What do you think?
Rate this book
Woman, Eat Me Whole: Poems – A Searing Debut Collection on Womanhood, the Body, and Mental Illness
A bold, mesmerizing debut collection exploring womanhood, the body, mental illness, and what it means to move between cultures Renowned for her storytelling and spoken-word artistry, Ama Asantewa Diaka is also an exultant, fierce, and visceral poet whose work leaves a lasting impact. Touching on themes from perceptions of beauty to the betrayals of the body, from what it means to give consent to how we grapple with demons internal and external, Woman, Eat Me Whole is an entirely fresh and powerful look at womanhood and personhood in a shifting world. Moving between Ghana and the United States, Diaka probes those countries’ ever-changing cultural expectations and norms while investigating the dislocation and fragmentation of a body—and a mind—so often restless or ill at ease. Vivid and bodily while also deeply cerebral, Woman, Eat Me Whole is a searing debut collection from a poet with an inimitable voice and vision.
96 pages, Hardcover
First published April 5, 2022
22 people are currently reading
3843 people want to read
About the author
Ama Asantewa Diaka
7 books20 followersAma Asantewa Diaka is a Ghanaian poet, storyteller, and spoken word artist who performs as Poetra Asantewa. She is the author of the chapbook, You Too Will Know Me, and the debut poetry collection, Woman, Eat Me Whole, and her poems and fiction have appeared in print and online. She recently completed an MFA at the Art Institute of Chicago. She lives in Ghana.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 86 reviews
April 6, 2023
It’s national poetry month ….
Audiobook…. read by the author, Ama Asantewa Diaka
…..1 hour and 23 minutes
Dedicated
“For my Mother . . . “
“We only know she is woman”….
These poems touch on themes about women, motherhood, love, pain, feminism, beauty, sacrifice, rejection, betrayal, our bodies, trauma,
mental illness, shame, apologies, peace, silence, anxiety, anger, God, birth, time, bruises, scars, forgiveness, cruelty of the world, desire for freedom, overcoming obstacles, remembering . . .
…. and beautifully dark.
“Any day is a good day for redemption”.
Diaka’s voice is soft, sweet, and gentle. I felt her purity of heart.
Audiobook…. read by the author, Ama Asantewa Diaka
…..1 hour and 23 minutes
Dedicated
“For my Mother . . . “
“We only know she is woman”….
These poems touch on themes about women, motherhood, love, pain, feminism, beauty, sacrifice, rejection, betrayal, our bodies, trauma,
mental illness, shame, apologies, peace, silence, anxiety, anger, God, birth, time, bruises, scars, forgiveness, cruelty of the world, desire for freedom, overcoming obstacles, remembering . . .
…. and beautifully dark.
“Any day is a good day for redemption”.
Diaka’s voice is soft, sweet, and gentle. I felt her purity of heart.
August 18, 2025
Loved this book of poetry by Ghanaian poet Ama Asantewa Diaka. Composed of four parts, these poems are a mix of different poetic structures and themes. I especially enjoyed the ones the dove deeper into womanhood.
January 8, 2026
"my love will make you smile from unspoken fulfilled expectations
and parts of you will start singing halleluyah even before the sermon starts"
🩸🌻🦋
This collection didn’t just ask to be read, it demanded to be felt. Woman, Eat Me Whole is lush, aching, and unapologetically embodied. Ama Asantewa Diaka depicts womanhood, desire, grief, and survival in poems that feel like prayers whispered and then shouted.
Diaka's prose is sensual and sharp, full of emotional, spiritual and bodily hunger that creeps up inside your ribcage. These poems sit in the messy places: love that hurts, faith that questions, and a body that remembers everything.
and parts of you will start singing halleluyah even before the sermon starts"
🩸🌻🦋
This collection didn’t just ask to be read, it demanded to be felt. Woman, Eat Me Whole is lush, aching, and unapologetically embodied. Ama Asantewa Diaka depicts womanhood, desire, grief, and survival in poems that feel like prayers whispered and then shouted.
