A book of loss, looking back, and what binds us to life, by a towering poetic talent, called "one of the poetry stars of his generation" (Los Angeles Times).
"We sleep long, / if not sound," Kevin Young writes early on in this exquisite gathering of poems, "Till the end/ we sing / into the wind." In scenes and settings that circle family and the generations in the American South--one poem, "Kith," exploring that strange bedfellow of "kin"--the speaker and his young son wander among the stones of their ancestors. "Like heat he seeks them, / my son, thirsting / to learn those / he don't know / are his dead."
Whether it's the fireflies of a Louisiana summer caught in a mason jar (doomed by their collection), or his grandmother, Mama Annie, who latches the screen door when someone steps out for just a moment, all that makes up our flickering precarious joy, all that we want to protect, is lifted into the light in this moving book. Stones becomes an ode to Young's home places and his dear departed, and to what of them—of us—poetry can save.
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Where the train once rained through town like a river, where the water
rose in early summer & froze come winter— where the moon
of the outhouse shone its crescent welcome, where the heavens opened
& the sun wouldn’t quit— past the gully or gulch or holler or ditch
I was born. Or, torn— Dragged myself
atop this mountain fueled by flour, butter- milk, grease fires.
Where I’m from women speak in burnt tongues
& someone’s daddy dug a latrine so deep up from the dark
KEVIN YOUNG is the author of sixteen books of poetry and prose. He is the poetry editor of The New Yorker, where he hosts the Poetry Podcast, and is the editor of ten other anthologies, including African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song.
View titles by Kevin Young
A book of loss, looking back, and what binds us to life, by a towering poetic talent, called "one of the poetry stars of his generation" (Los Angeles Times).
"We sleep long, / if not sound," Kevin Young writes early on in this exquisite gathering of poems, "Till the end/ we sing / into the wind." In scenes and settings that circle family and the generations in the American South--one poem, "Kith," exploring that strange bedfellow of "kin"--the speaker and his young son wander among the stones of their ancestors. "Like heat he seeks them, / my son, thirsting / to learn those / he don't know / are his dead."
Whether it's the fireflies of a Louisiana summer caught in a mason jar (doomed by their collection), or his grandmother, Mama Annie, who latches the screen door when someone steps out for just a moment, all that makes up our flickering precarious joy, all that we want to protect, is lifted into the light in this moving book. Stones becomes an ode to Young's home places and his dear departed, and to what of them—of us—poetry can save.
Excerpt
Resume
Where the train once rained through town like a river, where the water
rose in early summer & froze come winter— where the moon
of the outhouse shone its crescent welcome, where the heavens opened
& the sun wouldn’t quit— past the gully or gulch or holler or ditch
I was born. Or, torn— Dragged myself
atop this mountain fueled by flour, butter- milk, grease fires.
Where I’m from women speak in burnt tongues
& someone’s daddy dug a latrine so deep up from the dark
KEVIN YOUNG is the author of sixteen books of poetry and prose. He is the poetry editor of The New Yorker, where he hosts the Poetry Podcast, and is the editor of ten other anthologies, including African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song.
View titles by Kevin Young
