Blackacre: Poems

BLACKACRE by Monica Youn, one of my all time favorite books. It’s really hard to zero in on just a few extraordinary moments because the whole thing is just unabated extraordinariness. I feel the same exhilarating veering between tempest and ardor every time I crack it back open. The poems vary widely in form but every jot & line break & word feels essential and precise in its placement. In the beginning of the book you find the word “crux” & we think of a “crux of the matter” as being one thing, one center, one heart, one essence. But this book drives these nails, these cruces, cruxes, little crosses here and here and here until you feel pricked through with holes of light. Like stigmata? Like being pierced & transformed by terror and wonder, which is the ultimate work of poetry.

the condition of which I received this book of poems was amazing! (there was only the slightest fold on the corner) the book itself is incredible. Monica Youn works through themes of owning the body through Blackacre. Each poem has something to do with reclaiming the body. My favorites were the poems that were a commentary alongside older works. By far, my favorite poem was "Portrait of a Hanged Woman" on page 6. Beautiful work. made for excellent brain food

Got this for my boyfriend and he really enjoyed it. He’s a poet, I’m not into poetry or books but he thinks it’s great so it’s got my vote.

Brilliant & lush lyric poetry! Loved this book. Especially taken with Youn's Blackacre: Milton's Sonnet 19. Youn is such a fine re-reader of Milton's poetics in her own work.

Love it.

Bought as gift.