nicknicknicknick reviewed Counting descent by Clint Smith
Counting Descent
5 stars
1) “what the ocean said to the black boy” they call me blue because they don’t understand how the sky work they call you black because they don’t understand how god work
2) "Counting Descent" I celebrate every breath, tried to start counting them so I wouldn’t take each one for granted. I wish I could give my breath to the boys who had theirs taken, but I’ve stopped counting
because it feels like there are too many boys & not enough breath to go around.
3) "James Baldwin Speaks to the Protest Novel" I want to see all of the complexity and mess and joy and distress of being a complex human being, which is to say a human being. Because isn’t this the problem? That we must write the most exaggerated versions of ourselves to show them something they have already chosen not to see? How can they …
1) “what the ocean said to the black boy” they call me blue because they don’t understand how the sky work they call you black because they don’t understand how god work
2) "Counting Descent" I celebrate every breath, tried to start counting them so I wouldn’t take each one for granted. I wish I could give my breath to the boys who had theirs taken, but I’ve stopped counting
because it feels like there are too many boys & not enough breath to go around.
3) "James Baldwin Speaks to the Protest Novel" I want to see all of the complexity and mess and joy and distress of being a complex human being, which is to say a human being. Because isn’t this the problem? That we must write the most exaggerated versions of ourselves to show them something they have already chosen not to see? How can they think us more human if we don’t write ourselves as such?
4) "An Evening at the Louvre" why waste time sculpting when I could make you pancakes in the morning
5) "what the cathedral said to the black boy" close your eyes those stained glass shadows all we got is what we name ourselves otherwise I am just a room you are just body & we know how wrong that is
