"I love my mother like I love breathing air / even when she bruises me" (Grocery Shopping with My Mother)

Grocery Shopping with My Mother is a masterpiece of a collection navigating Kevin Powell's history and the history of his family, marked by the moments in time he penned poems about his and their experiences.

The choice to format this as a musical album was absolutely genius. There was a lyrical beat to each poem, crafted carefully and placed just right to flow into the next. I loved so many poems in the collection. The short list is: A Praise Song for Sidney Poitier, For Miss Shirley LeFlore, For V (formerly Eve Ensler), Our Mothers, The Beatles, Enough, Baseball, Janet Jackson Never Lies, America, Haiku for Vangie, For You, A Love Sonnet, and September 11th.

I can't write this review without mentioning "letter to bell hooks" which brought me to tears almost immediately. I adore bell hooks' poetry and the impact she left on the writing community as a whole. Out of all of my favorite poems in this collection, "letter to bell hooks" will stay with me forever.

Overall, this was incredible. I think I'll be returning to this set of poems a lot in life and soaking them up again and again.

Thank you to NetGalley and Soft Skull Press for providing me with a copy for an honest review!

"books are love to us / words pour like milk from our lips / watch this poem drink you" (Haiku for Vangie)