You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened by Arisa White & Giveaway (US/Can)

You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened by Arisa White is a fierce collection of poetry that lingers in your thoughts long after you’ve experienced her powerful words.  It is best described by the publisher “Angular, smart, and fearless, Arisa White’s newest collection takes its titles from words used internationally as hate speech against gays and lesbians, reworking, re-envisioning, and re-embodying language as a conduit for art, love, and understanding.”

Arisa White’s poetry is raw and takes on women in love with women, race, and a realistic look at the world and bodies we live in.  Her words are harsh but then evolve into a beauty that is empowering to any woman.  This is a collection that one has to linger on, taking in the words slowly, and then rereading them.  I did that.  Read the poems several times taking in the reality of her words.  Love isn’t always pretty and it matters not who we love but through the struggles we most often find that peace that allows us to believe again in ourselves and those around us.  You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened is a collection I will revisit again.

To end I thought I’d share a piece of Arisa’s poetry with all of you and please be sure to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a copy for yourself.

Torn

Can hold a whole block inside of me—
intersections, streetlights. e Lakeshore
Bar with boomers Chicago stepping. e lake
between, the hill that demands a lion’s share
of breath, and I’m climbing it.

ere is a woman ripping sheets of paper
into small tablets. Holds them until her
hands ll and precipitate. Sections read:
can’t be with— and need to—. She sobs
one paper-cut width at a time.

I hear my letters opening, why this is
not working. Never on the other side
of the envelope, sealed with a kiss she will
tear through. Part sigh and panic, mail is
better at saying these things.

My heart is not brave in confrontation,
it can easily return to a relationship that needs
trees and bushes to keep it from slipping—
I’m not ready to plant. I avoid certain streets
to avoid women who stay with me like sand.

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GIVEAWAY – Open to US & Canadian Residents
1 print copy up for giveaway
*CLICK HERE* and fill out the form to enter
Draw Date November 12/16

 

Source: Digital copy received from the publisher for an honest review. No compensation was received.