November 27 2024

I love this book so very much. This was the last of the 3 banned books we read in my Lit Analysis class. This is also the one I’m writing my analysis on and defending against a ban in the mock school board meeting.

Although I’m not a brown skinned girl, nor Catholic, I absolutely do relate to the main character’s writing of poetry and discovery of the power of words and spoken word poetry. It’s as if she climbed into my heart, broke it open, and used the ink of my heart to write this book. I’m sobbing just thinking and writing about it. Especially when paired with Audre Lorde’s 1985 “Poetry is Not a Luxury” essay. These two together make me want to crawl into the ink of these words and explore every molecule, down to their nothingness and back again.

“Poetry is not only dream or vision, it is the skeleton architecture of our lives.” -Audre Lorde “ … Our poems give us strength and courage to see, to feel, to speak, and to dare.” -Audre Lorde “Poetry is a lantern glowing in the dark.” – Xiomara, main character in The Poet X