The Tradition

Jericho Brown's collection has the ability to be both mesmerizing with it's tightly packed lines and painful. But the thought that keeps recurring with each read is that there's a lot of love in these poems. Not the overly sentimental love. Critical, honest, at times harsh.

In Brown's 'Duplex' that begins the third section he owns this intent: 'I begin with love, hoping to end there / I don't want to leave a messy corpse.' A kind of brutal honesty that wants the person, place, thing the poem is confronting - to be there tomorrow - knowing in the present culture of fear and its violent offspring - that is not a given.

Nothing, whether it's lovers, family, community, faith, escapes this critical eye - something Brown ties together in show more 'Stake' when he asks 'How / old will I get in a nation / that believes we can grow out / of a grave' (43). For the poems' harshness they carry with them an undercurrent of hope that is never far away, but a current that requires digging beneath the false mythologies in order to find it. Important, essential collection. show less

The Tradition by Jericho Brown is an unapologetic exploration of tradition and the breaking of tradition in human lives. The Tradition is as good as the other books of Brown's poetry I've read. His word choices feel intentionally designed to immerse the reader in his poems in ways that can elicit tears, smiles, squirms, fears, and joy sometimes within the same poem. Brown's use of language, observations on society, and life experience to illustrate both connection and disconnection spoke to both my heart and my mind. The Tradition speaks to the experience of being human in a world that doesn't always value humanity.

Honestly, I am not a big poetry reader, and as I listened to this I knew I was missing a great deal, that I did not have the foundation to read this. That said, I was not pulled in by the moments revealed, by the use of language, by the exploration of power and the willing abandonment of power whether by an abusive Black mother, or a White person living in the ease of their privilege. I was also troubled by Brown's exploration of subjugation, and his definition(s) of rape (I have a thing about using the term generally to describe the theft of a person's autonomy and personhood. Again, I am sure it is just me.) This is one of those bad match of book and reader moments. I never urge others to disregard my opinion but I sort of do in this show more case. show less

Brown's new collection, which won the Pulitzer for poetry, is easy to read but difficult to comprehend. I enjoyed reading it; I'm confident that I missed a lot. His subjects include the difficulties of living as a Black man, relationships with other men, fathers and sons. He does not use complex structures, although his Duplex form stands out. He left me with some evocative images and a desire to read more of this sort of thing.

Usually my poetry reviews are pretty ambivalent, liked some, not liked others.

I liked all of these poems. Although the book is small, only 77 pages, the poetry covered a wide range of topics. Because of the recent, unjustifiable murder by police of George Floyd, some of the poems felt particularly poignant. One brought me close to tears. Wonderful poetry, Mr. Brown. Thank you.

A very powerful award winning collection of poetry that looks deeply into race, death and relationships. I can certainly see why the book received all the acclaim that it did. Some of my particular favorites are "Dark" a deeply personal self examination of the author himself, "Token" an insightful look into the differences between small towns and large cities and "Good White People" an unapologetic look at race .A wonderful collection from start to finish which you can reread and savor again and again.

Noite do fondue de queijo, vinho e poesia. Recentemente traduzido pelo Círculo de poemas (onde estou com a cabeça que ainda não assinei isso?), Jericho Brown nesse livro em específico me lembrou do arrebatamento que senti ao ler a poesia negra queer da Audre Lorde pela primeira vez.
Certo, talvez eu esteja exagerando já que Audre Lorde é uma das minhas poetas favoritas da vida, mas certamente a partir de hoje estarei de olho na poesia de Brown.