Sink or Walk on Water

Beautifully somber, wonderfully triumphant

After a few reads over time, I can finally put together the impression this collection left me with. The book conveys heavy imagery, I shouting out hip-hop and movie references along the way, so picture this:

You’re a passenger on a crowded city bus, traveling to your apartment after a long day of work. You take a seat just as a young man gets up and exits the bus, old school hip-hop blasting from headphones in his ears. You sit down and realize the music loving stranger left a notebook but it’s too late, the bus has taken off and the stranger has disappeared in the swarm of bodies moving up and down the sidewalk. Out of curiosity, you open the notebook and realize it’s full of poems. Or lyrics, the writing style fits both. It’s rude, but you can’t stop yourself from turning page after page, being pulled in further and further with each line. The words describe a young man struggling with figuring out a young man’s life. Approaching women, insecurities, masculinity, drugs, friends, religion, his thoughts. Some of the poems are dedicated to a mysterious woman, others to himself. You want to hug this stranger just as much as you want to befriend him. You feel as if you know him, though you probably wouldn’t recognize him if he stood right in front of you. By the last page, you realize your stop was four blocks ago. You gladly ride the bus home again, from the other direction, re-reading the notebook. When you get home, you call the number scribbled inside the front cover and begin a long conversation with Anthony. After an hour, you both have to go but agree to meet for coffee to return the book and finish your conversation.

That’s what Anthony does with this collection. You feel his emotions, hear his thoughts, see his story, and befriend him along the way.