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Worldly Things
"Sometimes," writes Michael Kleber-Diggs writes in this winner of the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, "everything reduces to circles and lines."
In these poems, Kleber-Diggs names delight in the same breath as loss. Moments suffused with love--teaching his daughter how to drive; watching his grandmother bake a cake; waking beside his beloved to ponder trumpet mechanics--couple with moments of wrenching grief--a father's life ended by a gun; mourning children draped around their mother's waist; Freddie Gray's death in police custody. Even in the refuge-space of dreams, a man calls the police on his Black neighbor.
But Worldly Things refuses to "offer allegiance" to this centuries-old status quo. With uncompromising candor, Kleber-Diggs documents the many ways America systemically fails those who call it home while also calling upon our collective potential for something better. "Let's create folklore side-by-side," he urges, asking us to aspire to a form of nurturing defined by tenderness, to a kind of community devoted to mutual prosperity. "All of us want," after all, "our share of light, and just enough rainfall."
Sonorous and measured, the poems of Worldly Things offer needed guidance on ways forward--toward radical kindness and a socially responsible poetics.
In these poems, Kleber-Diggs names delight in the same breath as loss. Moments suffused with love--teaching his daughter how to drive; watching his grandmother bake a cake; waking beside his beloved to ponder trumpet mechanics--couple with moments of wrenching grief--a father's life ended by a gun; mourning children draped around their mother's waist; Freddie Gray's death in police custody. Even in the refuge-space of dreams, a man calls the police on his Black neighbor.
But Worldly Things refuses to "offer allegiance" to this centuries-old status quo. With uncompromising candor, Kleber-Diggs documents the many ways America systemically fails those who call it home while also calling upon our collective potential for something better. "Let's create folklore side-by-side," he urges, asking us to aspire to a form of nurturing defined by tenderness, to a kind of community devoted to mutual prosperity. "All of us want," after all, "our share of light, and just enough rainfall."
Sonorous and measured, the poems of Worldly Things offer needed guidance on ways forward--toward radical kindness and a socially responsible poetics.
96 pages, Hardcover
First published June 8, 2021
16 people are currently reading
417 people want to read
About the author
Michael Kleber-Diggs
3 books26 followersMichael Kleber-Diggs is the author of Worldly Things, which was awarded the 2020 Max Ritvo Poetry Prize. He was born and raised in Kansas and now lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. His work has appeared in Lit Hub, the Rumpus, Rain Taxi, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Water~Stone Review, Midway Review, North Dakota Quarterly and a few anthologies. Michael teaches poetry and creative non-fiction through the Minnesota Prison Writers Workshop.
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January 19, 2023This collection won the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize in 2021. The title is apt because the lens is wide. Though this collection has its share of the political and social struggles of Black America, it also contains nature poetry and a steady stream of every day homages to family, neighbors, community. A nice mix. Here are two examples of poems from the book.
End of Class
Black boy in the backseat of a cop car
across the street from my daughter’s junior high,
hands cuffed behind his back: hard to see
him like that. It’s an attractive afternoon
here among the thriving—snow glistening, sun
descending on the best block in the city. I have
friends who live nearby so I’m sure I fit right
in with the rich folks and professors. But him?
He’s barely surviving the day, and looks at me
from his sick situation as if to say: Fuck your pity!
Canary in a coalmine, negro in the pipeline,
his life is full of cages. He’s in the wrong
system too soon—tragedies intertwining.
In the rearview mirror, I meet my own
targeted skin and sigh. I’m angry, chagrined.
Until my sweet kid climbs in next to me,
as happy as she can be before I point to
the scene to ask what the boy did. Oh, Felix?
He’s pretty cool. Sometimes he can be mean.
I think he’s on probation. That’s all she has to say.
I pat her arm, start the car, and then we drive
away. Our hardy home is not that far from here.
Adoration
Light pans my dark
bedroom like a copier
scans an image. My
father floats by me
sometimes. He was
called James or Jim.
His mustache stayed
neat and mean; he
groomed it every day.
My father adored
suits and ties. At home,
top button unbuttoned,
he smelled often of
aftershave and whiskey.
He is gone. He is
gone now. Still,
forty years later,
I taste his shadow
and balm on my lips
from the last time
I kissed his
sandpaper face
good morning.
End of Class
Black boy in the backseat of a cop car
across the street from my daughter’s junior high,
hands cuffed behind his back: hard to see
him like that. It’s an attractive afternoon
here among the thriving—snow glistening, sun
descending on the best block in the city. I have
friends who live nearby so I’m sure I fit right
in with the rich folks and professors. But him?
He’s barely surviving the day, and looks at me
from his sick situation as if to say: Fuck your pity!
