Florida Water
Poems
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Florida Water is a collection of poems that, like the cleansing waters of spiritual baths, rinse, reflect, and reveal the raw truths that lie within.
In this vulnerable meditation, aja monet reflects on her migration to South Florida in search of love, connection, and belonging, unearthing the delicate balance between the poet, lover, and community organizer. These poems lay bare the tender dance of relationships, entwining the personal with the political, as they confront the state’s fractured history of racial prejudice, marooned peoples, and the unruly forces of nature.
In Florida Water, each poem is an artifact—an offering from her time spent wading through the rising tides of climate change, heartbreak, and systemic violence. With each line, monet immerses us deeper into the water, where the currents of memory, struggle, and survival pull us toward both despair and hope.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
By turns bracing and delicate as gossamer, monet's latest (after My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter) is a vulnerable exploration of love, loss, and the revolutionary spirit of community. Water is a central theme, which monet uses to craft vivid imagery and striking symbolism, from her declaration of awakening, "i dripped from my mother's arms/ tiny tears of the wide-eyed cosmos," to her evocation of "the rage of rivers dressed as comrades." The collection centers on the poet's decision to move to Florida to develop a relationship and community with a fellow activist, and many entries address the need for political action and love in increasingly fraught circumstances. In the prose poem "the foreshadowing furlough," monet focuses on the Florida of her childhood, recalling a favorite uncle who was often in trouble with the law, fleeing an abusive stepfather with her mother and brother, and "church sundays with my aunt sabrina and the holy ghost like a janitor of souls." Monet's quietly insistent collection gracefully demonstrates that love can be the most radical political act, particularly for a marginalized person in a hostile environment.
