For The City That Nearly Broke Me

For The City That Nearly Broke Me by Barbara Jane Reyes

Posted on July 23, 2012

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Incantatory, gritty, at times heartbreaking, and, yes, celebratory, these poems are amulets for our broken world.
–R. Zamora Linmark, author of Drive-By Vigils and The Evolution of a Sigh.  
Scribe of global soundscape, Reyes builds upon the heartbeat of literary and blood ancestors, feeding her “mythic thirst for home” as she journeys back to cities devastated and torn by the politics of race, history, class and sexuality, greeting her like an outsider. And still, despite the cities’ fall from grace, each gritty image, drawn on multiple languages and rhythms, is a love song, a reflection, a naming of the self. Bittersweet, powerful and precise, I adore this important book and the work of Barbara Jane Reyes.
–M. Evelina Galang, author of Her Wild American Self and One Tribe. 

In this fierce, feisty, anaphora-filled shakedown serenade, Reyes hard-scrambles our senses to position us firmly in poetry meant to electro-charge our attention real. This is a fine book of verse, reminiscent of Juan Felipe Herrera, yet singly Reyes. The supple lines ring endless rounds, bringing us bits of battle-singing and words wound true. Packs an amazing delivery and guarantees impact.
–Allison A. Hedge Coke, author of Dog Road Woman and Rock Ghost, Willow, Deer. 
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