Say It Hurts

by Lisa Summe

Say It Hurts grapples with queerness, love, grief, masculinity, coming of age, and coming out in the context of cultural violence rooted in misogyny and familial violence rooted in catholicism. In these poems joy and loss hold hands—at sleepovers and haircuts, at symphonies and haunted mazes, among fathers, on dating apps, during car sex, in matching tattoos, on Pinterest boards, at funerals. Lisa Summe’s debut collection queers the love poem by demanding that the whole story be told—what it means to love, to grieve, and to heal by saying it out loud.

Alive with moats of pink catfish, and gardens of boomerangs, Lisa Summe’s debut collection, Say It Hurts, draws us what we need most: new shapes of loss, new contours of love. And because we need it, Summe paints a vibrant queerness onto buzz cuts, backseats, and sleepovers. Forthright and declarative, Summe writes, in the book’s opening poem, “When a lesbian / writes a poem / it’s a lesbian poem.” What a queer wonder, to play light as a feather, stiff as a board. What a queer wonder to be both alive and capable of love, in a world that prefers we be neither. Summe writes, “see how I tried not to write a love poem but here it comes,”and it does come, and we love it.
—Kayleb Rae Candrilli, Water I Won’t Touch

In Say It Hurts, Summe shows us what it can feel like to come home and come out again and again in the Midwest, home where a father can be “both nest & hawk,” home where a ten-year- old girl draws her dream wedding to a girl on a sheet of graph paper in math class, home where her body stands “steady like a home,” home where she misses the girl she loved and where she swims in the Allegheny River, home where the poem is the place and the girl she loved is there, too.
—Julia Koets, Pine

Genres: Poetry, Lesbian, LGBT, Queer

108 pages, Paperback

Published January 15, 2021

About the author

Lisa Summe is the author of Say It Hurts (YesYes Books, 2021). She earned a BA and MA in literature at the University of Cincinnati, and an MFA in poetry from Virginia Tech. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Bat City Review, Cincinnati Review, Muzzle, Salt Hill, Waxwing, and elsewhere. You can find her in Pittsburgh, PA and on social media @lisasumme.

Reviews

[Kit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This approachable book of poetry has a narrative arc somewhat reminiscent of Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. Flows artfully as it dissects relationships to family, gender, sexuality, and plain old romantic relationships. Having many of the poems with the same title demonstrates how these issues come up again and again and again in a life (the most obvious, of course, are the three different poems called "Coming Out," because every queer knows that you need to come out again and again and again).

[Shareen Murayama · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every poem. Hurts. Unforgettably.

[Amorak Huey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing.

[Kaylin Smida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahhhh ooooooofff!!! Zoinks! Crikey! That just hit anywhere it could have hurt. Wow. Just wow. I feel like there is a poem in there for every gay person to have ever gayed. So many of them were gut punches. So many beautiful lines.

Truly cannot say enough good things, I loved being on this journey with her. Walking through her life with her, through love and loss. I thought it was going to end happy and then I thought it really was not and therefore ended up being pleasantly surprised at the end, while still in some sort of agony I can’t quite put my finger on.

Defs have already been recommending to my queer friends!

[Mina Beach · Rating 5 out of 5]

i encountered this book when i was in the closet still and a poetry professor insisted i would like it... lucky guess? this is one of my favorite poetry collections, and lisa summe is a local author (she was at my cousin's wedding and i approached her during the wobble like i was a terrified boyband fan girl meeting my idol. she was really nice but probably also like what the fuck).

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

You might think that you’re ready for the emotional journey that Lisa Summe’s “Say It Hurts” will carry you through but it’s not possible to truly be ready for what her authenticity will awaken. It is the most urgent, compassionate, validating, and empathetic connection you’ll never be ready for.

[Matt McBride · Rating 5 out of 5]

About the most human of thigs. About love and what comes after. About death and fathers. About the Midwest and a culture where some people are given more claim to humanity than others. Informal and formally inventive, this is one of the best debut books I've read in awhile.

[Laura B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful, moving, a book I couldn't help but gulp down in one sitting.

[luna rey hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal! Highly recommend. 💛