Diaka's prose is sensual and sharp, full of emotional, spiritual and bodily hunger that creeps up inside your ribcage. These poems sit in the messy places: love that hurts, faith that questions, and a body that remembers everything.
April 8, 2022
Presented solely as words on the page, I would give these poems overall three stars. There are themes of the female body - in pain, in pleasure - the black body, moving between worlds. Quite a few of the poems repeat in thematic material although I did appreciate the varieties of structure and length.
But Ama Asantewa Diaka sees herself as a storyteller, not just a poet, and reading the words on the page is only part of the experience. The experience of her work is much more enticing, and I'd encourage you to watch a video or two.
https://afrowomenpoetry.net/en/2018/0...
Thanks to the publisher for providing access through NetGalley. This collection came out April 5, 2022.
But Ama Asantewa Diaka sees herself as a storyteller, not just a poet, and reading the words on the page is only part of the experience. The experience of her work is much more enticing, and I'd encourage you to watch a video or two.
https://afrowomenpoetry.net/en/2018/0...
Thanks to the publisher for providing access through NetGalley. This collection came out April 5, 2022.
June 28, 2023
Faves include:
Ama Nkurumah
Still woman?
Alien eggs
Start: restart
False teachings
Love Yourself
That-which-must-not-be-named
Woman = pain
Our utopias are different
the awesome in Me
Jigsaw
Mirror, mirror
A utopia for black girls
Ama Nkurumah
Still woman?
Alien eggs
Start: restart
False teachings
Love Yourself
That-which-must-not-be-named
Woman = pain
Our utopias are different
the awesome in Me
Jigsaw
Mirror, mirror
A utopia for black girls
September 8, 2024
a worthwhile poetry collection regarding womanhood, feminism, bodies and being a woman of color.
« how fucked up is it that your utopia is my hell and my utopia is the reality you want to escape from »
« how fucked up is it that your utopia is my hell and my utopia is the reality you want to escape from »
July 8, 2023
I am grateful to have read Kate Baer's poetry collection: AND YET,
just before reading WOMAN, EAT ME WHOLE, because truly, they could be seen as companion pieces. Together, they form an incredible tapestry.
The poet/spoken word artist is known as Poetra Asantewa.
I tended to read this volume as a play, except that the play is life, and the actors play themselves, even when they're from the distant past.
Poetra Asantewa presents a remarkable interrogation of what it means to inhabit the body of a woman, throughout the world and all of human history.
No injustice escapes the notice of this poet. She bares every layer, even the ones we might have missed, such as how fathers are never asked how *they* plan to balance a career and raising children. Or how we feel pity for a single woman, but not a single man. When you learn to love yourself, just as you are, you also learn that you are fully complete, away and apart from any role you might take on: lover, wife, mother. Those are additions, not completions. You are not a half-finished work.
The poet reminds us how often it happens that a mother must take on the burden of a difficult child, all on her own. Somehow, her support system disappears. No matter what she does, nor how deep her desperation, she will be criticized, and branded with the epithet "bad mother."
The poet asks us to consider many revelatory questions:
In society, who is most likely to count up their wins, and who is most haunted by their mistakes?
Who is more aware of all the people they didn't help?
Who suffers more derogatory terms for their biology?
Which gendered terms are more often hijacked and turned into insults?
Who tends to think "But, we're all equal now" and views any attempt to right exclusionary wrongs as just "reverse discrimination" against them?
See also: "How can we be equal, if we're not the same?!?"
And: "But equality would mean everyone having to use the same bathroom."
Even feminists have been reluctant to accept the gender spectrum, to welcome non-binary persons, and to ensure that diversity exists in leadership roles, not just in membership. We have to be able to view any movement critically, if we hope ever to accomplish anything.
The poet dissects the way we use language in our relationships, and what exactly we hope to gain from using phrases none of us really mean.
The poet asserts that to be a woman is to know pain and loss in deeply intimate ways. But, even the way we are asked to identify our pain becomes an exercise in self-mockery. Can you choose the "cartoon face" which best matches your agony?
And when we are asked if we feel sad most days, must sadness always require justification?
