Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Crush

“Crush” is full of:
a. hands
b. glass
c. death and blood
d. knives and guns
e. stars
+the language of passion, mourning and violence
etc.
It’s also really gay.
All of this half-joking sentiment aside - the language is accessible and sometimes surprisingly rich, the thoughts not so much. Funnily enough, roughly half of the lines perplexed me while the other half seemed so… uninspired, bland - cliché if you will. Although I must admit a few stuck around (the liked quotes and a few other lines).
There is a grander emotional narrative being spun but all in all the poems moreso overlap and mingle, with leitmotifs galore, rather than form a story.
Much of the deeper meaning escapes me as I haven’t been able to scratch under the surface yet. This is possibly due to my dislike of Siken’s way of writing poetry, the sheer (literal and thematic) repetition of it bludgeoned any patience and interest left in me (as it rarely worked, in my opinion). I don’t know.
But there’s something missing, unfulfilling here. The collection felt like flashing images.
To conclude, Richard Siken’s poetry just doesn't speak to me and I've made my peace with that fact.

Content Warnings

dowsa's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

“your name like a box where i keep my love, your name like a nest in the tree of love”
“We are all going forward, none of us are going back.”

I love when books give me so many quotes that it’s hard to pick just one! I missed poetry so I went on google and searched “love poems about grief” and one of Siken’s poems in this collection came up. This was a wonderful read, it gave me chills at times, confused me at times. I started reading this book (collection?) because I wanted to be inspired about writing through pain, and loving through loss. And I think it delivered just that.

Content Warnings