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Om författaren

Kyle Dargan is a Yusef Komunyakaa fellow at Indiana University, where he also serves as a poetry editor for the Indiana Review.

Inkluderar namnet: Kyle G. Dargan

Foto taget av: By Slowking - Own work, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29613849

Verk av Kyle Dargan

Associerade verk

The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop (2015) — Bidragsgivare — 171 exemplar
African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song (2020) — Bidragsgivare — 170 exemplar
The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2014 (2014) — Bidragsgivare — 144 exemplar
The Spoken Word Revolution Redux (2007) — Bidragsgivare — 84 exemplar
Bullets Into Bells: Poets and Citizens Respond to Gun Violence (2017) — Bidragsgivare — 55 exemplar
This Is the Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets (2024) — Bidragsgivare — 21 exemplar
Poetry Magazine Vol. 207 No. 5, February 2016 (2016) — Bidragsgivare — 11 exemplar
Soul Sister Revue : A Poetry Compilation (2019) — Bidragsgivare — 6 exemplar

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A note on anthologies: With poetry in particular I find it important to try new things, to listen openly and find the voices that speak to you, something hard to do when you only have access to full volumes by established authors. Poetry was never dead, but for some readers it was difficult to find the way in, and amplifying the voices speaking now is perhaps the best way to help that happen.

So, this is an excellent collection of poems you've likely not had the chance to read before. I am admittedly partial as it features my amazing sister, but I'm also pleased to find her in such good company.

My only critique is that the collection is very heavy on contrapuntal poems, in a form I've found is called a 'cleave poem', although at least one doesn't quite work in all three aspects. I'm all for a good structure; I even love a sestina, but the overuse does a disservice to the later poems which begin to just feel gimmicky.
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Kiramke | Jun 27, 2023 |

Anagnorisis: Poems by Kyle Dargan is a collection of poetry, in part, focusing on being African-American in today's America. Dargan is the editor and founder of POST NO ILLS magazine and an associate professor of literature and creative writing at American University. He earned his BA from the University of Virginia and MFA from Indiana University, where he was a Yusef Komunyakaa fellow and poetry editor of the Indiana Review.

A powerful and moving collection of poetry that begins with a focus of being black in America. From the opening Richard Pryor line of the first Africans in America to what change can be expected when you put a black man in the White House, Dargan focuses on race in America and legacy. The opening salvo is from a poem titled "Failed Sonnet After the Verdict" reflecting on the Zimmerman verdict and immediately follows up with the Obama presidency with "Avenger":

Behind 1600’s gates, the President sits bound
to the presidency like a superhero sidekick,
his mouth gagged by what “originalists” believe
the constitution says. Live streams, meanwhile,
pump night-­green footage from Ferguson’s
punctured lung into our timelines. Flash
grenades gush like stars spangling from a flag
drawn and quartered.
....

Somewhere is the negro’s imagined America,
where we have Iron Man on our side,
though it does not matter if the hero is “black”
so long as the body inside is. But super suits
and costumes don’t function like the Oval
Office. Vote a “black” man into a white house.
It’s still the White House—symbol of everything
we’ve been escaping—not a beacon, never rescue

Voice against the system or perhaps more commonly called the Resist movement is a common theme. Dargan joins the poets and artists resisting with words and art in his commanding couplet poem, "Poem Resisting Arrest" :

This poem will be guilty. It assumed it retained
the right to ask its question after the page

came up flush against its face.

The power of the early poems is followed up by a prose poem "Lost One" relaying personal experiences with what has been making the news. Dargan's next section of poetry centers on working in China, the difference in the peoples perspective, and his attempt to fit in. The pollution, the language barriers, and the people offer a different setting, yet there is no racism in a society that he is clearly an outsider. The collection closes with a section entitled "Dear Echo" which is much more reflective than the previous sections. Although starting with a poem about guns he quickly moves into nature, rain and dragonflies, and finally settles with the natural future of Earth.

Powerful, contrasting, current, assertive, and reflective this collection speaks volumes on America and man. Anagnorisis is a collection that lives up to its name.



Available September 15, 2018
… (mer)
 
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evil_cyclist | Mar 16, 2020 |
Poetry is an interesting art form. Some readers shy away from it while others approach carefully, unsure what to expect. At its best poetry has the ability to express something of the poet's heart while also allowing the reader to invest some of his heart as well. Kyle Dargan's Honest Engine is an example of poetry at its best.

It is intimately personal yet also international in scope. There are not many volumes, regardless of genre or length, that can make that claim. I tended toward the more personal which also suits my interest in culture and how we all operate within (without?) it. Not to mention I always enjoy hearing Love TKO running through my brain.

Because of my background I was a little unsure with the title because of the similarity it has to an old phrase ("honest injun") but quickly got past that as I came to appreciate Dargan's project.

Two things I want to leave with you. First, one poem entitled "State of the Union" was both timely and put a smile on my face with the image it gives. And second, my favorite line (to fully appreciate get the book and read the poem, "Suprematist Sweet Nothings"): "Make of me not song but singing."

I would recommend this to anyone interested in reading contemporary poetry that is both beautiful and thought-provoking.

Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads First Reads.
… (mer)
 
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pomo58 | Jan 24, 2016 |

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Statistik

Verk
8
Även av
11
Medlemmar
83
Popularitet
#218,811
Betyg
4.0
Recensioner
3
ISBN
9

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