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The Gospel of Breaking
In The Gospel of Breaking, Jillian Christmas confirms what followers of her performance and artistic curation have long known: there is magic in her words. Befitting someone who "speaks things into being," Christmas extracts from family history, queer lineage, and the political landscape of a racialized life to create a rich, softly defiant collection of poems.
Christmas draws a circle around the things she calls "holy" the family line that cannot find its root but survived to fill the skies with radiant flesh; the body, broken and unbroken and broken and new again; the lover lost, the friend lost, and the loss itself; and the hands that hold them all with brilliant, tender care. Expansive and beautiful, these poems allow readers to swim in Jillian Christmas's mother-tongue and to dream at her shores.
Christmas draws a circle around the things she calls "holy" the family line that cannot find its root but survived to fill the skies with radiant flesh; the body, broken and unbroken and broken and new again; the lover lost, the friend lost, and the loss itself; and the hands that hold them all with brilliant, tender care. Expansive and beautiful, these poems allow readers to swim in Jillian Christmas's mother-tongue and to dream at her shores.
80 pages, Paperback
First published May 5, 2020
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1176 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
May 12, 2020
An amazing and beautiful collection of poems. They very much feel like their roots are in slam poetry but they totally work on the page. Inventive lyricism and images that go straight to your heart and gut. Like: "What dainty fish-hooks have danced in your heart / dangling the whimpering shadow of which sadness / what tiny worries." The poems are alternately sad, sexy, funny, and angry. There were many times when I gasped out loud and just sat in awe.
Read my full review here.
Read my full review here.
October 6, 2021
"if you look around you/ and everything is burning/ licked in flames up-reaching/ like a funeral pyre/ check if you are breathing/ if you are it stands to reason/ perhaps you're not the kindling you're the fire"
YES JILLIAN CHRISTMAS, YOU ARE INDEED THE FIRE. Jillian Christmas is magnificent and this book. THIS BEAUTIFUL, MAGNIFICENT BOOK. As the cover suggests, it is truly something special.
You know, I'm secretly always searching for poetry that moves me so deeply that, overcome with feeling, I stare vacantly into the grass at a public park for such a long time that a random stranger feels compelled to come check if I'm okay and ask if I need a hug. This poetry collection did that exact thing for me. And yes, I do need a hug.
More specifically I need to hug Jillian Christmas and thank her for this book that will most certainly be cherished and reread and kept in my heart for many years to come. Vancouver is lucky to have such brilliant poets, and is even more lucky to have Jillian, in all the many ways she tends to and grows the community of writers and readers alike. MMM must read!!
YES JILLIAN CHRISTMAS, YOU ARE INDEED THE FIRE. Jillian Christmas is magnificent and this book. THIS BEAUTIFUL, MAGNIFICENT BOOK. As the cover suggests, it is truly something special.
You know, I'm secretly always searching for poetry that moves me so deeply that, overcome with feeling, I stare vacantly into the grass at a public park for such a long time that a random stranger feels compelled to come check if I'm okay and ask if I need a hug. This poetry collection did that exact thing for me. And yes, I do need a hug.
More specifically I need to hug Jillian Christmas and thank her for this book that will most certainly be cherished and reread and kept in my heart for many years to come. Vancouver is lucky to have such brilliant poets, and is even more lucky to have Jillian, in all the many ways she tends to and grows the community of writers and readers alike. MMM must read!!
November 28, 2021
okay. first things first. y'all can't tell me the cover don't low key look like willow smith.
second. i understand everything and nothing so i know this book was good. it was like fine fresh food on a day where it's a bit too hot but your mind is opening and your heart is overflowing. the way the juice drips down your hand and the sun is burning your skin but you don't care because you feel alive. that's what reading this book is like. being alive.
second. i understand everything and nothing so i know this book was good. it was like fine fresh food on a day where it's a bit too hot but your mind is opening and your heart is overflowing. the way the juice drips down your hand and the sun is burning your skin but you don't care because you feel alive. that's what reading this book is like. being alive.
February 5, 2022
These poems are rich with the bountiful lyricism one would expect from Christmas.
Tender, incisive, and magical, Christmas is a poetic cartographer; laying her words bare on the page in a manner that allow the reader to instinctively follow the cadence and incline of her poems.
Tender, incisive, and magical, Christmas is a poetic cartographer; laying her words bare on the page in a manner that allow the reader to instinctively follow the cadence and incline of her poems.
June 27, 2021
I talk about this book in this wrap up video.
December 11, 2020
Beautiful, intense, and potent: everything you want poetry to be.
