Acquired Book By: I was selected to review “You’re the Most Beautiful Thing that Happened” by Poetic Book Tours. I received a complimentary copy of “You’re the Most Beautiful Thing that Happened” direct from the publisher Augury Books in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
You're the Most Beautiful Thing that Happened
by Arisa White
Source: Publisher via Poetic Book Tours
Angular, smart, and fearless, Arisa White’s newest collection takes its titles from words used internationally as hate speech against gays and lesbians, reworking, re-envisioning, and re-embodying language as a conduit for art, love, and understanding.
“To live freely, observantly as a politically astute, sensually perceptive Queer Black woman is to be risk taker, at risk, a perceived danger to others and even dangerous to/as oneself,” writes poet Tracie Morris. “White’s attentive word substitutions and range of organized forms, lithe anecdotes, and disturbed resonances put us in the middle of living a realized, intelligent life of the senses.”
You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened works through intersectional encounters with gender, identity, and human barbarism, landing deftly and defiantly in beauty.
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9780988735576
Published by Augury Books
on 21st October 2016
Format: Softcover Edition
Pages: 100
Published By: Augury Books (@augurybooks)
Available Formats: Paperback and Ebook
Converse via: #Poetry
The introduction on behalf of this collection was poetic in it’s own right – a journey to undertake to root out words and meanings from the proposition the writer found whilst endeavouring to understand how the world perceives and explains a particular sexuality. How to re-interpret her own response and to find a way to instill how words can inflict or reflect our own emotional chasm of exploration. So much can be taken for granted in languages – either the words used to describe something or the interpretation of the meanings behind the words – which either are direct, indirect or completely off-topic of where a word might direct someone to go visually or intellectually. Even the art of thought behind poems can lend itself a better adage of perception – to seek to deepen the superficial or to re-think the plausible behind the void of loss where mere words cannot lend the right impression.
As you disappear into the mind of Ms White – you see how raw and visually acute she leaves behind her impressions of not only sexuality but of life – of the differences between cultures and the mindfulness of sensing what is not yet spoken aloud. She has a way of intuiting what is meant to be understood out of the recesses of memory whilst augmenting her own experiences against that of what is perceived by others of being a truth they could accept by their own observations. She tucks into the hearty topics of our world – whilst owning the rawer bits that are not always spoken about – in poetry or in everyday conversations.
White etches out her own authentic truth and the truth of everyone seeking to find love, compassion, acceptance and beauty in their life. She humbling approaches her poetry with the intrinsically of a woman who breathes a lifeblood of passion for living and the joy of embracing each new day as one full of possibility. Some of the poems are hard to read due to their emotional conviction and others, are a bit more sublime in how they can articulate the moment of life being captured within their poetic home. There is an umbrage of living narrative running throughout the collection that celebrates how life is lived and deeply felt whilst granting us a view of a passage of life different from our own.
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I look forward to reading your thoughts & commentary! Especially if you read the book or were thinking you might be inclined to read it. I appreciate hearing different points of view especially amongst readers who picked up the same story to read.
{SOURCES: Book cover for “You’re the Most Beautiful Thing that Happened”, author biography, author photograph of Arisa White, book synopsis and Poetic Book Tours badge were all provided by Poetic Book Tours and used with permission. Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Ruminations and Impressions Banner and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2016.
Comments via Twitter:
#Poetry #BookReview of Arisa White's new #poetic voicing of life as it's being lived @augurybooks @PoeticBookTours https://t.co/wgvZ42TDzF
— Jorie (#WyrdAndWonder) ??? (@joriestory) October 29, 2016
This is an interesting book. I love the cover – the typography especially – and as a lover of poetry, I’m always open to new themes and narratives in the genre. :)
Hallo, Hallo Priya!
I’ve been featuring quite a bit of poetry lately! There was another collection about the loss of a child – where the poet wrote an alloquy about his daughter. My next one explores life in India this first week in November! :) I am thankful due to hosting these book tours, I’m gaining more insight into Contemporary Poets and the direction they are taking their collections. Previously, I only sought out Classical Poetry.
Thank you for sharing your interest – I agree with you on the colours & typography used on this book cover – it’s quite the impressive ‘first look’. I had a feeling you were as open as I am in your readerly pursuits! I’m reading some spooky reads right now as I’m celebrating Halloween, however, I loved that you took the time to write me a note! Have a great Monday!!
Thanks for being on the tour