The poet posits many rhetorical questions. For instance, though history literally means *his story* why were the keepers of historical records so insistent on excluding women, even to the degree that even the mentioned ones are often unnamed, unheralded, unreal? There are those who will use this to assert that women have not accomplished much.
The poet is not without hope, however. Though she carries her pain with her every day, she can still love and be loved, she can bask in the warmth of Ghana's people, and she can imagine a place where life is safe and equitable for every soul.
Her final line is a good summary of how she sees humanity:
"In the end, we're all ordinary people in disguise."
just before reading WOMAN, EAT ME WHOLE, because truly, they could be seen as companion pieces. Together, they form an incredible tapestry.
The poet/spoken word artist is known as Poetra Asantewa.
I tended to read this volume as a play, except that the play is life, and the actors play themselves, even when they're from the distant past.
Poetra Asantewa presents a remarkable interrogation of what it means to inhabit the body of a woman, throughout the world and all of human history.
No injustice escapes the notice of this poet. She bares every layer, even the ones we might have missed, such as how fathers are never asked how *they* plan to balance a career and raising children. Or how we feel pity for a single woman, but not a single man. When you learn to love yourself, just as you are, you also learn that you are fully complete, away and apart from any role you might take on: lover, wife, mother. Those are additions, not completions. You are not a half-finished work.
The poet reminds us how often it happens that a mother must take on the burden of a difficult child, all on her own. Somehow, her support system disappears. No matter what she does, nor how deep her desperation, she will be criticized, and branded with the epithet "bad mother."
The poet asks us to consider many revelatory questions:
In society, who is most likely to count up their wins, and who is most haunted by their mistakes?
Who is more aware of all the people they didn't help?
Who suffers more derogatory terms for their biology?
Which gendered terms are more often hijacked and turned into insults?
Who tends to think "But, we're all equal now" and views any attempt to right exclusionary wrongs as just "reverse discrimination" against them?
See also: "How can we be equal, if we're not the same?!?"
And: "But equality would mean everyone having to use the same bathroom."
Even feminists have been reluctant to accept the gender spectrum, to welcome non-binary persons, and to ensure that diversity exists in leadership roles, not just in membership. We have to be able to view any movement critically, if we hope ever to accomplish anything.
The poet dissects the way we use language in our relationships, and what exactly we hope to gain from using phrases none of us really mean.
The poet asserts that to be a woman is to know pain and loss in deeply intimate ways. But, even the way we are asked to identify our pain becomes an exercise in self-mockery. Can you choose the "cartoon face" which best matches your agony?
And when we are asked if we feel sad most days, must sadness always require justification?
The poet posits many rhetorical questions. For instance, though history literally means *his story* why were the keepers of historical records so insistent on excluding women, even to the degree that even the mentioned ones are often unnamed, unheralded, unreal? There are those who will use this to assert that women have not accomplished much.
The poet is not without hope, however. Though she carries her pain with her every day, she can still love and be loved, she can bask in the warmth of Ghana's people, and she can imagine a place where life is safe and equitable for every soul.
Her final line is a good summary of how she sees humanity:
"In the end, we're all ordinary people in disguise."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2022
I can't say I'm well-versed in poetry, but this was engrossing enough to finish in one sitting. A collection of poems on feminism, motherhood, and the experience of being a woman of color that was truly poignant and thought-provoking. A great way to start off the new year.
April 15, 2025
3.5 stars.
Woman, Eat Me Whole is broken up into four sections, each one named after the individual words in the title of the poem. Many of the poems in this collection are wonderful, and I particularly enjoyed Saltwater and A utopia for black girls. The poems about Ghana and blackness were among the strongest overall in my opinion. There was a lot I liked about the poems that explored menstrual health struggles, but I did find several of those to be far too gender essentialist for my own enjoyment.
Overall it's a solid collection, and the poet has a lot of promise. I'm glad I gave it a read despite its flaws.
Woman, Eat Me Whole is broken up into four sections, each one named after the individual words in the title of the poem. Many of the poems in this collection are wonderful, and I particularly enjoyed Saltwater and A utopia for black girls. The poems about Ghana and blackness were among the strongest overall in my opinion. There was a lot I liked about the poems that explored menstrual health struggles, but I did find several of those to be far too gender essentialist for my own enjoyment.
