I wanted to like this more than I did. While the content itself captured me, the words and the lyricism unfortunately did not. I frequently found myself skimming when I didn't even realize I was doing so. One poem in particular did contain something I found quite poignant, though: "What can you run from / that does not inevitably find you, / that you do not inevitably return to, / that does not inevitably run / from you?" ( )

Some of these poems are so good, I have to read just one and let it sit for a while before even considering moving on to another. To say I envy Hayes' writing is a pathetic understatement. ( )

Brilliant poetry. A fearless and well-crafted excursion into the possibilities of form, always grounded to the real world, the personal at the core of each poem's subject matter. These poems leap (as Robert Bly recommends they should) and also transform right before your eyes, the way some formal poetry can with an image or object that keeps coming back to stabilize the structure but means something different each time. It is like a well planned but utterly surprising light show.
As a writer, I found myself rereading poems over and over, asking how he accomplished this or that. I will go back to these poems many more times.
There is a large intelligence behind this work. The historical knowledge and the awareness of poetry's history are subtle but everywhere. And the poems that focus on social justice (mostly race, but class and other issues are there) are amazing--revelatory, powerful, heart-stopping. The poems about racism and its history are strong medicine, and manage to deliver their message with excellent craft, deep compassion, and long arms that embrace the reader as they shake your heart. ( )

When Terrance Hayes is on, he is on fire. Unfortunately, only a handful of poems in this collection really did it for me (typically his poems on race, for whatever that's worth). Personal faves include: "As Traffic", "Elegy With Zombies For Life", "Antebellum House Party", and "Black Confederate Ghost Story". ( )