near Louisa, I've been to Monticello, I've dabbled in genealogical research—I was hoping the surface familiarity would help me find my footing. I think it helped. At least, I rarely felt lost, which is saying a lot.

And I loved reading these poems and working my way through the collection. I had to pace myself; I enjoyed the poetry so much that if I didn't slow myself down, I would have gone through it without thinking about what the lines meant, which is one of the reasons I am bad at reading poetry.

I don't think you have to know poetry to find the beauty in this collection. I wasn't sure what a "double crown sonnet" was, then I read "Happineſs"* and could see the form it took. (It was amazing, and I would like more.)

As I was going through the digital version, I wished for a paper copy so I could go back and forth through the pages more easily. I think the erasure poems would be better on paper, too. If you're interested in this one, I'd recommend reading the print version.


*This version of "Happineſs" is a little different than the one in White Blood, but you get the idea. And if you like it, I've got a book recommendation for youuu.


Bonus for those who have suffered through another of my terrible insubstantial poetry reviews! Here's an interview with Petrosino—it's a good convo if you've read White Blood (and probably even if you haven't)!

[Abigail Zimmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kiki Petrosino explores her personal ancestry and the history of the South. Several poems erasure her results from a DNA ancestry test, stemming from different parts of Africa and northwestern Europe. Other poems form a crown of sonnets (a collection of sonnets in which the last line of one poem becomes the starting point of the next one, so they're all linked) in which the speaker considers her time at university, the daily microagressions given by white classmates, the pain of losing a grandfather, and a way of perceiving the world that comes into focus.

Later, Kiki's poems visit the gift shop at Monticello—the home of Thomas Jefferson—and converse with Jefferson's writing and inhabit the voices of 18th-century Virginian housewives and cookbooks. They sift through archival records of enslaved people and free Black people ("the first box is for all the good white men. The ones who freed their slaves on Christmas. It's always Christmas in the first box") and visit their cemeteries ("only a few of our names survived / We left you this: sudden glints in the grass") and takes us to the places beyond the whitewashed, shiny historical spots, "where the dead are always saying / what they always say: / Write about me."

I’ve underlined so many lines—it’s a good book, one that makes/keeps history present. And I've ordered her two previous books because it's made me want to read more.

[Quoth the Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Ask me if I believe in forgiveness. / I do, I say. But it is rare."

White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia by Kiki Petrosino documents who Virginia is, what Virginia has endured, and what it has done. Petrosino works out this history, kneading through the personal and historical with sharpness and depth. What I enjoyed most about this collection was what it wanted to do and what it accomplished. Petrosino mapped out an unspeakable reality and I witnessed the brilliance of her mind at work in this piece. The collection is exactly what it set out to become: a project that digs through the dirt and keeps digging.

While White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia met its goal and accomplished it, I personally was not to drawn to its style. I recognize the value of this book, but my typically lean towards poetry collections that build a rough crust with their language. And this collection's language was more rolling and breaking.

[Emily Pérez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reviewed this book for RHINO poetry--here's the start:

History is a spiral in Kiki Petrosino’s fourth book, White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia: the poet’s freed-slave ancestors write to her; language from Thomas Jefferson and his contemporaries link up with the words of modern-day employees of Monticello. Organized in sections based on branches of Petrosino’s own family and genealogical test results, the collection investigates the stupefying ways the past inhabits and informs the present. In “Farm Book,” despite her status as poet and professor, Petrosino “rush[es] to class beneath a / bronze Confederate / I live in language / on land they left. I have no language to describe this.”


https://rhinopoetry.org/reviews/white...

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poems about identity, race, enslavement, and freedom.

from Farm Book: "In my student's / poem, the house stands for womanhood, pain coiled / in the drywall. Sorrow warps the planks, pulling nails / from ribs. In Kentucky, I'm the only black teacher / some of my students have ever met, & that pulls me / somewhere."

from The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy: "Such an odd jumble of things might spoil you for good. / The right sauce, served wrong, only glazes the error. / We all hope we shall be forgiven in high style."

from How It Feels to Love Butler Smith: "You don't love him, exactly. You love the wagon / of his name, long letters filling up // with leaves & peeling back."

[Christian Z · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kiki Petrosino’s book of poetry addresses the history of slavery in Virginia and her ancestry. Her words invite the reader to reflect on both the past and present reality of our culture, focusing on Central Virginia.

In one of three poems entitled, “Message from the Free Smiths of Louisa County” she writes:

“You write poems about Lincoln, dark little vines of until. But we weren’t truly free. Read the amendment.”

