Status
Available
Genres
Publication
Boston : Beacon Press, [2019]
Description
A timely and moving collection from the renowned inaugural poet on issues facing our country and people--immigration, gun violence, racism, LGBTQ issues, and more. Through an oracular yet intimate and accessible voice, Richard Blanco addresses the complexities and contradictions of our nationhood and the unresolved sociopolitical matters that affect us all. Blanco digs deep into the very marrow of our nation through poems that interrogate our past and present, grieve our injustices, and note our flaws, but also remember to celebrate our ideals and cling to our hopes. Charged with the utopian idea that no single narrative is more important than another, this book asserts that America could and ought someday to be a country where all narratives converge into one, a country we can all be proud to love and where we can all truly thrive. The poems form a mosaic of seemingly varied topics: the Pulse nightclub massacre; an unexpected encounter on a visit to Cuba; the forced exile of 8,500 Navajos in 1868; a lynching in Alabama; the arrival of a young Chinese woman at Angel Island in 1938; the incarceration of a gifted writer; and the poet's abiding love for his partner, who he is finally allowed to wed as a gay man. But despite each poem's unique concern or occasion, all are fundamentally struggling with the overwhelming question of how to love this country.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member lisa875
I am leaving a review before I’m finished which I don’t usually do. I was given this book through Library Thing Early Reviewers and I absolutely love it. So much that I don’t want to rush through it. But I don’t want to wait on the review! So I will update it when I’m done. But for now,
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almost every poem I read in the book I think, “maybe that’s my favorite one”! The very first one, “Declaration of Interdependence “ pulled me in. I do not consider myself a poetry person but it really does speak to your soul. I will fall in love with a novel that contains just a few well crafted lines. Poetry is all about that apparently. Beautiful book so far! I will update later but I’m taking my time to enjoy it! Show Less
LibraryThing member lisan.
I ended up reading this alongside Good Talk by Mira Jacob, and it was a nice addendum. The poems are decent, nothing heart-pounding, nothing to punch you hard, but good, heartfelt poems about the different facets of a country that has risen to great heights, and fallen to the bottom of the mud
I usually end up giving my ARCs away, but I will keep this one. A good addition to books like Poems For the Resistance.
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within in the last ten years. It's a good book to give to your friend who claims they don't like poetry, or who doesn't read much poetry. I usually end up giving my ARCs away, but I will keep this one. A good addition to books like Poems For the Resistance.
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LibraryThing member BLBera
In his "Author's Note," at the end of his new collection poetry How to Love a Country, Richard Blanco tells us that the question underpinning this collection is "Are we going to advance toward a broader definition of 'we' or will we retreat to a narrower one?"
This mix of political and personal
Paper or plastic, Jan asks me at the checkout,
but it doesn't matter. What matters is this:
she's been to my bar-b-ques, I've donated
to her son's football league, we've shoveled
each other's driveways, we send each other
Christmas cards. She knows I'm Latino and
gay. Yet suddenly I don't know who she is
as I read the button on her polyester vest:
Trump: Make America Great Again, meaning
she doesn't really know me either.
Yet these are more than political rants. Blanco's use of imagery is breathtaking. In "Election Year, " our country becomes a garden, while the Río Grande speaks in "Complaint of the Río Grande." The short stanzas, repeating "but we couldn't" in the poem "Until We Could" reinforce the devastation of being unable to marry the person he loves, and the triumph when he could, "Love is the right to say: I do and I do and I do..."
His occasional poems, marking the shooting at the Pulse night club and the Boston Marathon bombing, and two poems submitted for President Obama's inauguration vividly reveal Blanco's pain, pride, and love for this country. Yet despite his unflinching look at problems in this country, at its heart, there is an optimism in this volume and the feeling that love will triumph.
Stunning collection. It's one I will return to.
This mix of political and personal
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poems reveal that the political is personal. His poems are too long to quote in their entirety, but an excerpt from "November Eyes" is a perfect example:Paper or plastic, Jan asks me at the checkout,
but it doesn't matter. What matters is this:
she's been to my bar-b-ques, I've donated
to her son's football league, we've shoveled
each other's driveways, we send each other
Christmas cards. She knows I'm Latino and
gay. Yet suddenly I don't know who she is
as I read the button on her polyester vest:
Trump: Make America Great Again, meaning
she doesn't really know me either.
Yet these are more than political rants. Blanco's use of imagery is breathtaking. In "Election Year, " our country becomes a garden, while the Río Grande speaks in "Complaint of the Río Grande." The short stanzas, repeating "but we couldn't" in the poem "Until We Could" reinforce the devastation of being unable to marry the person he loves, and the triumph when he could, "Love is the right to say: I do and I do and I do..."
His occasional poems, marking the shooting at the Pulse night club and the Boston Marathon bombing, and two poems submitted for President Obama's inauguration vividly reveal Blanco's pain, pride, and love for this country. Yet despite his unflinching look at problems in this country, at its heart, there is an optimism in this volume and the feeling that love will triumph.
Stunning collection. It's one I will return to.
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LibraryThing member kgurr
Wonderful book of prose poetry that captures the experience of the child of immigrants, and a gay man, from the perspective of someone who is familiar with the diversity of this country...not just it's people, but landscape and culture. Touches an recent historical events from 9/11 to Pulse.
