American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin
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3.7 • 11 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry
Named a Best American Poetry Book of the 21st Century (So Far) by The Atlantic
A powerful, timely, dazzling collection of sonnets from one of America's most acclaimed poets, Terrance Hayes, the National Book Award-winning author of Lighthead
"Sonnets that reckon with Donald Trump's America." —The New York Times
In seventy poems bearing the same title, Terrance Hayes explores the meanings of American, of assassin, and of love in the sonnet form. Written during the first two hundred days of the Trump presidency, these poems are haunted by the country's past and future eras and errors, its dreams and nightmares. Inventive, compassionate, hilarious, melancholy, and bewildered—the wonders of this new collection are irreducible and stunning.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hayes (How to Be Drawn) addresses this marvelous series of 70 free-verse sonnets to his potential assassin: a nameless, faceless embodiment of America's penchant for racially motivated violence. The poems are redolent of Hayes's signature rhythmic artistry and wordplay: "After death. Our warriors, weirdos, antiheroes, our sirs,/ Sires, our sighers, sidewinders & whiners, winos/ And wonders become dust." Hayes mockingly refers to President Trump as "Mister Trumpet" and excoriates his fellow Americans for seeking "A leader whose metallic narcissism is a reflection/ Of your own." He captures the existential dread of the first year of Trump's presidency accurately, but also provides some whimsy for the weary, referring to the present time as "The umpteenth slump/ In our humming democracy, a bumble bureaucracy/ With teeny tiny wings too small for its rumpled,/ Dumpling of a body." Hayes references a range of poetic precursors and sings the praises of numerous black cultural figures, including Langston Hughes, Jimi Hendrix, and Toni Morrison. An ode to James Baldwin describes the crease between his eyes as "a riverbed branching/ Into tributaries like lines of rapturous sentences/ Searching for a period." Inventive as ever, Hayes confronts America's myriad ills with unflinching candor, while leaving space for love, humor, and hope.
