Altar

by Desree

Genres: Poetry
Pages: 72
Rating:

Synopsis:

The debut poetry collection from award-winning writer and spoken word artist, Desree, Altar explores multifaceted dimensions of sacrifice, challenging its heroism and examining its ties to servility. The poems in Altar urge their protagonists to play neither lion nor lamb, but to live and flourish on their own terms. Each page glimmers with vivid, often devastating vignettes: we witness the resilience of youth, the strength of the Black female body, the complexity of chosen and unchosen family, the sweeping effects of gentrification.Through reflections on Black British identity, queer joy, place and belonging, faith and consent, Desree invites the reader on a journey of reclamation, while her wry wit and disarming tenderness hold us through the necessary storms that mark the way.

I wasn’t sure what I’d think of Desree’s Altar; I’ve not been very interested in spoken word poetry, historically, and I read that Desree’s a spoken word artist, so I wasn’t sure how well her work lends itself to print. The answer in this volume is ‘just fine’, though the ebook version didn’t do the formatting any favours.

I didn’t entirely click with it all, but there were some poems and images that did grab me, like the recurring theme of the rose in her mouth, and this stanza:

“i knew bodies
built in the image of a fireplace
were only useful if there
was something burning
inside them. i learnt
safety means between flames“

Not entirely for me, this collection, but I did enjoy giving it a shot. And I do wonder still if some of the poems might not after all be better aloud, even if they did work fine in print.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)