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Manages to be personal and universal at the same time. Show Less
LibraryThing member banjo123
A book of poems that combine the personal and the political. I was familiar with Blanco as the Presidential Inaugural Poet for Obama. Some of these poems hark back to an older tradition (Whitman, Sandburg, Hughes) in trying to make connections and speak to national identity. Several of these poems
.... We can die valiant as rainbows,
and hold light in our lucid bodies like blood.
We can decide to move boundlessly without
creed or desire. Until we are clouds meshed
within clouds sharing a kingdom with no king.
a city with no walls, a country with no name.
a nation without any borders or claim. Until
we abide as one together in a single sky.
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were commissioned, and many speak to recent national tragedies (Pulse Night Club, Sandy Hook). Here are some of my favorite lines:.... We can die valiant as rainbows,
and hold light in our lucid bodies like blood.
We can decide to move boundlessly without
creed or desire. Until we are clouds meshed
within clouds sharing a kingdom with no king.
a city with no walls, a country with no name.
a nation without any borders or claim. Until
we abide as one together in a single sky.
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LibraryThing member Litgirl7
Beautiful poems regarding our not-always-so-beautiful society. That there is even a debate as to who has rights and who doesn't...I am so disgusted and angry about the politics of today- and the shock of seeing how many people I know who are All For IT (I had NO IDEA!)....this book grounds me and
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speaks the truth. Show Less
LibraryThing member jennparm
This collection of Richard Blanco’s poems reflects the sentiments that so many Americans feel toward our country. It is an amazing place to be, and we are privileged to be part of it. But there is the bittersweetness, the understanding that everything is not always lovely here, that people who
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share this country with us may not be welcoming of the diversity that exists in this place. It captures the conflict so many Americans feel - how do you love a country that’s so amazing but so divided? Show Less
LibraryThing member andrea58
I am so glad I requested this collection from LTER. I honestly haven’t read poetry in quite a while. But this collection was amazing. So moving and thought provoking. Many timely topics presented in such unique ways. I highly recommend everyone read these poems. This one is a keeper!
LibraryThing member jamesgwld
Blanco's "How to Love a Country" is a wonderful expression of not only his personal struggles and triumphs, but an intelligent observation of the American ego(s). His poetry tackles racism, sexism, culture, tribalism, and what it is to be human. Poems such as "Easy Lynching on Herndon Avenue"
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capture the dark parts of our American story; but; where this book really succeeds is offering the reader a taste of optimism within the American human condition. "How to Love a Country" is a book that should share space on your library with the great poets of the 21st century. Show Less
LibraryThing member whitewavedarling
In this collection of poems that are as powerful as they are timely, Blanco's work manages to marry hope for a better future with critiques of the present. Some of these poems come like a steel-toed kick to the gut, even as lyricism gives way to clever--and sometimes painful--truth, while others
This is a timely collection that is worth reading, teaching, and sharing, and it's one I'll come back to. Absolutely recommended.
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are quieter, but no less powerful for that apparent peace.This is a timely collection that is worth reading, teaching, and sharing, and it's one I'll come back to. Absolutely recommended.
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LibraryThing member Hillgirl
A book of poems that really showed that poems can be honest and beautiful at the same time. They showed that no matter what happens good or bad that we can have a bright happy future, even with all the problems today.
A good book for people who believe that poems have to be love and peace. Poems
This review was written for LibraryThing.
A good book for people who believe that poems have to be love and peace. Poems
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are also great for telling a story of today and open the eyes of people. I would definitely tell people to at least try it.....This review was written for LibraryThing.
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LibraryThing member Empty-Mirror
I've returned to this very timely poetry collection again and again over the past few months. I'll write a more complete review later.
LibraryThing member mtbearded1
This morning I finished two books, both LibraryThing EarlyReviewer selections. John Pavlovitz's A Bigger Table and Richard Blanco's How to Love a Country both speak to the fractured nature of US society these days, and both seek to find ways to bring our society back together, to heal the wounds.
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Pavlovitz is a pastor in an urban, North Carolina church. As such, he speaks to church people and uses traditional Christian language. Blanco is a poet, the son of Cuban emigrés, gay, and a university professor and lecturer. He was the fifth person chosen to read at a presidential inauguration--Obama's second. The poems collected in How to Love a Country are both personal and powerful. Blanco writes to a country and people that have witnessed the Boston Marathon bombing, the Pulse Nightclub massacre, the anger of Ferguson, Missouri. And he speaks of his own life--coming to the realization that who he is and whom he loves will most likely alienate him from his family, his friends, his society. These poems are not easy to read, but they are crucial if we are to understand each other and build a society that offers full acceptance to the "other." Highly recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member dandelionroots
Occasionally, I'll stumble across a poem and love it -- I comprehend the message/sentiment (or at least a layer or two), it resonates, and I remember that poetry can be a powerful medium. Which then prompts me to reconsider my general avoidance of poetry and tackle a collection. Ehhhhhh - back to
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paragraphs for now. I'll foray again, likely not with this poet though. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (Poetry — 2019)