Books like Incorrect merciful impulses by Camille Rankine

**33rd Annual Northern California Book Award Nominee** “*Black Crow Dress* is narrative, yet it subverts narrative in its deliberate cultivation of the fragment; its rhythms are those of the blues and the latter’s abbreviated style, and the thump thump of the work song. *Black Crow Dress* is, indeed, a chorus of voices we have too seldom heard and listened to.” —*Drunken Boat* “. . .a stunning collection that evokes a tragic, unjust world; Johnson has a gift for metaphor and narrative that builds throughout.” —*Library Journal*, starred review “. . .*Black Crow Dress* is a vital addition to any contemporary poetry assortment.” —*Midwest Book Review* “These poems move forward like a novel in verse with a real understanding of the differences between the past and history. Or, as Johnson herself says in the opening poem, ‘Each one is hungry for a voice & music to re-bloom.’ This is a poet the best readers will be reading for the rest of their lives.” —Jericho Brown “Roxane Beth Johnson reminds us the poet’s inscrutable work is to listen. Her abiding presence creates a lamplit space to commune with the ghosts of her ensalved ancestors and to breathe them onto the contemporary page. The result is startling: narratives tender and haunting, of an unforgettable intimacy. These voices were in the room with me; I felt them in my body.” —Jennifer K. Sweeney

"Claudia Rankine, well known for her experimental multi-genre writing, fuses the lyric, the essay, and the visual in this politically and morally fierce examination of solitude in the rapacious and media-driven assault on selfhood that is contemporary America. Rankine strives toward clarity - of thought, and imagination - while always arguing that recognition of others is the only salvation for ourselves, our art, and our government." "Don t Let Me Be Lonely is an important new confrontation with our culture, with a voice at its heart bewildered by its inadequacy in the face of race riots, terrorist attacks, medicated depression, and the antagonism of the television that won't leave us alone."--Jacket.

A bold exploration of pregnancy, childbirth, and artistic expression through verse, prose, and dialogue.

A collection of Leonard Cohen's poetry and song lyrics covering his entire career.

A striking anthology of 70 sonnets by Terrance Hayes that interrogates American identity, race, love, and the political climate of the early Trump years.

158 pages : 21 cm

‘The Weary Blues’ by Langston Hughes is a landmark collection of early 20th‑century African‑American poems that blends jazz rhythms, soulful lyricism, and personal reflection on race and identity.