Nick Ripatrazone's Must-Reads at The Millions

If you're hunting for the right collection to read during National Poetry Month, Nick Ripatrazone suggests a few options with April 2019 publication dates, that might make your list. For example, there's not a page in Lauren K. Alleyne's Honeyfish "untouched by grace and grief" in his estimation. More: 

In “How to Watch Your Son Die”: “His name // will become a strange music / in the foreign instrument of your voice.” The masterful “Killed Boy, Beautiful World” sings and stings: “How ruthless with beauty / the world seems, clouds / tumbling in streams of white, / the sky dappled, then clear, / then blotted with rain; the news / of death and more death.” And yet: “you want to hold on to it, / this life that breaks you again / and again.” Viscerally real poems invoked to Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice live next to poems of metaphor, as with “The Pain Fair”: “The opening act is breaking / all manner of things open: / wishes, bones, hearts, glass / eyes, brains.” The crowd applauds “politely: we know / this is nothing impressive.” Next, the magician commands from the crowd “first heartaches, first betrayals, / they resound like phantom / symphonies, notes swelling / our chests like air into balloons.” A unique talent, Alleyne’s skilled lines levitate with something more: passion, grace, and a willingness to ask questions that linger. “Heaven?” ends with one such unanswered question: “How many angels weep / when a black girl is torn / into wings?” An excellent book.

Read about forthcoming books by Jericho Brown, Tyler Mills, Emily Skaja, Lawrence Lacambra Ypil, and Harry Clifton at The Millions.