Reviews

Hurrah's Nest by Arisa White

haramis's review

5.0

I don't know that I would have read [b:Hurrah's Nest|13607042|Hurrah's Nest|Arisa White|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348778544s/13607042.jpg|19202732] if I hadn't won the Goodreads giveaway for it. That said, I'm glad I did. I've said many times and meant it that familial conflict is my bread and butter. The poetry in this book is raw and powerful. I could feel the betrayal, confusion, and conflict dripping off the pages. I also grew up with an incredibly conflicted relationship with my damaged mother, and found myself compelled to underline in "Disposition for Shininess":

She keeps running away from her reflections
like we're telling her to get the switch
for the spanking she is to receive.

Like over and over agian, we a post-it
for some stone she had to swallow,
some pain that can't be exfoliated down.

Like the daddy-sized slippers taken over
by gentleman callers or that cocklebur of a mantra:
I will not be like her, I will not be...

Her mother who opted for single parenting
than a gambling husband. We carry this for what?
Like coffin or cradle for that bruised girlchild in her.

Have I ever felt that. Worse, "What Is It We Burn Into Our Hearts?" which moved me so much that I couldn't speak clearly for a few minutes. You grow to know and love Arisa's family through her poems, and the pain and potential redemption in the final poem are so beautiful and searing.

I'm very glad I had the opportunity to read this.

serenaac's review

4.0

Hurrah’s Nest by Arisa White is an illustration of the “untidy heap” or “tangle of debris that can block a stream” that family can become, and it will remind readers how birds create their nests out of the most unwelcome or tossed aside elements of the world from hair to fabric strings and twigs. There are scars here, deep ones rooted in absentee parents and relatives whose ways of doing things countered the practices the narrator was taught. Minor acts of rebellion scream out in dreadlocks and boyish haircuts on girls. There are other poems with child-like qualities in which panties become parachutes and beaded braids become like seaweed in “Last Bath,” which represent happier memories and playfulness shared by young siblings with great imaginations.

Read the full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2012/04/hurrahs-nest-by-arisa-white.html

decafjess's review

1.0

Maybe I just missed the mark, but I had no idea what was going on while trying to read this.