Counting descent

74 pages

English language

Published June 10, 2016

ISBN:
978-1-938912-65-8
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OCLC Number:
950430174

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(3 reviews)

Clint Smith's debut poetry collection, Counting Descent, is a coming of age story that seeks to complicate our conception of lineage and tradition. Smith explores the cognitive dissonance that results from belonging to a community that unapologetically celebrates black humanity while living in a world that often renders blackness a caricature of fear. His poems move fluidly across personal and political histories, all the while reflecting on the social construction of our lived experiences. Smith brings the reader on a powerful journey forcing us to reflect on all that we learn growing up, and all that we seek to unlearn moving forward.

2 editions

Counting Descent

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 …

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Subjects

  • Blacks
  • Poetry
  • Race identity