This is a newly released collection of poems by Hanif Abdurraqib, who was also recently nominated for the National Book Award for his commentary on Tribe Called Quest. I’ve also read his longer collection of essays, and it’s also excellent.

This is a deeply satisfying collection of poem that is structured on the the three-part sequence for a successful stage illusion that we all learned from the movie The Prestige (or the book) — The Pledge, The Turn, and The Prestige. And at first I thought this was simply a reference to that idea, but then there are several poems referencing drowning and Nikola Tesla, so we have to bring it in.

There about ten or so themes and common title structure that the collection goes back to — references to Marvin Gaye, Nikola Tesla, flowers, and other naming devices that allow the poet to ruminate on the idea. These are poems with very long and evocative titles, and then meandering thoughts or little language moments and other great little scene exploring small ideas.

dear reader, with our heels digging into the good 
mud at a swamp’s edge, you might tell me something 
about the dandelion & how it is not a flower itself 
but a plant made up of several small flowers at its crown 
& lord knows I have been called by what I look like 
more than I have been called by what I actually am & 
I wish to return the favor for the purpose of this 
exercise. which, too, is an attempt at fashioning 
something pretty out of seeds refusing to make anything 
worthwhile of their burial. size me up & skip whatever semantics arrive 
to the tongue first. say: that boy he look like a hollowed-out grandfather 
clock. he look like a million-dollar god with a two-cent 
heaven. like all it takes is one kiss & before morning, 
you could scatter his whole mind across a field.

(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Fortune-Your-Disaster-Hanif-Abdurraqib/dp/1947793438/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3MKCJ3AC9895W&keywords=hanif+abdurraqib&qid=1570366263&sprefix=hanif%2Caps%2C486&sr=8-1)