Closer Baby Closer

by Savannah Brown

In this dazzling third collection, poet Savannah Brown holds a magnifying glass to modern intimacy with a lens that burns as often as it illuminates.

Moths, ex-lovers, Jeff Bezos, and other supernatural creatures flit through the pages as Brown charts her own cartographies through London and the world wide web seething in everybody's pocket.

These poems pinch and pull through the smallest moments, like someone trying to zoom in on a smartphone photo, or someone in the thrall of a bad, bad habit.

Genres: Poetry, Romance, Queer, LGBT, Nonfiction, Womens, Lesbian

96 pages, Paperback

First published February 14, 2023

About the author

Savannah Brown is an American writer and poet.

Her work deals with themes of existence, vulnerability and intimacy in the digital age.

Reviews

[Hilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got called a hoe for carrying this in public

[persephone ☾ · Rating 3 out of 5]

tucking safely my silly and overly dramatic notes app poetry away after reading "Poet (derogatory)"

[el · Rating 3 out of 5]

chronically online and obsessed with the self, in a late-to-the-viral-joke, sometimes corny, often breathtakingly gorgeous way. that obsession with the self frequently lands the reader in a place so embarrassingly vulnerable (and embarrassed to be vulnerable), it feels like magic. much of this poetry is alert to its own corniness, which makes it incredibly fun, and technicolor, and tender. 3.4/5—a linguistic hoot, even if a few larger moments in the book struggled to keep pace or click into place:

look! there’s a plane carving chemtrails in the night and they say / IN PURSUIT OF EXTREME MODERNITY / YOU HAVE BECOME INSUFFERABLE / CONGRATULATIONS YOU ARE SO DRUNK / AND SO CONTEMPORARY AND WITHOUT A CLUE / OH YOU DO LOVE THEM YOU DO JUST NOT / IN THE WAY THAT LETS BOTH OF YOU LIVE.

[Hallie · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Watching the sun rise over a world I invented, one I’m so scared to begin again.”

“In this infinite Venn diagram I’ll meet you in the middle.”

[deniz eilmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

i am a poet (derogatory)

[Alaska Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me encantó leer temas que me llegan tan cerca desde una perspectiva adulta. A veces el estilo me perdía debido a su extrañeza, pero es muy bueno. Altamente recomendado si les gusta leer poesía en idioma original.

[Malwina · Rating 5 out of 5]

So so sexy and so so agonizing and so so chronically online and so so so so lover girl


My new favourite book, oh god, oh god, if you find yourself within a 2m radius of me prepare to hear about it (and which poems I think you would relate to).

This is all so real and so human and I hate pain sm but if because of it I can understand pretty words and oxymorons and similes... it's bearable.

Much much more accessible language than in Sweetdark!! Lower quantity of super obscure words, but higher quality I think? Every word that I did not know and had to google ended up giving the poem a new perspective that I wouldn't have thought of.

I did a lot more literary analysis here than in Sweetdark too, probably because I am able to relate to things from this one more. Might be because I'm older now too, idk, will have to revisit Sweetdark...

Highly recommend if you want to read about paradoxes, physical affection, (im)mortality, party girls, secrets, universe, women, women, women, yearning and deepest desires.

Idk, I just felt understood and honestly that's all I want from a book of poetry.



(ALSO, ESCAPRIL IS COMING!!!! AND BY GOD, WILL I ESCAPE!!!!!!!)

[Bash Harry · Rating 5 out of 5]

existential, feminist, bimbo darling (positive)

[library ghost (farheen) · Rating 1 out of 5]

i hate when i am reading something and it becomes clear that the author is chronically online

[aimilina · Rating 5 out of 5]

as always, i'm in love with brown's poetry. gulped this down in two days. insane. makes me think of if "wasteland baby" and the feeling you get when you're drunk and confused and you abruptly realise you don't belong in this house party, had a baby. the emotions of this book are that baby.
anyway enjoy it! solid 5 stars

[So long, Sana · Rating 4 out of 5]

~ “𝙎𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙙𝙖𝙮 𝙄'𝙡𝙡 𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜
𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙖 𝙙𝙤𝙤𝙧 𝙗𝙚𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙩.”