March 28, 2022
I felt your voice move in my body
Is that why you crossed my mind?
from the poem Confession p99
The body is where these poems resonate, and the reverberations ricochet the reader across the time and space of difference that isn't so different when you get right down to it. These poems are intimate and soulful and they carry pain as well as confidence.
tell me what is a body
of thought of work politic....
but what is a body of pleasure
collective knowledge delight
in motion how will we know it
unless we go searching
from the poem A Home I Can Only Leave Once p11
imagine
no body breaks and we carry each other
from the poem freedom singer p37
The remedy is loving each other harder p57
Is that why you crossed my mind?
from the poem Confession p99
The body is where these poems resonate, and the reverberations ricochet the reader across the time and space of difference that isn't so different when you get right down to it. These poems are intimate and soulful and they carry pain as well as confidence.
tell me what is a body
of thought of work politic....
but what is a body of pleasure
collective knowledge delight
in motion how will we know it
unless we go searching
from the poem A Home I Can Only Leave Once p11
imagine
no body breaks and we carry each other
from the poem freedom singer p37
The remedy is loving each other harder p57
September 22, 2020
Christmas is great at rhythms and flow. I loved how she plays with form, like in casting, the poem is mirrored front to back and can be read either top to bottom or left to right. I'm sure there's a name for this, but I'm clueless about these things and this was the first time I've seen one like it.
The range of topics and emotions was also impressive. All the way from touching to hilariously wrathful...specifically the bike poem, which is addressed to the "douche canoe" who stole her bike and swears on lance armstrong's good nut that she will have her revenge. Powerful stuff.
The range of topics and emotions was also impressive. All the way from touching to hilariously wrathful...specifically the bike poem, which is addressed to the "douche canoe" who stole her bike and swears on lance armstrong's good nut that she will have her revenge. Powerful stuff.
May 12, 2021
Wow. I really loved this collection. I started it several months ago and wasn't vibing with it, so I put it down and didn't look at it for months. When I picked it back up, I started over again from the top and man, am I glad I did. I really enjoyed almost all of these poems, and it was a relief to read after spending the last few days reading not-great poetry. Definitely recommend!!
February 19, 2021
in my mind there is a place where we are both whole
April 11, 2021
A delightful collection of poems.
June 7, 2023
a genuinely moving and gorgeous body of work. i honestly don’t think i’m poetry person but this has made me change my mind once again??
favourite pieces: falling in love in love, the gospel of breaking, sidecar and black feminist.
favourite pieces: falling in love in love, the gospel of breaking, sidecar and black feminist.
September 2, 2020
Reading The Gospel of Breaking reminded me of a recent course I took where I was asked to examine the question: what is poetry? In this collection, Jillian Christmas doesn’t necessarily provide a fixed answer to this question, but plays freely with form, speaking to her confidence and skill with manipulating words to evoke both memory and feeling.
“Black Feminist” and “Do Not Feed” stood out as they soothed me with their depth of emotion and instant validation. Her ode to Robin Williams had me nodding in appreciation and gratitude for calling out all who might dismiss depression and suicide as cowardice; while her bike poem had me chuckling at her sharp-tongued and witty one-liners in the face of a most inconsiderate theft.
Reading poetry challenges me to think beyond the limitations of what I’ve been taught about writing in the past, and Christmas has expanded my poetic understanding of what poetry can be. Thank you, Jillian, for sharing your talent.
“Black Feminist” and “Do Not Feed” stood out as they soothed me with their depth of emotion and instant validation. Her ode to Robin Williams had me nodding in appreciation and gratitude for calling out all who might dismiss depression and suicide as cowardice; while her bike poem had me chuckling at her sharp-tongued and witty one-liners in the face of a most inconsiderate theft.
Reading poetry challenges me to think beyond the limitations of what I’ve been taught about writing in the past, and Christmas has expanded my poetic understanding of what poetry can be. Thank you, Jillian, for sharing your talent.
February 4, 2021
Jillian Chistmas is a very intuitive writer. Some of these poems really put me through the emotional wringer. I want to give it 5 stars because it is well done, but I think that I've been giving those out too easily.
July 30, 2020
Wow. This collection was so moving and deeply touching. Cannot recommend enough!
Read
December 29, 2021Good selection of themes and styles: growing up, mama, island life, woman love, BLM - some folksy, some experimental
April 23, 2021
Gorgeous writing, even occasionally funny!
Also, how stunning is the cover?!
Also, how stunning is the cover?!
October 11, 2022
I wish I could give this book somewhere between 4 and 5 stars.
