Reviews

Doe Songs by Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné

helenareadsbooks's review

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

5.0

 Doe Songs is a fierce and feminist poetry collection by Trinidadian poet and artist Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné. The collection explores different relationships, and the forms of love and pain that accompany them. Some poems are about pregnancy, the journey of motherhood, and the poet’s relationship to her son, mother and grandmothers. These poems evoke feelings about the sacredness of motherhood, and the loving protection mothers have for their children. But they also speak of the cruelty of patriarchy and its negative views of women and mothers. The women in these poems dream of freedom and safety and you can’t help but want them to have it too. 

 

Other poems focus on father-daughter relationships, toxic relationships, abusive men, and dangerous women. All these poems have an undertone of rebellion, survival, and determination. They explore the burdens placed on daughters by the world and their fathers, and how daughters learn to survive through grief and intergenerational trauma. The pain of the past can haunt us even as we heal, but the poems speak of finding comfort and healing in nature and our ancestors. Boodoo-Fortuné is unapologetically vulnerable and doesn’t shy away from talking about these difficult topics. 

 

I love how the fierceness of the poems grows throughout the book. The speakers seem to get louder and become less afraid throughout the collection. And I love the imagery and odes to nature. The speakers also find healing in spirituality, and the inclusion of this spiritual element makes the collection more powerful. 

 

This collection is incredible and I recommend it. The fierceness and spirituality in Boodoo-Fortuné’s poems reminded me of Shivanee Ramlochan’s collection Everyone Knows I am a Haunting, and I think if you enjoyed Haunting you’ll enjoy Doe Songs, too. 

saajidhosein's review

4.0

Trying my hand at poetry once again. This collection resonated with me more since it's written by a local author. I loved the themes it addressed and I thought that the author used some skillful and interesting writing techniques. I even found pleasure in the poems I didn't understand because I really like the way she writes. I especially found the nature imagery to be beautiful. It brought so much aspects of out humanity down to earth (like, literally).