• Where can I start with? Reading it was like touching the clouds, I don’t know if you get what I mean, but somehow I could feel a free spirit, leaving delicate words behind.

~ “𝙉𝙤𝙬 𝙄'𝙢 𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙧
𝙨𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨
𝙇𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙝𝙪𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙛𝙡𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜
𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙚
𝙅𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙜𝙧𝙞𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙞𝙩 𝙨𝙪𝙗𝙪𝙧𝙗 𝙨𝙪𝙜𝙖𝙧 𝙬𝙚'𝙡𝙡 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙩𝙖 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙊𝙝 𝙄 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙤𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙬
𝙏𝙤𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙬 𝙄'𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙨𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙤 𝙢𝙪𝙘𝙝 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙠 𝙤𝙝 𝙞𝙩 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙙𝙖𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙢𝙮 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚.”

[⋆.˚ livia .☘︎ ݁˖]

poet (derogatory) did something to me

other favorites:
- retroactive jealousy
- the hottest girl in the world!!!!!
- jeff bezos’ sexts
- everything is complicated

[eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

exquisite as always

[Ezgi Güzey · Rating 5 out of 5]

right after i finished this, i went on to write this message to my dear friend:

“happy birthday my sweet.
today i read a poem that shot through me, got stuck in my center and then went on to explode. i am now deconstructed flesh, human confetti and in states like these i feel more appreciative of what i intentionally hold inside. you’re one of my favorite pieces of me. no matter how far apart our bodies are, or how big the distance is between our branching paths, i know you’re a part of me, and i’m proud of it because it’s you.

so if i’m all confetti,
and you’re somewhere in there with my other bits,
if someone held out an open palm
and got to have you land on it
i know it would feel as if a butterfly were to choose them to bless with her magic.

so whoever is holding your hand right now, i hope they know what they’re seizing.

i love you.

here is that poem;”

i will not tell you which poem it is.

[Goodreeds User · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book kicked my ass!!

[Jared Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

very sexy, dark, big, microscopic. very very internet, but also very very space and very very city of london(?)

[shrav · Rating 3 out of 5]

definitely for the gen z lesbians who love oatmilk and onlyfans

[Keeley Dennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️3.75

[Zak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life happens! And if life is a woman, I'd call it Savannah.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

"He likes my poems because 'it's interesting to see
how differently we experience the same moment'
which was a nice way to say I'm always overreacting."

[amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

þetta var eiginlega of krónískt onlæn fyrir mig, bara af því ég er ekki jafn krónískt onlæn.

[Faith]

I thought I wouldn’t like this for some reason but it was cool!

These poems cover relationships and dating in the digital age. Set against the backdrop of London, Brown renders the precarious tenderness of new love in the poem ‘Sudden fall long stop,’ the apprehension of starting anew in ‘First date,’ the struggles of communication in ‘Unmute me unmute me unmute me!’ and coping with a breakup in ‘Wilhelm Yawp.’

The poem ‘Poet (derogatory)’ explains how emotions can be easier to convey in poems (a little bit akin to the famous “tell all the truth but tell it slant”). The line “Why can’t I just say it straight?” stands out as it cuts off a block of asyndetic lines.

But it’s not all serious. Many of the poems are satirical, with a sort of levity and humour. The poem ‘Jeff Bezos’ sexts,’ for example, refashions words and phrases from texts that Bezos sent to his mistress in 2019.

