Jessica Care Moore

We Want Our Bodies Back: Poems by Jessica Care Moore is filled with poems that reminded me that every body is beautiful even when that beauty is obscured, denied, or unseen. Moore details the joys and the abuses the body encounters throughout life with an unassailable emphasis on the bodies of women, the bodies of people of color, and particularly women of color. We Want Our Bodies Back is sometimes a plea, sometimes a demand, sometimes a celebration in this collection of poetry that show more balances strength, beauty, and vulnerability in its calls for justice and acceptance and sometimes just to be seen. Moore reminds us that every unique body has things in common with every other body. We Want Our Bodies Back is a strong, beautiful statement of rebellion in a world where people's bodies are overpoliced, overlooked, and overexposed. show less

i really, really was impressed by most of this. the poetry in the first half of the book was amazing. the next third or so dropped off for me but it picked up again at the end. she writes so well and engagingly and about such important issues (racism, oppression, sexism). i wish she had included black trans women in her incredible titular poem; these poems are powerful statements.