Overall it's a solid collection, and the poet has a lot of promise. I'm glad I gave it a read despite its flaws.
January 2, 2026
I am so glad I saw this book in a short recommendation video. I devoured it in one sitting and went back for more. My personal favorite was “False Teaching.” LOVED it!
February 7, 2022
I wonder
if my parents
even know that I have trauma
If they know it keeps morphing
Into jigsaws that press
into old wounds to create new ones
that I have become
a resilient body waking to new dawns
testament to a war no one sees me fighting
ARC provided by NetGalley! Thank you so much for the copy!
So, I'm not particularly well-versed when it comes to poetry. One of my goals for this year was to get more into it, and this was the first real poetry collection I've read this year. Overall, I really enjoyed it. Unlike most books where I can have fairly objective opinions, I find that it's hard to properly work through feelings that I have about poetry, and this is something that's gone back all the way to middle school English.
Still, I blew through this book in one sitting. This collection focuses on womanhood, with emphasis on things that go into the experience of being a woman such as race, misogyny, motherhood, and pain. The pain aspect was the thing that I really enjoyed as I read, because it rings true. So much to being a woman or someone perceived as a woman by society is about pain, both suffering from it and enduring it because that's what you're supposed to do otherwise you're looked down upon.
Of note, from a nonbinary pov: it is important to go into this knowing that it doesn't factor in trans and nonbinary women at all. It didn't particularly bother me, but if you're going into this expecting poems about ALL women, that won't be found here. I don't really mind, as this collection is so insanely personal and focuses on the experience of the poet. There's a running theme of poetry about wombs, uteruses, eggs; it gets to the point where it feels like being a woman is being reduced down to just those things, despite it not being the universal experience, but as I sat with this I realized... that's exactly the point? That is how society treats womanhood, whether you have those things or not, and a lot of our value is placed on that. It's awful. It's outdated. It's pain.
Overall, I found a lot of this collection rather uneven. Some hit a lot, others kind of missed. The first few didn't really resonate, then I remembered that I'd read that the author does spoken word and I was able to SEE how that influences these poems, and it instantly improved my experience.
Standout Poems:
- The Audacity of Men (by far my favorite)
- Jigsaw
- Love Yourself
- False Teachings
- Sum
- That-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named
if my parents
even know that I have trauma
If they know it keeps morphing
Into jigsaws that press
into old wounds to create new ones
that I have become
a resilient body waking to new dawns
testament to a war no one sees me fighting
ARC provided by NetGalley! Thank you so much for the copy!
So, I'm not particularly well-versed when it comes to poetry. One of my goals for this year was to get more into it, and this was the first real poetry collection I've read this year. Overall, I really enjoyed it. Unlike most books where I can have fairly objective opinions, I find that it's hard to properly work through feelings that I have about poetry, and this is something that's gone back all the way to middle school English.
Still, I blew through this book in one sitting. This collection focuses on womanhood, with emphasis on things that go into the experience of being a woman such as race, misogyny, motherhood, and pain. The pain aspect was the thing that I really enjoyed as I read, because it rings true. So much to being a woman or someone perceived as a woman by society is about pain, both suffering from it and enduring it because that's what you're supposed to do otherwise you're looked down upon.
Of note, from a nonbinary pov: it is important to go into this knowing that it doesn't factor in trans and nonbinary women at all. It didn't particularly bother me, but if you're going into this expecting poems about ALL women, that won't be found here. I don't really mind, as this collection is so insanely personal and focuses on the experience of the poet. There's a running theme of poetry about wombs, uteruses, eggs; it gets to the point where it feels like being a woman is being reduced down to just those things, despite it not being the universal experience, but as I sat with this I realized... that's exactly the point? That is how society treats womanhood, whether you have those things or not, and a lot of our value is placed on that. It's awful. It's outdated. It's pain.
Overall, I found a lot of this collection rather uneven. Some hit a lot, others kind of missed. The first few didn't really resonate, then I remembered that I'd read that the author does spoken word and I was able to SEE how that influences these poems, and it instantly improved my experience.