Canary in a coalmine, negro in the pipeline,
his life is full of cages. He’s in the wrong
system too soon—tragedies intertwining.
In the rearview mirror, I meet my own
targeted skin and sigh. I’m angry, chagrined.
Until my sweet kid climbs in next to me,
as happy as she can be before I point to
the scene to ask what the boy did. Oh, Felix?
He’s pretty cool. Sometimes he can be mean.
I think he’s on probation. That’s all she has to say.
I pat her arm, start the car, and then we drive
away. Our hardy home is not that far from here.
Adoration
Light pans my dark
bedroom like a copier
scans an image. My
father floats by me
sometimes. He was
called James or Jim.
His mustache stayed
neat and mean; he
groomed it every day.
My father adored
suits and ties. At home,
top button unbuttoned,
he smelled often of
aftershave and whiskey.
He is gone. He is
gone now. Still,
forty years later,
I taste his shadow
and balm on my lips
from the last time
I kissed his
sandpaper face
good morning.
June 8, 2021
Worldly Things
Review-
"Black boy in the backseat of a cop car
across the street from my daughter's jr. high,
hands cuffed behind his back: hard to see
him like that…"
The above excerpt from 'End of Class', the first poem of this collection, sparked anticipation that this collection will be as much as a colloquy about collective loss and an allegorical to personal or subjective or simply said the poet's loss. I say 'collective loss' because though each individual's loss is in its way uniquely agonizing, in America, every individual loss has a blanket to cover it, and under that blanket are people in mourning, grieving for the continued violence —through words or weapons, direct or indirect, and as much as it feels a tad bit comforting to have been grieving collectively, the urge for the blanket to lift off remains. And Michael Kleber-Diggs has, in disguise, been asking the question.
"For all/ it had suffered/ our body stayed whole.
Trauma dissipated."
The arrow of vocabulary hits right in the target. With words like, "Dissipated" used for trauma calls for a deeper understanding. This collection of poetry, like ones of brilliance, goes beyond poetry. And that is important to the genre precisely as in Literature, only poetry has multiple layers with different emphasis and different interpretations. Unless specified, the poem is as much of the reader as of the poet, only the difference is- who is holding the pen?
This collection questions loss and its aftermath, human bondage, and asks how further could it go? And what are the necessary actions to keep it intact?
Truly essential for all.
This post is as much a review as a request to my readers to pick this up.
Thankful to the publishers for sending me a copy. Glad to have added this to my library.
Review-
"Black boy in the backseat of a cop car
across the street from my daughter's jr. high,
hands cuffed behind his back: hard to see
him like that…"
The above excerpt from 'End of Class', the first poem of this collection, sparked anticipation that this collection will be as much as a colloquy about collective loss and an allegorical to personal or subjective or simply said the poet's loss. I say 'collective loss' because though each individual's loss is in its way uniquely agonizing, in America, every individual loss has a blanket to cover it, and under that blanket are people in mourning, grieving for the continued violence —through words or weapons, direct or indirect, and as much as it feels a tad bit comforting to have been grieving collectively, the urge for the blanket to lift off remains. And Michael Kleber-Diggs has, in disguise, been asking the question.
"For all/ it had suffered/ our body stayed whole.
Trauma dissipated."
The arrow of vocabulary hits right in the target. With words like, "Dissipated" used for trauma calls for a deeper understanding. This collection of poetry, like ones of brilliance, goes beyond poetry. And that is important to the genre precisely as in Literature, only poetry has multiple layers with different emphasis and different interpretations. Unless specified, the poem is as much of the reader as of the poet, only the difference is- who is holding the pen?
This collection questions loss and its aftermath, human bondage, and asks how further could it go? And what are the necessary actions to keep it intact?
Truly essential for all.
This post is as much a review as a request to my readers to pick this up.
Thankful to the publishers for sending me a copy. Glad to have added this to my library.
October 11, 2021
I find it hard to comment on poetry books, other than to say it was full of love, sadness, beauty, and thoughtfulness, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
July 3, 2023
Worldly Things" by Michael Kleber-Diggs is a beautiful debut collection of poetry.
I just discovered this poet, and I am thrilled with his collection of poems. I found the poet's writing to be tender, sincere, and honest. I loved how as I read a poem I wasn't quite certain where this poet's words and images would lead me.
Kleber-Diggs language and metaphors are soft and yet, concrete in their structure and conveyance.
Great poetry!
I just discovered this poet, and I am thrilled with his collection of poems. I found the poet's writing to be tender, sincere, and honest. I loved how as I read a poem I wasn't quite certain where this poet's words and images would lead me.
Kleber-Diggs language and metaphors are soft and yet, concrete in their structure and conveyance.
Great poetry!
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November 7, 2024"Life is of her body. Life is her body—feeding, receiving, clinging, cleaving, a cleaving, a leaving, leaving."