There were some poems and parts of poems that were truly exquisite—strong imagery, fantastic lyrical/sonic quality to the poems, stunning use of line breaks, etc—and then there were some that just really didn’t land for me, particularly when Christmas fell back on using really obvious rhymes (as a reader, I’m not a huge fan of direct rhymes and often find that it takes me out of what may otherwise be an engaging poem).
The book starts off strong, with “a home I can only leave once,” a poem where Christmas interrogates the ambiguity of “bodies” as both the skin we live in and the artistic practice of writing,
“tell me what is a body
of thought of work” (pg 11)
and
“what is a body with disease
and who is family enough
to hold it heal it” (pg 11-12)
There were some poems and parts of poems that were truly exquisite—strong imagery, fantastic lyrical/sonic quality to the poems, stunning use of line breaks, etc—and then there were some that just really didn’t land for me, particularly when Christmas fell back on using really obvious rhymes (as a reader, I’m not a huge fan of direct rhymes and often find that it takes me out of what may otherwise be an engaging poem).
The book starts off strong, with “a home I can only leave once,” a poem where Christmas interrogates the ambiguity of “bodies” as both the skin we live in and the artistic practice of writing,
“tell me what is a body
of thought of work” (pg 11)
and
“what is a body with disease
and who is family enough
to hold it heal it” (pg 11-12)
January 6, 2026
some think the dark is full of terrors
because they cannot see
what it conceals or perhaps
they do not know that the dark itself is
a precious gift and we
strange creatures of the shimmering
north can be the light that it reveals
what a beautiful collection and my first read of the year <3 i'm continuing my yearly tradition of starting the year off with poetry and as always, i'm so happy to have done so... doubly so with the gospel of breaking. some favorites were "casting", "northern light", "butterfly in a boneyard", "(sugar plum)", and the titular piece "the gospel of breaking" among others! "things i can do" had me tearing up, i had to pause a moment. i adore pieces where it evokes so much emotion in me, there's just so much connection there.
4.5 stars, rounded up to 5!
May 23, 2020
the last time i read a poetry collection that both shattered & nourished me this immediately was 5 years ago when leah horlick's collection for your own good came out. there are poems about heartbreak & the persistence of love, poems about suicidality & the persistent demands of being alive, poems about being a child caregiver & forgiveness, poems about mommy & her home that she built with no man's help & her garden growing "plantain julie mango sweet lemon/ orange hybrid cashew avocado" all the way to "one sweet plump strange girl learning to tend herself". there is also one of the most clear & true polyam love poems i've ever read, "falling in love in love".
April 21, 2020
I host an author interview radio show and came across THE GOSPEL OF BREAKING by chance on an upcoming releases list. I devoured it completely. Christmas writes with an unparalleled fervor. Her poetry is somehow both confronting and generous: there is empathy infused in every line. I'm normally someone who has to work a bit at poetry. It can feel like a chore. But with this collection, it was effortless.
May 17, 2023
casting
who’s the malcontent now?
the gospel of breaking
butterfly in a boneyard
(no gift like a loosened fist)
alphabet soup
it’s only a good ride if you can choose to get off or: to the people who would call robin williams a coward
(sugar plum)
black feminist
in my mind there is a place where we are both whole
what forgetfulness is for
will you write it
things I can do
what’s been keeping you up at night
the bike poem
just how some folks learn the blues
who’s the malcontent now?
the gospel of breaking
butterfly in a boneyard
(no gift like a loosened fist)
alphabet soup
it’s only a good ride if you can choose to get off or: to the people who would call robin williams a coward
(sugar plum)
black feminist
in my mind there is a place where we are both whole
what forgetfulness is for
will you write it
things I can do
what’s been keeping you up at night
the bike poem
just how some folks learn the blues
January 27, 2021
i still struggle with poetry sometimes, and i found my attention waning towards the end. nonetheless, it's evident that jillian has a gift! my favourite poem was (and you say you want to sit at her table?). i found the recurring theme of her relationship with her mother v compelling. i also loved reading about her poems about queer love, and queer sex! They made me feel v present & seen.
May 26, 2022
This is such a good collection of poetry about queer love, identity, and anger. I especially loved the poems about Christmas' grandmother and family, plus the one about the person who stole her bike made me laugh.
Content Warnings:
racism, depression, injury
Content Warnings:
racism, depression, injury
April 25, 2020
Amazing work. Spoken word translated well to page with rhythm and vigor and so much heart. My favourite poem is probably “Monday morning made delicious” which is now in my top love poems of all time.
September 6, 2020
REVIEW FORTHCOMING
September 6, 2020
A talented writer with a strong and important stories/themes to express with her gift of language.
November 29, 2020
Thank you Jillian.
abandoned
December 21, 2020unfortunately not my style. got through about 30 pages. DNF
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews