The Bones Below

by Sierra DeMulder

A clear voice of her generation, Sierra DeMulder's writing offers a gritty yet sincere perspective on the dichotomy of living; pain coupled with joy.

This collection delicately carries the reader to a place of brutal, beautiful honesty. DeMulder's personal revelations complete a touching portrait of the artist and her fearless exploration of the human experience, bare in its rawest and most tender forms.



Praise


"Sierra DeMulder possesses the most important quality a young writer can have, a unique voice. That voice exploded onto the national spoken word scene, moving her rapidly up the ranks as one of the most exciting performance poets working today. Sierra uses subtlety and tension the way photographers use angle. She will eat your heart with a spoon."


- Karen Finnyfrock


"...violently passionate and sweet, deftly moving between the two modes."


- The Lamron, SUNY Geneseo


"...intensely personal."

- Huffington Post

Genres: Poetry, Contemporary, Female Authors, Literature, Nonfiction, The United States Of America

82 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2010

About the author

Sierra DeMulder is an internationally-recognized poet, performer, and podcast host. She is a five-time published author, a two-time National Poetry Slam champion, the recipient of a McKnight Foundation fellowship, and the co-host of Just Break Up, a globally popular advice podcast that has been downloaded more than 4 million times.

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't so hard. I love Sierra DeMulder's writing--every fucking letter of every fucking word. Poetry is something that is insanely difficult to describe and even if it weren't I still could not put words to her poems.

I'm going to tell you guys my favorites! With poems I will leave quotes for, and others I won't. You get what you get (:

(The first six are the best of the collection in my opinion.)



During the Month it Took You to Leave Me
"There are six states pressed like stubborn flowers between the last time I kissed you and today, but you still feel like a sound caught in my throat."

Taxidermy
"To lose a child is like giving birth in reverse. It is slow and it rips, planting a permanent lump in your throat. When chemotherapy pulled out the last of her hair, you started carrying her baby teeth in your pocket: A reminder things can grow back."

Sawdust

Mrs. Dahmer
"When you were small, I told you: you can grow up to be anything."

Heart Apnea
"I babble in my sleep. He believes I am trying to tell him how my heart works, says he will translate the manual one day. I want to ask him: am I the ocean? Are you drowning in everything I don't say when I'm awake?"

Cycle of Abuse
"I loved you head over handles like my first bicycle accident--before the mouthful of gravel and blood, I swore we were flying."

When The Apocalypse Comes

To the Woman Hitting on my Boyfriend
"Dating is like finding the least rusted bear trap around the ankles of someone you just might be able to look at for the rest of your life. Intimacy is the art of licking wounds. It's taken me years to let anyone kiss me when my lips were chapped."

Ode to Carbonation
"You taste like what I imagine swallowing radio wires feels like: all sparks and pop music in my throat."

At First Sight

What to do After You've Memorized the Face of the Person You Love

Five Years After
"You wonder why I don't answer your 3 a.m. phone calls. When you say "I miss you," I begin to undress myself out of habit."

[Liz Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was read for the #readwomen month.
I wish I had seen her perform all of these. I discovered her after listening to her "The Tampon Poem", and knew that I needed to listen to all of her other slams (my favourite soon becoming her "To Michelle Bachmann". Click on those links and listen to what she has to say, the first one will be funny and important, the second one important as well, but extremely sad. Then after listening to her, read this, for even though it is not as strong as her slam poetry, it is beautiful and breathtaking nonetheless.

[Lyd Havens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Go read this book. I don't care if you don't like poetry. Go read this book.

By far some of the best modern poetry I have ever read, if not THE best modern poetry I've ever read. This woman, she is a wordsmith. You can feel the emotion she puts into her poems, like Mrs. Dahmer, and Static. She covers everything- her exes, a shooting, the mother of a serial killer.

I am in love with this book, and I'm going to have the privilege of working with Sierra DeMulder in June at the Gustavus Slam Poetry Camp. I am so, so excited.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know a book is good when you are torn between going to sleep and continuing to read. You know a book is amazing when you turn a page and wonder why the poet named a poem "acknowledgments", quickly realizing that you've finished and wondering how that happened. Well, let me tell you this book is AMAZING.
This collection is so fantastic, seriously. I'm flabbergasted (not a word I use lightly, by the way) at the rawness of the poems. DeMulder holds nothing back, and she doesn't punch lightly. A few of these felt like getting hit in the stomach so hard all the wind got knocked out of me. They are intense and honest and about such real subject matter. I've never read anything like it before. Part of why I love her poetry so much is because she doesn't hold anything back. Nothing is off limits. And this collection is so revealing. It feels like the most honest book of poetry I've ever read, to tell the truth.
I am a humongous fan of Sierra DeMulder's work. I discovered her on YouTube when I was about 16, and I never looked back. At that time, a few of her poems were so hard-hitting and so close to home it was eerie. I've memorized many of her poems watching them on YouTube on repeat. So I can't tell you how excited I am to go back to the multiple poems I tagged and reread them, again and again. I also noticed many poems I recognized from YouTube in this collection, which was cool because they were slightly different here and there. I can't decide which version I like better because when I read them I hear her voice inside my head doing the version I know so well! I'll have to work on that. :)

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sierra Demulder's poetry isn't for everyone. It's matter of fact, observant, and sometimes very simple. You might read half the book and not yet be impressed... But let me tell you something about Sierra Demulder's poetry. When you land on the poem that does connect to you, it won't be some fanciful string of words that takes you back to a fine summer day when you were twelve. The poem that connects to you will be raw, and it will be so stark and self-aware that after a handful of poems you just skimmed past, you'll stop - and you won't be able to move on until you've read it five times. When you find that poem, you might put the book down halfway through it and have to come back later, uncomfortable and not daring to put your finger on why. You might read through in a flash - just once, very quickly - and then read it again, line by line, breath caught as you hold the words up against your life and wonder how she knew about that night/that memory/that prickling bitterness that filled your throat and made you want to rage against the world/that secret wish late at night when you were by yourself and it was very, very dark outside yet darker inside still. I gave The Bones Below a 4 because most of the poems didn't wow me; I gave The Bones Below a 4 because the poems that did blew me away.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not your grandma's poetry!


(even though your grandma's poetry is nice too)

[Doms Candels · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible.

*Some of my favorite quotables*

It's a complicated anger to be jealous of your own skin.

There is an orchestra on my neck shaped like your
from all the nights you held me the way
you only hold something slipping.

You still feel like a sound caught in my throat.

Would Mary be forsaken if Jesus had not grown
to be the son God had intended to father?
If he did not wear a crown of thorns,
but instead wrapped it around his knuckles?
Will I be forgiven for the sins I did not commit
but created?

I will crawl to you across this curdling parking lot of a city,
lick your body new again like my tongue is God's hand
trying to erase and recreate the earth.

This world is a melting candle
we're only using for foreplay.

You taste like what I imagine swallowing radio wires
feels like: all sparkles and pop music in my throat.

[Camille · Rating 5 out of 5]

The poems written by DeMulder tell a feeling. An emotion is evoked every single time one of her beautiful words is read. I fell in love with each of this poems and consumed this book in a few hours. I didn't want to rush into it, I swear. I said to myself that poetry shouldn't be read like that, in a day, and so I tried to put it away but it was really hard. And sooner than expected, the book was finished and I was left being inspired with all of these emotions.

I highly recommend this book to all lovers of good poetry. If you want to make the experience even better, look up for some of her amazing SLAM Poetry. You won't regret it.

[Donald Armfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Modern pains of living, beautiful honesty said by 'Karen Finneyfrock.' Those words nail down DeMulder's poetry with a stake through your eyes that leave them glued and watering for more. The whole collection is worth checking out. Here is some that stand out for me.

-Some Like it Hot
-Paper Dolls
-Under Apron
-Come. Sit. Heel. Stay
-Heart Apnea
-Sawdust

[Debi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Words are primal in this collection--emotion stripped of shields. Great reading; sublime if you can catch a live performance of this talented poet.

[May · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I was the one with the needle and thread.
I would hem her hands over themselves
so she would know how it felt to be helpless.
-- One A.M.

I think I've made my stance on contemporary poetry very clear (i.e i do not understand or care), but collections like this give me hope.

A friend gave this book to me on a Saturday night and I quickly lamented that I do not read poetry, nor do I know how to read poetry. His response was, "Just keep reading!"

And so I did. I read this and sort of yelled at some of the poems in this collection, finding myself astounded, confused and heartbroken all at the same time. I still cannot say that I understand poetry more than I did before reading this, but I can see why people would like poetry now.

The Bones Below is a collection of poetry about love, hate, faith, rape, loss and the occasional legends of pop culture. And I sort of love it.

Would Mary be forsaken if Jesus had not grown
to be the son God had intended to father?
If he did not wear a crown of thorns,
but instead, wrapped it around his knuckles?
Will I be forgiven for the sins I did not commit,
but created?

When you were small, I told you:
you can grow up to be anything.
-- Mrs Dahmer

There is something very gritty and brutal about the way Sierra DeMulder writes, bringing to mind Lorrie Moore and Charles Bukowski, and if I were to be honest, I love anything that is tragic and brutal especially if they come in the form of first person narrative, prose or, in this case, poetry. Also, I think the fact that DeMulder is a spoken word artist helps me like her poetry more than, say, Rupi Kaur or Lang Leav. Her words just feel so right in the mouth.

Some of my favourites from this collection are Mrs Dahmer, Some Like it Hot, The Other Woman (funny how Lorrie Moore's How To Be an Other Woman from Self-Help is also one of my favourites. huh.) and When The Apocalypse Comes.

I'd recommend this to beginner readers of poetry (like myself!), fans of Sarah Kay and slam poetry.

I know it's hard to feel perfect
when you can't tell an Adam's apple from a fist/
Some ashtray of a man pick you to play his Eden
but I will not watch you collapse.
-- Paper Dolls

[max]

there were a few decent bits but largely i found this underwhelming. DEFINITELY not helped by the copy i was reading having been written in by the original owner with THEEE most stupid fucking commentary. i hate you anonymous stranger and i hate piglet too whoever they are.

[Chloe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kind of went back and forth on this one. There were some poems I really liked ("Mrs. Dahmer", "The Other Woman", "Taxidermy" and "Misplacing Their Ring Fingers" stood out for me) and others I was lukewarm on or didn't really enjoy. Unfortunately, the poems I wasn't into outnumbered the ones I liked. I think Demulder has an interesting style; this book just wasn't consistent or developed enough for me. (Also some pretty obvious typos, which were distracting from the content.)

[Taylor Heywood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is poetry about waking up at 7 am, drinking coffee and sitting on your front porch watching the sun rise, then set, then rise again. This is poetry about the one thing that still makes your mother smile. This is poetry about the pain, and job, and everything in between that comes from living life with your heart on your sleeve and a pen in your hand.

This is poetry that'll make you understand why people become poets at all. This book is why people become poets.

[erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I loved you head over handles
like my first bicycle accident —
before the mouthful of gravel and blood,
I swore we were flying."

words that are etched into my heart forever. i love this woman and her writing.
also, i've been seeing this quote everywhere for years and i never knew it was about an abusive relationship. the context of domestic abuse gives it a whole new meaning.

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

ONE OF THE MOST COMPELLING BOOKS OF POETRY I HAVE ENCOUNTERED.
stunningly unique
a fresh voice
a fresh perspective
Beautiful.

[Loulu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sierra's voice will quiet a crowded room. These poems are fresh and ring clear. The words will reverberate through your bones.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. I found Demulder on YouTube-- her performance of "Paper Dolls" drew me right in and made me buy this book. Definitely going to get a copy of her newest work.

[Vero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sierra's voice is raw but meticulous. Her poems are the perfect balance of simplicity and complex abstract imagery. It's just beautiful. I have no more words, just go read Sierra's

[Bianca | bookd_by_bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. One of my favorite lines:
"Am I the ocean?
Are you drowning in everything
I don't say when I'm awake?"