July 27, 2021
This is a great debut poetry collection featuring themes of nature, grief, violence, family, and Blackness--often interwoven within a single poem. I picked up the book based on the strength of "Coniferous Fathers," which a colleague shared with me, and I ended up liking it and the collection's other nature-infused poems the best. However, the strikethrough poem, "Man Dies After Coma," based on doctored police reports documenting the killing of Freddie Gray was completely different from these...and completely unforgettable. I thought the book really gathered momentum in the third and final section, which finishes with standouts like "Dispatch from Middle America," "The Grove," and "Every Mourning."
June 12, 2022
I suppose I’m incapable of reviewing this book fairly on account of my undying admiration and love for Michael Kleber-Diggs on a personal level, but I feel compelled to say that this is the best collection of poetry I’ve read in a very long time (maybe ever). The book is 70 pages and it took me 10 months to get through because of my habit of rereading the poems over and over again because there’s something new to discover every single time. I look forward to rereading these poems over and over again for a long time to come.
PS. who knew MKD also had a goldendoodle? Certainly not I.
PS. who knew MKD also had a goldendoodle? Certainly not I.
August 10, 2021
I’ve never been interested in poetry, but this collection of poems may have converted me! Michael’s writing is inspiring, touching, emotional, and real. He crafts his poems with unique structures and creativity. I was lucky to attend a book club meeting where he read and discussed his work. Besides being an award winning poet, he teaches writing/poetry to the incarcerated. His personal stories are as inspiring as his writing.
November 24, 2021
In this award winning poetry book, MN author Kleber-Diggs explores themes of race and family in poems that make you want to read them aloud to passersby. A favorite. This is one I read from again and again, dog earring page after page.
June 2, 2021
Beautiful. The words flow exposing stories, realities, universalities, joy, anguish, nostalgia... I loved this collection of poems. I'll visit these vignettes again and again.
July 7, 2021
timely, incisive, moving. this deserves to be on bookshelves everywhere. a treasure.
August 4, 2021
Heartwarming and heartbreaking, sometimes in the same poem.
August 10, 2021
I wish I could give this wonderful collection of poems 10 stars. Or 20 stars. Timely and timeless.
August 11, 2021
These poems are universal. They engender moments of recognition, of beauty and sadness, of discomfort and hope. Beautifully written - poetry to be treasured.
August 6, 2024
This is the poet's first book, published in his 50s. I enjoyed this volume, and I hope he published more often.
March 11, 2025
I feel like I got so much more out of this the second time (I'm probably reading closer so I can know more than my students). Michael really outdid himself.
December 22, 2021
I read this book after hearing Kleber-Diggs talk on a webinar with another poet, and I’m amazed that this is his first book. This is a pretty great poetry collection. Kleber-Diggs focuses on poems about death, life, and his relationship with both of those (and with America) as a Black man—it reminded me a bit of Kevin Young’s work, but had its own distinctive attitude. Well worth a read for anyone interested in poetry about the Black experience in the post-George Floyd era (and there is a shattering poem in tribute to Floyd here) and #BlackLivesMatter. I look forward to what Kleber-Diggs shares next.
June 10, 2022
"Worldly Things" has poems that all seem to flow into and out from each other. Each poem maintains its own frequency and center while together they all build a picture of a place and time. A life that has Michael Kleber-Diggs at the center as observer and participant.
The poem "Coniferous Fathers" is a beautiful call to removing toxic masculinity from fatherhood. A call for change and words that nudge for personal accountability and reclamation.
"No more La-Z-Boy dads reading newspapers
in some other room. Let's create folklore side-by-side
in a garden singing psalms about abiding - just that,
abiding: being steadfast, present, evergreen, and
ethereal - let's make the old needles soft enough
for us to rest on, dream on, next to them."
- Michael Kleber-Diggs pg. 24
The poem "Coniferous Fathers" is a beautiful call to removing toxic masculinity from fatherhood. A call for change and words that nudge for personal accountability and reclamation.
"No more La-Z-Boy dads reading newspapers
in some other room. Let's create folklore side-by-side
in a garden singing psalms about abiding - just that,
abiding: being steadfast, present, evergreen, and
ethereal - let's make the old needles soft enough
for us to rest on, dream on, next to them."
- Michael Kleber-Diggs pg. 24
June 9, 2022
A friend who had come across the poem Coniferous Fathers and shared it with me later gave me this collection as a gift when I exclaimed how beautiful I thought Coniferous Fathers was. And after reading the whole collection, I can say that all of these poems have that same sense of care, that great love for the world in spite of great sorrow, and that same playfulness of language that endeared me to Coniferous Fathers.
December 30, 2021
Stunning poetry collection. The author has visited our library to teach writing classes too. Highly recommended.