Standout Poems:
- The Audacity of Men (by far my favorite)
- Jigsaw
- Love Yourself
- False Teachings
- Sum
- That-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named
September 20, 2021
2 - 2.5 stars
Incredibly evocative, with each piece the author built up so many layers and visuals. I also really enjoyed the different structures and formats—verse, tweets, office memos, dictionary entries, and many more— for each poem it really added texture and variety to the collection.
So the reason why I couldn’t rate this one any higher is because there seemed to be a heavy emphasis on uteruses and other reproductive organs, which is incredibly exclusionary to trans women and very disappointing considering this collection was supposed to focus on women not just cis women. My enjoyment significantly waned the further I got into the collection, as I stated before I did feel that the author built layers and visuals with each piece but there was a strain of repetitiveness (uteruses, wombs, ovaries, eggs, etc.) that got to be tiring.
Overall, I started off really enjoying this read but with the continued exclusion of trans women and the repeated use of reproductive organs--which instead of pushing away from the narrative that (some)women are nothing but certain organs it felt like it started doing the opposite--got to be tiring and repetitive. Maybe if the collection is read a poem at a time instead of back to back it would feel less repetitive and more enjoyable.
“When love choked on apologies it was only because peace was the greater offering.” -Ama Nkrumah
“How do you tailor women to your wants and call it love?" -God is a Woman
ARC given by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Incredibly evocative, with each piece the author built up so many layers and visuals. I also really enjoyed the different structures and formats—verse, tweets, office memos, dictionary entries, and many more— for each poem it really added texture and variety to the collection.
So the reason why I couldn’t rate this one any higher is because there seemed to be a heavy emphasis on uteruses and other reproductive organs, which is incredibly exclusionary to trans women and very disappointing considering this collection was supposed to focus on women not just cis women. My enjoyment significantly waned the further I got into the collection, as I stated before I did feel that the author built layers and visuals with each piece but there was a strain of repetitiveness (uteruses, wombs, ovaries, eggs, etc.) that got to be tiring.
Overall, I started off really enjoying this read but with the continued exclusion of trans women and the repeated use of reproductive organs--which instead of pushing away from the narrative that (some)women are nothing but certain organs it felt like it started doing the opposite--got to be tiring and repetitive. Maybe if the collection is read a poem at a time instead of back to back it would feel less repetitive and more enjoyable.
“When love choked on apologies it was only because peace was the greater offering.” -Ama Nkrumah
“How do you tailor women to your wants and call it love?" -God is a Woman
ARC given by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
August 13, 2024
i love reading books by my own people, especially people from my tribe! this was a really pretty collection i loved it! medaase ɔdɔ 🩷🇬🇭
Read
November 7, 2022The poems in Woman, Eat Me Whole create a space where any woman who has felt shamed, manipulated, or wounded may find solace. Ama’s verse is accessible and vivid. Of her themes, most meaningful to me now is that of faith. Faith coexisting with doubt. Faith defying a preacher’s misogyny. Faith finding the feminine God in a religion written by men. Solace indeed. Thank you, Ama Asantewa Diaka.
June 3, 2023
I loved this short collection of poems about, by and for women.
"But I have learned that nobody truly knows what to do about pain. So I choke my sorrow down and slip my happy face on."
Me too sister, me too.
"But I have learned that nobody truly knows what to do about pain. So I choke my sorrow down and slip my happy face on."
Me too sister, me too.
August 31, 2024
Very deep and thought provoking at times
June 19, 2023
Loved the themes and the various structures.
February 13, 2022
"This body has survived you loving it only some days"Anatomy of a Body Ama Asantewa Diaka
This poetry collection was very interesting to me. I loved that there were poems describing the stories of Ghanian women included along with the more personal stories Diaka tells. I didn't understand some of the metaphors Diaka chose to include but that could be a cultural misunderstanding. My favorite poems from the collections were "God in Every Nook", "Anatomy of a Body", "Our Father Who Art In Heaven", "Saltwater", and "A Utopia for Black Girls" ("how wide the soul stretches when the body has freedom to move! / what is breaking loose to a free spirit?)