This is a nice break from all the fiction I read.

[Camilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful, beautiful poetry!

[Alexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

DeMulder's poetry is succinct and powerful, to a point. She speaks through a young and vibrant voice, and her poetry packs a punch. She's following the (somewhat recent) trend running through millennial poetry which is to speak about the everyday and to be accessible to all readers. In that sense, what she's doing works for her intended audience. However, among the hits in this collection, there are many misses. There's some material that seems overdone and tired (poetry written as the 'other woman,' a poem dedicated to the woman hitting on her boyfriend) and while it's usually fine to rewrite subject matter (since we're all doing that to a certain extent at this point) it has to be done in a new and interesting way to leave its mark, and for some pieces in this collection that's not at all the case. This is for fans of modern poets like Rupi Kaur and Sarah Kay, who prove that poetry does not have to be lofty, complicated, or grand to still be good.

[Sof · Rating 3 out of 5]

The poem "Taxidermy" just... guts me like a fish. Brutal and gorgeous.
A lot of these poems honestly feel as if they could've been pared down, refined, sculpted a bit more—simply needing a more ruthless editor to, I guess, reveal them to themselves? There's some stuff in here that just feels unfinished/unfulfilled, half-poems or first drafts more so than anything else. But DeMulder is also an incredible welder of language-as-unraveling, as terror and desire-place. Her metaphors are startling and often ridiculously original; some of these poems are wonders.
A really mixed collection, for me, but anyways, DeMulder is a wonderful poet.

[Teddy Bear Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so beautiful! Smaller than its rival of which I have recently read, No Matter the Wreckage by Sarah Kay, this collection holds slightly less poetry, and therefore has less filler-poems. My favorites here were definitely the tribute/biographic poems–Some Like it Hot, about Marilyn Monroe, Mrs. Dahmer, about the infamous serial killer's mother, Static, the tale of a school shooter's descent into insanity . Overall, I loved this, and am eager to pick it up again just to quickly reread my marked-up faves.

[Erin Clements · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I know it's hard to feel perfect / when you can't tell an Adam's apple from a fist. / Some ashtray of a man picked you to play his Eden / but I will not watch you collapse." -"Paper Dolls"

After being a fan of Sierra DeMulder for years and years, I finally got around to reading this, and I'm so happy I did. Sierra is one of my favorite poets for a reason: her words always carry so much impact, and are spun beautifully around metaphors that leave me breathless. This collection was beautiful.

[Russell Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a great read, some beautiful pieces in here, it is however, one of those books that is made better if you’re already a fan of her work (Today Means Amen, New Shoes on a Dead Horse), personally, one of my favourite collections, but if a first time reader, ‘Today Means Amen’ has more of the “Wow” factor, and not so much the “so deeply personal I feel like I’m reading her diary”. It’s depressing, yes, but it’s also the starting point for one of the best poets in the last decade.

[Jenn Pickens · Rating 5 out of 5]

DeMulder's poems are so diverse. Poignant and straight-forward or abstract and full of metaphor. They strike me differently every time I read them. I love that they often leave me questioning her intent while also creating feelings; such a beautiful combination. Her poetry is open for interpretation and for the experience. She is raw. She is honest. She is powerful. I will come back to her poetry again and again.

[Chrissy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh boy. Painfully adolescent. Reading this reminded me so strongly of being a college student--insecure, angry, blissfully & obliviously self-centered, and constantly trying to find meaning in trite and meaningless things. DeMulder's writing can be sharp and poignant, but overall, this collection was a little cringey.

[Desirae · Rating 4 out of 5]

The bonfire from last night had been swallowed by the earth and covered with white ash. We placed lawn chairs on its grave, sat on the blanket of dust and spoke about things we pretended not to miss— oblivious to the stubborn kindling that refused to let go of the fire which had burned so strongly for it once.

[Kimberly Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
There are a handful of pieces in this collection that are positively gut wrenching and stunning, and you can see how competent a storyteller the author is. The book, however, didn't live up to those poems as a whole- all together it didn't feel as complete or cohesive as I would have liked. Worth a read, especially if you're familiar with her previous work!