The Sealey Challenge

It is day three of #TheSealeyChallenge and I am emotionally unprepared for what I feel like some of these collections are going to do to me. These two collections have pushed the air out of my lungs wondering if I’m making the right choice by diving head first into more like them. My initial thoughts after just reading these two is that I was surprised they followed some type of narrative. Please keep in mind I’m pretty much a complete n00b right now. However loose the narrative is, it’s definitely there in these two collections. It’s clear you can read each poem individually, but the collections work as a whole. I honestly don’t know what I was expecting, bc it does seems obvious now that poetry collections follow themes, much like art exhibits and novels.

#Unaccompanied by Javier Zamora singes the skin. It is raw, emotional, and cutting. Zamora is a Salvadoran poet and activist, he came to the US when he was 9 years old. He has a memoir coming out soon, and I will one thousand percent be reading that. Favorite poems are: Saguaros, Second Attempt Crossing, Cassette Tape, Abuelita Says Goodbye, and June 10, 1999. Thanks @laurathestudent for this rec.

While Unaccompanied is all fire and dust, #DeafRepublic by Ilya Kaminsky is snow and ash. Making your skin prickle and your eyes sting with tears. This was breathtaking in its beauty and stretched my imagination on what this art form is truly capable of. It swallowed me whole. The poems tells the story of a town under occupation, finding ways to communicate and protest after the death of a young boy renders the whole town deaf. It will definitely go down as one of my favorite books this year. Thanks for the push @sethisreading

By the end of August I imagine I will be a puddle. This world can be a cruel place, but damn, look at the beauty we can create.

[ID: Viv’s hands holds up the two poetry chapbooks Unaccompanied by Javier Zamora and Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky. In the background are the branches of an old oak tree.]

#TheSealeyChallenge #Poetry #DeafRepublic #Unaccompanied #Poems #Bookstagram #Bookstagrammer #readmorepoetry