This is the honey An anthology of contemporary Black poets

Review by Booklist Review

Poet and children's author Alexander writes, "So much of the time, Black writers are expected to write about the woe." This vital, alternative, in-the-now anthology is "a gathering space for Black poets to honor and celebrate. To be romantic and provocative. To be unburdened and bodacious." The book's title is from a poem by Mahogany L. Browne: "Soil creates things // Art births change // This is the honey // & doesn't it taste like a promise?" Sweet and steely poems offer fresh, witty, and hard-hitting perspectives on ancestors and children, nature's bounty, resistance, love, beauty, voting for Obama, and the taking down of the Confederate flag. More than 100 living poets of different generations are represented here, including Chris Abani, Tara Betts, Nikky Finney, Ruth Forman, Nikki Giovanni, Amanda Gorman, and Evie Shockley. The evocative thematic sections include "The Language of Joy," "Race Rage Raise: The Blackened Alphabet," and "When I See the Stars: Praise Poems," which celebrates such luminaries as Bessie Coleman, Nina Simone, John Lewis, and Chadwick Boseman. An electrifying collection for poetry lovers and poetry newbies.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

This essential anthology, edited by poet and YA author Alexander (Why Fathers Cry at Night), includes work by more than 100 living Black poets, from Elizabeth Acevedo to Rita Dove. In his introduction, Alexander centers joy and wonder as guiding principles behind his selections, describing the anthology as "a gathering space for Black poets to honor and celebrate. To be romantic and provocative. To be unburdened and bodacious." Indeed, joy permeates the poems, from Tony Medina's ebullient "Black Boys," in which he writes, "Black boys be bouquets of tanka/ Bunched up like flowers," to Tyree Daye's "Inheritance," a meditation on what connects people to their forebears: "My mother will leave me her mother's deep-black/ cast-iron skillet someday,/ I will fry okra in it,/ weigh my whole life on its black handle,/ lift it up to feel a people in my hand." Xan Forest Phillips's "Want Could Kill Me" explores desire and intimacy: "I want to buy you/ a cobalt velvet couch/ all your haters' teeth/ strung up like pearls/ ...but my pockets/ are filled with/ lint and love alone." Featuring a refreshing mix of established and emerging voices, this vital volume showcases a thriving and multifaceted poetic tradition. (Jan.)

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