Calling a Wolf a Wolf | 
pickGut-wrenching. That's the word that immediately comes to mind in when I think of everything I just read. All the struggle, all the pain, all the insecurities.
Exploring realms of faith, loss, fear, love and alcoholism Kaveh took me places I never expected to go. Made me feel things I never expected to feel. And opened my mind to situations I never envisioned
1. Yes! I feel like poetry cuts right to the heart of things and can convey things more effectively sometimes than prose, although I love prose too.
2. Free form
3. Tagged
@ozma.of.oz #sundayfunday
pickKaveh Akbar's poetry could be the direct descendant of Hafiz's in its divine intoxication. But in Akbar, that mystical 'drunkenness' holds hands with alcoholism and he thirsts for the human body as much as for God/faith.
Despite the largely unvarying tone he kept wrong-footing me with his striking leaps and an abraded, ravaged beauty that kept me thinking about these poems throughout the day and wanting to return to them again and again.
That moment when a quote stops you in your tracts.
“for years I consumed nothing
that did not harm me
and still I loved, witless
as a bird flying over state lines.
I would be more grateful
if being alive hadn‘t seemed so effortless”
10/31 of #thesealeychallenge. I‘m super not going to make it to 31 books in 31 days, but am still happy at what I‘ve been able to do!
Interesting, given I‘m personally struggling a lot with having no appetite and not sure what to do about it.
Not doing so well with not starting new books when I have a few others to finish but it‘s been a while since I read poetry, and it‘s my soul‘s home.
pickCalling a Wolf a Wolf is full of desire and alcoholism, identity and guilt, God and words. I love his use of space on the page because it makes you take a pause along with him.
Some of my favorites are Do You Speak Persian?, Some Boys Aren't Born They Bubble, Desunt Nonnulla, Thirstiness is Not Equal Division, River of Milk, God, So Often the Body Becomes a Distraction... So many good ones!
pickAs I was reading this collection, Akbar‘s poems often felt to me wounded, perhaps even to the point of self-loathing. Yet at the same time they felt innocent, too, full of awe and wonder at the world we live in. And yet it all felt of a piece.
pickI'm still breathless over this. I felt everything a person could feel, even things I'd never felt. This is a collection for everyone.
"I try not to think of God as a debt to luck / but for years I consumed nothing / that did not harm me / and still I lived, witless // as a bird flying over state lines. / I would be more grateful / if being alive hadn't seemed so effortless, // the way I'd appreciate gravity more / if I'd had trouble floating in my teens."
-"Personal Inventory: Fearless (Temporalis Fila)"
"I am not a slow learner I am a quick forgetter / such erasing makes one voracious if you teach me something / beautiful I will name it quickly before it floats away"
-"Desunt Nonnulla"
"envy is the only deadly sin that's no fun for the sinner"
-"Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Inpatient)"
pickAn Iranian-born American and a recovering alcoholic who found a passion for poetry, Akbar has a lot to say. There are beautiful moments here and every page seems to be a celebration. A strong debut collection.
pickI rarely find an instance where a book of poems exceeds my expectations. This book, though, cuts through my expectations and builds itself a home in my mind. As Frank Bidart aptly sums the collection; “Surface and depth consistently turn into each other,” creating a collection that stands out in both nuanced intricacy and striking consciousness.
#poetry #kavehakbar
John Green recommends it. #Nerdfighter
Because it‘s Wednesday? And I‘m still loving this collection!
pickI finally have answers to the questions I taught my mother not to ask but now she won't ask them...I don't read a lot of poetry but a friend lent me this and I'm glad I read it.
I've never been a big poetry reader, but I'm adoring this lovely collection so far.
pickThere are good books, and then there are books that make me sit and marvel at the fact that I get to coexist with them. This is the latter.
