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Kingdom Animalia (2011)

by Aracelis Girmay(Favorite Author)

4.26 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

193441462X (ISBN13: 9781934414620)

languge

English

genre

Poetry

publisher

BOA Editions Ltd.

review 1: I struggled a little between 4 and 5 stars with this one, but its fierce originality won me over to the 5 side. (Wow! Two five star books this month?)The voice in this work is so fresh, so absolutely enthralling both in its darkness and its tenacious grip on hope. I honestly haven't encountered a poet who seemed so new (for lack of a better word), so wondrously new in a long, long time. I feel like a walking cliché, trying to describe this collection, but it is just left me awestruck in its raw, intense power. This, it reminded me, is what language can do, can be... This is pure faith - faith in the words and the way they can carry us.These poems take time - they aren't easily digested, nor are they meant to be. Each is a full, complex meal. You will not be left h... moreungry.Absolutely amazing. Pick this one up. You won't regret it.
review 2: Aracelis Girmay, winner of the 2011 Isabella Gardner Poetry Award for her work Kingdom Animalia, is a voice any of us would trust in the dark of the unknowable and the striving. She is clear, and writes with a hope-filled truth-force that will have your head cocked to hear every cherished word, in any language.I was fortunate enough to hear Girmay read aloud at Wellesley College’s Distinguished Writers Series. Her “Ode to the little ‘r’” of this collection, and her poem to her elementary school student, from another, shook me awake, alive, living. Such profound movement.After Aracelis and the renowned Martín Espada shared their words and conversation, I very nervously approached Espada to sign my copy of Alabanza, and more courageously introduced myself to Girmay. She is a light of a human being, the kind of person who stands in a pool of moveable wax, positively dripping with deep yearning to understand and connect with humanity, the origins of this earth, and those who inhabit it. She asked me to which class I belonged. I said none, I’m just here. Her smile broke bigger and she asked me if I was a poet. I said “I hope so.” She said, “That’s how I think of myself too.” She signed her book for me, and I told her how much I loved her reading, how beautiful it was, how the way in which she speaks reminds me of Suheir Hammad. The wave of her smile spread wide across her face again as she uttered I know her, like I know her—oh Suheir, she’s—fiery! Girmay told me how she could see exactly what I meant, and that she is going to tell Suheir about it. I am enormously grateful for the experience of hearing this young, talented woman share her poems with a room of ears and hearts won not only by her skill and imaginary, but by her genuine, searching, sharing, spirit. less

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