The poems made me remember my last visit to Monticello and the feelings when standing along the road where slave quarters lined the hillside below Jefferson’s home. We are only beginning to reckon with the full history of the terror that reigned during the formation of this nation.

Petrosino is an exemplary witness.

[Camille Dungy]

It would be folly to overlook Kiki Petrosino’s White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia on a list of environmentally-focused books. I can’t read about the landscape of Virginia and the Upper South (which Petrosino vividly describes) and not think about the blood and sweat soaked into that soil. Petrosino’s exacting eye challenges reductive and redacted narratives of her native place. In this wondrously innovative collection, she renews understandings about what has grown up from that land.

Review published originally with Orion Magazine: https://orionmagazine.org/2022/02/twe...

[anna leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The erasure poetry meant so much more once I found out it was from her dna results. At first I was like woahhhh okay experimental! But it didn’t totally land for me. But now I’m like OH COOL!!! Loved Albemarle section the most. Ending on “Interlude” felt appropriate. Loved being left with all these questions. Favorite line came from the ending of “The Shop at Monticello.” “On one hand, I must think very highly of myself / to come here. Then again, that sounds like something I would say.” Really expressed the inner conflict throughout this whole thing. Glad to have read it!

[Ky Haslam · Rating 2 out of 5]

"What happens when the beloved body hangs up its flowers?"

I am the first to admit that I am not a poetry fan. I read this for a college class, and even though I analyzed it to death and broke it down a lot, I just know this is not a book that will stick with me. It's not that I don't understand what happened, it just all seemed unimportant. Some of the wording is really beautiful, but this book just was not for me, unfortunately.

[Powerispower · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone decidedly un-american I appreciate the close attention paid to history that inspires this collection. The choice of literature for erasures is fantastic. The way 'Message from the Free Smiths of Louisa County' as a series frames clear gaps in a historical record written by 'white' hands is great. 'Heritage Tourism in Central Virginia' is the sparkling highlight for me but with the curation the poems strengthen together instead of isolated apart.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I had some trouble comprehending what the meanings behind some of the more sparse poems were, the notes in the back of the book really helped. I think I might have to reread these poems now that I have a better understanding of where they are rooted.

But a really lovely collection about heritage and history and blackness.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful collection as the poet looks at history and her genealogy in Virginia, its history of slavery and discrimination. The image of Thomas Jefferson and his troubled relationship to slavery as the man who wrote the words "all men are created equal." An impressive, passionate, and haunting collection that I plan to reread many times.

[Dana Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read these poems aloud to myself. Though I didn’t understand all of the nuances and references, I still got gut feelings about the interplay of the author’s present and history.
For anyone yet to read this, I suggest looking at the end notes as you read, to better understand the context and inspiration for this work.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author created a collection of poetry themed around the genealogical and historical roots of her family's experience with slavery and raical oppression in Virginia. I really liked the how she used the personal connection of DNA, letters, and historical place to form around the themes of the poems.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a reading for my master’s residency, so I am reading because its required. I think that’s only fair to mention. It’s also poems which not really my area. With all that I want to say it worth a look because the only we grow as person is through experiences life through those that are different than we are.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a slow burn for me, but in the end, it had me hooked. Petrosino digs into her own family's history while grappling with the legacy of slavery. I especially liked the poems that explicitly referenced Thomas Jefferson. This would be an excellent poetry companion to How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith.

[Ella Read]

“To think! Of those white kids / whose turn (some said) I took. / I took it hard. / My turn, my breath. / My package of aid. I made / a massive shape / mid-traipse across the Lawn / or hunched at lunch. I ate / the beautiful books I bought / with borrowed funds / & swallowed down / the two-ness one ever feels. / My body’s debt: silent slab. / I knew I was a living lab.”

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m very glad I read this. I loved the weaving and wending of history lessons in poems. It’s brilliant, playful, painful, direct, and inspired. These poems tell the story of slave holding and Virginia (and broader) in ways that reveal the insanity of the practice.

[Caroline McKeown · Rating 5 out of 5]

When to the authors reading of this book at JMU. It definitely gave me a new perspective on how to interpret the poetry. One day I hope to break my own format as well. And I have Dante’s inferno on my to read list, so thank you.

[Яна Филиппова · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome!

[Luke Gorham · Rating 3 out of 5]

One killer section that is really maximizing the powers of its content. 4 or 5 others that aren't.

[Burgi Zenhaeusern · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection deals in enormities. How it does that while also conveying their extent is incredible. I'm very grateful to Kiki Petrosino for her awesome work.

[Sarah :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5