Begin with a Failed Body

I really enjoyed picking up this poetry collection. I always feel a little hesitant to read poetry by an author I'm unfamiliar with, but I must say that I'm glad I rolled the dice on this one. There is some truly lovely imagery in this collection. Natalie Graham is a skilled writer and I'd love to read more by her in the future.

What an experience reading this! These poems elucidate the epic depths of historical trauma on one's body, with precision and clarity. Her work will especially resonate with the oppressed.

From an astonishing depth, as if sacred scriptures and biblical figures were always hovering over Graham's pages. Death a reckless way of hatching emotions. With the lucid notion of her spectrum of possibilities as a black female poet. As she posts "The black body becomes/ the carcass of an insect,/ splinters of branches."Subtleties and scenes of chewing hard, remarking an overwhelming simplicity as in: "A tornado of flies./ An empty fire pit.".A book that starts out as strange but as you dive into it, you realize that your only desire is to finish reading it.

I don’t usually read a lot of poetry because I tend to be very picky about it, but I really enjoyed this collection.

Begin With a Failed Body contains poems spanning a variety of subjects, crafting skilled portraits of religion, family relationships, love, and loss. Graham’s writing is simply beautiful, shifting from colloquial slang to more elegant descriptions and back again in a blend that feels smooth and refreshing, like running water on a hot, humid day. She crafts powerful images in these lines, and leaves you with a stunning impression of life, woven closely with threads of the past. The lingering history of African-American slavery and oppression runs through poems set in both historical and modern times, a dark legacy that Graham seems highly conscious of. Throughout the whole collection, the use and descriptions of the human body play a central role in capturing scenes and relationships, in a way that makes them somehow more visceral and real.

The foreword was also beautifully written, and I think it did a lovely job of tying together the subject matter of all the poems fit together and the topics they addressed. My personal favorites were Judas Kiss, Magdalen with the Smoking Flame, and Ophelia by Water…something about the imagery and emotion in those ones made them incredibly beautiful to me.

Begin with a Failed Body

Poems



by Natalie Graham

University of Georgia Press

Multicultural Interest , Poetry

Pub Date 15 Sep 2017

I am reviewing a copy of Begin With A Failed Body through University of Georgia Press andNetgalley:

This books poems spell out life's traumas both Historical in the hear and now. It also speaks of Religious Icons, and the poems they inspire for Natalie Graham. The poems also speak loss.

The poems go on to talk about Judas and his betrayal.

I give Begin With A Failed Body five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

If I unravel this body
into a pool of black shimmering,

of ribbons, coils of dance, of flitting—



Begin with a Failed Body: Poems by Natalie Graham is the poet's first collection of published poetry and the winner of the 2016 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Graham earned her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Florida and completed her Ph.D. in American Studies at Michigan State University as a University Distinguished Fellow. Her poems have appeared in Callaloo, New England Review, Valley Voices: A Literary Review and Southern Humanities Review. She is a Cave Canem fellow and assistant professor of African American Studies at California State University, Fullerton.

This is a collection that I am not a typical audience member. The poems, without a doubt, are from the female and African American perspective. Nonetheless, I found the collection fascinating. In the first section, her work seems to capture Langston Hughes voice and language. The second section moves into religious topics with Judas and Mary Magnaline as subjects. The language of her poems flows well:

The oscillating fan shakes its rickety head.
She smoothes the raised black mane of a tattooed lion
and burns like Moses’s bush, fueled at four a.m.
by God-knows-what.
from "Palatka, Florida"

Graham seems to be greater than her actual age as references to items and activities seem to predate her in several instances. Perhaps this is more of an indication of the standard of living in poorer sections of Florida. This is also reflected in worn out shoes and Sunday dress as well as, for most of us, long vanished Datsun trucks. There is also a great sense of community from family and friends who take on the role as honorary aunts and uncles. Graham also presents a great deal of history included in the collection. Those who are neither not African-American nor from the South may have missed more of the personal references and history involved in the poems.

An excellent collection and an opening to a life that many have not experienced and perhaps a reminder that it should not exist in an enlightened and modern world.

Wow. Just wow. This was a beautiful collection of poetry from Natalie Graham and I am so thankful I was able to read it. There is so much depth and soul in each word that pours from her and it left me wanting more. Beautiful work.

*I received an advance reading copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.*