![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The radio aches a little tune that tells a story of what the night
is thinking. It's thinking of love.
It's thinking of stabbing us to death
and leaving our bodies in a dumpster.
That's a nice touch, stains in the night, whiskey and kisses for everyone."
- Little Beast
My very first experience with Ricard Siken was part 24 of You Are Jeff, the penultimate poem in this collection. It is a perfect excision of all of the things that Siken excels at - poetry as sublime, but with a grounded rawness that makes it all too real. Reading You Are Jeff sent me on a hunt for Crush and inspired expectations that were easily met by the gorgeous collection that Siken pulled together.
Crush is everything! Desperate and needy, as much blunt force trauma as it is delicate and subtle. Siken draws threads together, weaving a tapestry of human emotion. The poetry is at times opaque and insists upon the readers complete focus and dedication to puling apart those threads, and at others it is gorgeously simple and utterly truthful. There are layers and layers of meaning that reflect the complexity of love, identity, and heartbreak. It tackles self destruction, the tragedy of pinning down and freely expressing sexual identity in a hostile culture, the devastating strangeness of finding love and losing it - as well as the spare, elegant place between the two moments, the questions of how do you know, and the terror of reaching out. There is nothing easy about Crush and I love that about it
is thinking. It's thinking of love.
It's thinking of stabbing us to death
and leaving our bodies in a dumpster.
That's a nice touch, stains in the night, whiskey and kisses for everyone."
- Little Beast
My very first experience with Ricard Siken was part 24 of You Are Jeff, the penultimate poem in this collection. It is a perfect excision of all of the things that Siken excels at - poetry as sublime, but with a grounded rawness that makes it all too real. Reading You Are Jeff sent me on a hunt for Crush and inspired expectations that were easily met by the gorgeous collection that Siken pulled together.
Crush is everything! Desperate and needy, as much blunt force trauma as it is delicate and subtle. Siken draws threads together, weaving a tapestry of human emotion. The poetry is at times opaque and insists upon the readers complete focus and dedication to puling apart those threads, and at others it is gorgeously simple and utterly truthful. There are layers and layers of meaning that reflect the complexity of love, identity, and heartbreak. It tackles self destruction, the tragedy of pinning down and freely expressing sexual identity in a hostile culture, the devastating strangeness of finding love and losing it - as well as the spare, elegant place between the two moments, the questions of how do you know, and the terror of reaching out. There is nothing easy about Crush and I love that about it