December 14, 2021
I don’t always know the best way to review a poetry collection because poetry as a form of writing is so personal. Sometimes poetry isn’t written for me to understand, it was written for the author and the people who share the same experiences. Woman, Eat Me Whole was a physical experience for me. It was vulnerable and made me feel vulnerable. It reminded me of the pain and power that exists within womanhood in a way that is infuriating and beautiful. These poems were hard to swallow but easy to digest, they’re accessible and understandable. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection as a reading experience, thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
December 31, 2021
This debut poetry collection is a little uneven for me. I found some of the poems very moving and poignant, while others not as much. She experiments with style which sometimes works. There’s definitely talent here, the collection is just a bit uneven overall.
I do think that her take on feminism and womanhood was what worked. I think other reviewers would do well to remember that this is a book of poetry and not a textbook on womanhood or a book of essays on feminism. Poetry is deeply personal and subjective. Unless the poet is herself a trans woman, her experiences of womanhood in her poetry will be about her own experiences. That’s what poetry is.
I do think that her take on feminism and womanhood was what worked. I think other reviewers would do well to remember that this is a book of poetry and not a textbook on womanhood or a book of essays on feminism. Poetry is deeply personal and subjective. Unless the poet is herself a trans woman, her experiences of womanhood in her poetry will be about her own experiences. That’s what poetry is.
October 26, 2022
The poems are divided into 4 parts;
Woman, Eat, Me and Whole.
I absolutely loved all the poems in the Me Section and some of poems from the Whole part.
A few of the poems I couldn’t identify with but most of them I loved because they sounded like home, touched my core or were very-well written(with clear expressions). I saw some of my favorite poems from her chapbook, You too will know me.
I love Ama Diaka’s works and will definitely read anything from her!
Woman, Eat, Me and Whole.
I absolutely loved all the poems in the Me Section and some of poems from the Whole part.
A few of the poems I couldn’t identify with but most of them I loved because they sounded like home, touched my core or were very-well written(with clear expressions). I saw some of my favorite poems from her chapbook, You too will know me.
I love Ama Diaka’s works and will definitely read anything from her!
January 1, 2024
This was my first time reading Ama Asantewa Diaka's work, but it will certainly not be the last! These poems were simply beautiful and the narration by the author made them even more emotional to read/listen to. These reflections on womanhood, bodies, illness, and moving between two worlds were so incredibly moving. This is a collection I believe I will return to frequently, definitely a new and lasting favorite!
July 30, 2022
The craft of poetry is redefined and transformed into the lived experience of roots and rhythm here. A diagnosis and love letter to our innermost organs. The regret and remorse of the emptiness of feminism and the women we can no longer save. Here is poetry used as a portal to move us toward ourselves. It deepens and I am changed.
Read
December 31, 2022I was never the same after listening to this collection. Never the same. It felt like Asantewaa was writing about all my internal struggles, giving language to the things I can never express. I’m afraid this collection of poems will stay with me for life. Really good book
August 18, 2022
Such a wonderful collection but so dark! Too dark for me. I felt sad and or angry after reading.
September 16, 2022
"But if after years, you still have the same pain, it becomes part of your identity to the people who know you, but for you, the pain is always always new."
January 6, 2023
Vivid poetry. Spoken word Artist.
November 29, 2025
"I swallowed up all the red flags and / now they've become wounds that won't stop bleeding." - from Diaka's "Transmogrified dreamer and a God with a Wi-Fi connection"
This is just one of the lines that stopped me, and forced me to begin a poem anew to trace how we'd come to such an impact. And, from poem to poem, these lines loom large over the collection, anchoring Diaka's themes and riffs in fantastic fashion.
I can't actually remember what led me to want to read this collection--I requested it from the library months and months ago after it crossed my radar--but I'm so glad I kept waiting for it. Whether writing about identity, womanhood, religion/God, violence, or pain, Diaka's care with language, and her attention to language-play especially around definitions, is marvelous. The poems that stood out to me most were those dealing with pain--such a simple word used to signify so many different things, levels, hurts, and meanings, both abstract and as concrete and visceral as a word can be. Diaka's poems tackle 'pain' and the experience of it so clearly, so meaningfully, they stole my breath and forced me to reread whole poems over and over again.
