A review by lightsaber
Crush by Richard Siken

Richard Siken seriously needs to be compensated for the amount of times people rip words, lines, stanzas out of his poems and post them somewhere. I have read so much of Siken's work but this is my first time reading anything of his in FULL. What a goddamn shame, to have seen and read and felt so many of lines, some of which I know are his, others that I don't know are his, and not know their full context.

So many of the bits of his poems that are presented separated from the work in his full take on entirely different meanings in their full context. Lines that sound hopeful become distressed and panicked. Anything that sounds panicked becomes resigned and futile.

If you like anything about his works that you've seen on tumblr, just buy the collection. Support a living, breathing artist. Read his work the way he wants it to be read. Stop taking it for granted. Stop taking it to apply to your favorite ships. Man.

Anyway I liked it a lot. I don't rate poetry collections on a star basis anymore but this is really up there for me.