September 30, 2024
Favorites are "Superman and my brother, Spiderman and me" and "Seismic Activities," and "Postcard to Sean" for the idea of "postcards to people" as "psalms, quite short."
February 18, 2023
Michael brings the details of the world around him and the world within him to the page. It feels a little like magic, the way he uses language to focus our attention. When Michael was eight, his father was killed at his dental office by someone looking for drugs. Many of these poems reverberate out from that moment of devastation and grief. From “After You Left,”
"Father, the loss of you is a planet
orbiting what might have been."
This line from “Confluence” creates an image, and coupled with the metaphor, it was like a little explosion in my brain: "Mist gathered just above the water made me think of marriage."
The last poem in the collection, “Every Mourning,” will make your heart hurt with its truth. We are right there as the narrator’s fellow traveler crosses the street. Right there.
I loved every one of these poems.
"Father, the loss of you is a planet
orbiting what might have been."
This line from “Confluence” creates an image, and coupled with the metaphor, it was like a little explosion in my brain: "Mist gathered just above the water made me think of marriage."
The last poem in the collection, “Every Mourning,” will make your heart hurt with its truth. We are right there as the narrator’s fellow traveler crosses the street. Right there.
I loved every one of these poems.
April 12, 2024
Thank you to Libro.FM for the ALC of this poetry collection. This is read by the poet and truly a powerful and emotional collection. Only 4.5 stars because I wanted more! These poems tackle being Black in America, the loss of the poet's father at the hands of gun violence, being a father, his partner's miscarriage and life in the Twin Cities area. Some of his poems about his daughter and moments with his daughter were my favorites. His awe of other people in his life and their artistry is charming. Would definitely read from him again.
February 14, 2022
Michael is a gentle soul with a powerful ear and a sensitive ear and a keen eye. His attention to detail is a balm and a prayer and a commitment to not look away from the sad, the violent, the waste while also taking in the beauty and the holy and the righteousness of everyday realities.
Even this review is evidence of his spirit, his rhythm, his humor, his grief.
Michael is a poet. His double poems entice a second look. Read his work and you will see.
Even this review is evidence of his spirit, his rhythm, his humor, his grief.
Michael is a poet. His double poems entice a second look. Read his work and you will see.
July 26, 2022
Kleber-Diggs has a magical ability to take the boring, mundane, ordinary stuff of life and somehow--without changing, exaggerating, hyperbolizing, or glorifying it--make it holy. Some of that holiness is joy, some relationships and connectedness, and much is lamentation. He powerfully and movingly expresses an immense amount of human experience and emotion through seemingly simple, everyday, worldly things. He's a magician.
November 26, 2022
Compelling personal poetry about current and personal events: "Moments suffused with love—teaching his daughter how to drive; watching his grandmother bake a cake; waking beside his beloved to ponder trumpet mechanics—couple with moments of wrenching grief—a father’s life ended by a gun; mourning children draped around their mother’s waist; Freddie Gray’s death in police custody." Read this because Kleber-Diggs was one of three Minnesota authors chosen to tour the state doing literary events.
August 15, 2021
Worldly Things by Kleber-Diggs is of our times: the audience gets informed about the George Floyd tragedy and the diversity in "Dispatch form Middle America". I liked much the different free verse forms, they are concise, intentional and explorative, especially those that nested different strophs in one poem.
August 16, 2021
I can’t remember the last time poems have made me cry, really ball, like this. Worldly Things made me recognize my hunger for the truth of things when the human experience feels anything but. The kind of poetry that works to sustain the heart and the soul, and Kleber-Diggs is generous.
<3: “In Convenience” and “Gloria Mundi” and “Confluence” and “Ars Poetica”
<3: “In Convenience” and “Gloria Mundi” and “Confluence” and “Ars Poetica”
April 22, 2023
My dad gifted me this book, which feels appropriate.
“Our moment here is small.
I am too--a worldly thing among worldly things-
one part per seven billion. Make me smaller still.
Repurpose my body. Mix me with soil and seed,
compost for a sapling. Make my remains useful, wondrous. Let me bloom and recede, grow
and decay, let me be lovely yet
temporal, like memories, like mahogany.”
“Our moment here is small.
I am too--a worldly thing among worldly things-
one part per seven billion. Make me smaller still.
Repurpose my body. Mix me with soil and seed,
compost for a sapling. Make my remains useful, wondrous. Let me bloom and recede, grow
and decay, let me be lovely yet
temporal, like memories, like mahogany.”
June 27, 2021
Really wonderful, accessible book of poetry about both the simple, ultra relatable things (family) and the complex and out of reach for me (the black experience in America). Beautiful and thought provoking. Glad I have it in hardcover for the inevitable reread.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews