Böcker av Michael Kleber-Diggs

"e;Sometimes,"e; writes Michael Kleber-Diggs writes in this winner of the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, "e;everything reduces to circles and lines."e;In these poems, Kleber-Diggs names delight in the same breath as loss. Moments suffused with love-teaching his daughter how to drive; watching his grandmother bake a cake; waking beside his beloved to ponder trumpet mechanics-couple with moments of wrenching grief-a father's life ended by a gun; mourning children draped around their mother's waist; Freddie Gray's death in police custody. Even in the refuge-space of dreams, a man calls the police on his Black neighbor.But Worldly Things refuses to "e;offer allegiance"e; to this centuries-old status quo. With uncompromising candor, Kleber-Diggs documents the many ways America systemically fails those who call it home while also calling upon our collective potential for something better. "e;Let's create folklore side-by-side,"e; he urges, asking us to aspire to a form of nurturing defined by tenderness, to a kind of community devoted to mutual prosperity. "e;All of us want,"e; after all, "e;our share of light, and just enough rainfall."e;Sonorous and measured, the poems of Worldly Things offer needed guidance on ways forward-toward radical kindness and a socially responsible poetics.