I feel confident saying that many, many women--if not most--will see themselves and their experiences reflected within these pages, and see questions they've asked of themselves and the women around them explored with more nuance than such questions often receive.
I'd absolutely recommend this collection of poetry, and really to anyone. Although some of the poems may put off readers who don't often explore poetry, many of them are wholly accessible for even the most occasional poetry reader.
This is just one of the lines that stopped me, and forced me to begin a poem anew to trace how we'd come to such an impact. And, from poem to poem, these lines loom large over the collection, anchoring Diaka's themes and riffs in fantastic fashion.
I can't actually remember what led me to want to read this collection--I requested it from the library months and months ago after it crossed my radar--but I'm so glad I kept waiting for it. Whether writing about identity, womanhood, religion/God, violence, or pain, Diaka's care with language, and her attention to language-play especially around definitions, is marvelous. The poems that stood out to me most were those dealing with pain--such a simple word used to signify so many different things, levels, hurts, and meanings, both abstract and as concrete and visceral as a word can be. Diaka's poems tackle 'pain' and the experience of it so clearly, so meaningfully, they stole my breath and forced me to reread whole poems over and over again.
I feel confident saying that many, many women--if not most--will see themselves and their experiences reflected within these pages, and see questions they've asked of themselves and the women around them explored with more nuance than such questions often receive.
I'd absolutely recommend this collection of poetry, and really to anyone. Although some of the poems may put off readers who don't often explore poetry, many of them are wholly accessible for even the most occasional poetry reader.
June 21, 2025
These poems got me highlighting an unhealthy amount of passages. The poems felt like a collection of hallelujahs about womanhood and personhood.
A rich and fulfilling pick, to be taken in slowly.
"you haven’t been loved well enough until you’ve been loved like a man. Christ didn’t come in the body of a woman because even he knew he wouldn’t have lasted all 33 years with a mouth so holy and a tongue that sharp. when love stretched wide it was only to make space for the redemption of men. when love starved it was only because she dreamt of fed mouths."
"there is genius residing in your pores gods bow down at your feet say a prayer before they eat and ask for more"
"We hang love by a noose and suffocate it
We torture it with variations of “it’s not you, it’s me” talk
With “when I said I loved you in April, in that moment, no word has ever been truer” but in October “baby I don’t think we can be”
As if love was represented by smoke, moving through spaces, never settling. In the end, we’re all ordinary people in disguise."
A rich and fulfilling pick, to be taken in slowly.
"you haven’t been loved well enough until you’ve been loved like a man. Christ didn’t come in the body of a woman because even he knew he wouldn’t have lasted all 33 years with a mouth so holy and a tongue that sharp. when love stretched wide it was only to make space for the redemption of men. when love starved it was only because she dreamt of fed mouths."
"there is genius residing in your pores gods bow down at your feet say a prayer before they eat and ask for more"
"We hang love by a noose and suffocate it
We torture it with variations of “it’s not you, it’s me” talk
With “when I said I loved you in April, in that moment, no word has ever been truer” but in October “baby I don’t think we can be”
As if love was represented by smoke, moving through spaces, never settling. In the end, we’re all ordinary people in disguise."
March 26, 2022
This collection explores a lot of important topics like feminism, generational wealth, and the ways society polices and expects so much from women and their bodies. While I know the author is speaking from her own experiences, I found the language around womanhood a little offputting in the ways it focused so much on having female sex characteristics like a uterus. I don't want to say this was intentionally exclusive at all, but I wish there had been a bit less of that. Ama used a few experimental forms like medical reports, definitions, and tweets, some of which worked for me and some didn't. I also found that almost all of the poems were very obvious in their meaning. I wish she would've trusted the readers more to make some of them more subtle, to be able to focus more on language than being so explicit with meaning. I would still recommend this collection, especially as a good intro to poetry! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 86 reviews