83 pages
Published 2021
Read from May 3 to May 4
Rating: 4 out of 5
This book thunders and glides with impeccable grace and gravity. A collection of poetry at the intersections of eldritch horror and Black magnitude, of hip-hop and the cosmic, of white violence and the radical significance of Blackness, Tentacle hooks you in from the cover and never lets up, never lets go. In a cruel universe of horrors, “We are here,” as O’Brien writes in his author’s note, “because we have made an effort to remain, and to value what remains, as we must.”
It’s impossible to choose any particular favorite poems here; basically every piece has lines of multifaceted beauty and power, every stanza has a weight of importance. That said, I always like to single out particular poems:
“Hastur Asks for Donald Glover’s Autograph”
“because who she is matters more than her words”
“the repossession of skin”
“Lovecraft Thesis #1”
“postcard 20xx, where there are no dirges”
“Birth, Place”
“Young Poet Just Misses Getting MF DOOM’s Autograph”
“The Metaphysics of a Wine, in Theory and Practice”
“time, and time again”
“That Business They Call Utopia, Part One”
“drop some amens”
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