Unsurprisingly, this contemporary verse is complemented by the form; many of the poems are punctuated with slashes, plus signs, and one is even written in HTML format. I personally found it distracting though, as it disrupted the flow. The poem below is a case in point. An earlier version of it had the word “and” instead of the plus signs:

The problem with other people

is that one must leave before the other
+ one always gets there first. Words
left in my notes app when I was too eager
and soon: hoax, lonely drum, I'm
only typing this to look wanted,
but you + I once discovered
we had arrived on opposite ends
of the same damned train, and when
the day became a grey-blue smolder
but appetite still flashed its barb
one of us said, well, why can't we
just stay? + how obvious it felt to stay,
our common history as new and bright
as a bulb. This is the decision, to know
you and keep knowing—our forms framed
in the yellow second story window
like displaced moons who've found
the other in the same foreign orbit,
who meet + continue to meet
even after all the easy words have gone.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Under the nail
skin unravels like a[n]
orange peel

closer baby closer is the third poetry collection and fifth book by savannah brown. though i have not read her novels, i have read Sweetdark and quite enjoyed it!

closer baby closer is the middle ground between short, sweet instagram styled poetry and traditional verse. brown covers digital topics, the internet, jeff bezos' sexts which is what makes instagram/social media style poetry come to mind.

i am sad that I don't have favourite poems, and even sadder that I am not obsessed with this. I do have favourite descriptions! (if I did have a fav poem it would be My God, girlhood ripened) Here are the ones that caught my eye:

plushy leg fat straining against a grater of fishnet (p. 15)

obsession grants me the precision
of a surgeon... (p. 19)

3/5

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am by no means an authority on poetry, but this collection wrenched my heart out of my body, forced it to experience the spiritual heat death of the universe, kissed it on the forehead and gently put it back and then ghosted it forever, trapping it in a never-ending and agonizing rose-coloured nostalgia for all that was, is and ever will be.

This is Bo Burnham's Inside but for difficult girls with mummy issues and anxiety. Reading it feels like crying on your birthday or being unexplainably sad at a new year's party or thinking about your mother when she was young. It's being so so in love and painfully aware of the fact that you and everyone else will die. (complimentary)

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

some of the poems with a lot of shock value could’ve been developed more and the space metaphors for existentialism were boring

[Arden · Rating 1 out of 5]

The fact that this has a 4.1 average rating on Goodreads makes me feel like a crazy person.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange and generally beautiful book that I'm probably reading at exactly the wrong moment in my personal life. A lot of these poems are genuinely painful and funny in a very internet-drenched manner, and some of them held observations true enough that it made me want to hate it. Probably the first poetry collection to feature the word 'OnlyFans'.

[Anastasia]

existential doom! and that god awful human shine of desire! bodies being bodies and minds being minds in the year of our lord 2024

συγχωρήστε τα αγγλικά και τις δυο αναφορές στον θεο, ούτε κι εγώ ξέρω από που ήρθαν (ψέματα λέω, ξέρω, αλλα ο,τι είναι τώρα)

[Drew Kolenik · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a huge fan of her 2020 Sweetdark poetry collection I was very excited for this release and am shocked it took me this long to finally get around to reading this. That being said, as much as I wanted to enjoy this I really couldn’t get into it. A few standouts for me were “Pigeon Poem” “Top comment” and the second half of “Bezo sexts”. Other than those I wasn’t really drawn to these as much as I thought I’d be. Sweetdark felt much more cosmically horrified and introspective whereas this batch of poems are more about relationships and feel more rooted in modern online culture and I really don’t connect with that as much. I also think (if I remember correctly) I found the formatting of her previous collection more compelling as well. I was taken out of the many poems by their use of modern language that feels very fleeting in a way that disservices the poems, ie gorilla grip. I think instead of coming as tongue in cheek or irreverent these moments felt somewhat corny and overdone. I so wish I enjoyed this collection more because Savannah Brown is such a talent and I still look forward to reading what she does next!

P.S. could have gone with three stars because some of the language really is so beautiful but percentage-wise I sadly have to go 2/5.

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This poetry book kissed me on the cheek, spilled my drink down my front, told me we are all just living in a simulation, sneezed glitter in my face, asked if I still thought about my ex from 5 years ago, correctly suggested I start seeing a therapist again, begged me to rUN AWAY NOW GO GO GO, and then texted me a meme saying just kidding, everything is going to be alright if you just re-tie your bikini top and keep walking.