The Affirmations

by Luke Hathaway

This is a story, writes Luke Hathaway, of transformation. It is a death. It is a birth. / Birth, of course, is very terrible: what can survive it? His fourth collection, and first since Years, Months, and DaysNew York Times Best Poetry Book of 2018, The Affirmations is a work of trans poetics in the most radical sense. Begun in motherhood, in an experience of birth as an experience of affirmation, and continued through Hathaway's transition, The Affirmations is a rerelationing with self and other, elder and myth. It's a book about what happened when Hathaway fell in love—and about what happened when love shot the messenger.

Genres: Poetry, Queer, Canada, LGBT

120 pages, Paperback

First published April 5, 2022

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm listening to Hathaway's reading of "New Year Letter" for, perhaps, the sixth time. If I could write one poem that real and intimate, "given to the enfleshment of a vision," I would be forever content. (This, of course, is not true. Like Hathaway and Donne, I am a metaphysician and see something holy in discontent, but it is true that while Hathaway's poems may not be about "the sustenance of belief," they sustain return after return. They resist and entice.)




First "review": A book I'll be returning to again and again and again (as I already have with several of Luke's earlier works). I will probably edit this into a longer review later.

[Clare K H · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the writing was fabulous. It helps that I love metaphysical poetry and also some understand catholic dogma/Latin mass. There were times I delighted in the cleverness or the newly wrought changes to a well know story or phrase / but other times it was weighted down by my own lack of an anchor to what the poet was trying to express. Other times I found it very dark and/or pretentious. Veryu mixed.

[Dorothy Mahoney · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Water they say is taught by thirst... thirst is also taught by water" is the beginning and the ending of the poem "As the hart panteth After the Water Brooks." Luke Hathaway's collection, The Affirmations is a sensitive and thought-provoking look at love and identity with a musical spirituality that is best experienced if you can hear him sing the poems. So magical. Apparently, the audio guide provides a fuller experience than just reading the book, although his lyrically phrases dance from the page.

[squidchianti]

Favorite line: "those who burn their love letters are twice warmed"

I don't know what to rate the book because I don't think I fully understood it!! Also, having distanced myself from the church as part of my coming out, it was a bit of an uncomfortable listen, personally :)

[Carla]

Astonishing poems. It’s in the tradition of mystical poetry— and yes, it’s about transitioning, but seen in a deeper spiritual context.