{"product_id":"prelude-to-bruise","title":"Prelude to Bruise by Saeed Jones","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003ePraise for Saeed Jones:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Jones is the kind of writer who's more than wanted: he's desperately needed.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e―\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eFlavorWire\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This book leaves your body transformed in a way that poetry should.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e―\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eElevenEleven\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I get shout-happy when I read these poems; they are the gospel; they are the good news of the sustaining power of imagination, tenderness, and outright joy.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e―D. A. Powell\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Prelude to Bruise works its tempestuous mojo just under the skin, wreaking a sweet havoc and rearranging the pulse. These poems don't dole out mercy. Mr. Jones undoubtedly dipped his pen in fierce before crafting these stanzas that rock like backslap. Straighten your skirt, children. The doors of the church are open.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e―Patricia Smith\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It's a big book, a major book. A game-changer. Dazzling, brutal, real. Not just brilliant, caustic, and impassioned but a work that brings history―in which the personal and political are inter-constitutive―to the immediate moment. Jones takes a reader deep into lived experience, into a charged world divided among unstable yet entrenched lines: racial, gendered, political, sexual, familial. Here we absorb each quiet resistance, each whoop of joy, a knowledge of violence and of desire, an unbearable ache\/loss\/yearning. This is not just a 'new voice' but a new song, a new way of singing, a new music made of deep grief's wildfire, of burning intelligence and of all-feeling heart, scorched and seared. In a poem, Jones says, 'Boy's body is a song only he can hear.' But now that we have this book, we can all hear it. And it's unforgettable.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e―Brenda Shaughnessy\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Inside each hunger, each desire, speaks the voice of a boy that admits 'I've always wanted to be dangerous.' This is not a threat but a promise to break away from the affliction of silence, to make audible the stories that trouble the dimensions of masculinity and discomfort the polite conversations about race. With impressive grace, Saeed Jones situates the queer black body at the center, where his visibility and vulnerability nurture emotional strength and the irrepressible energy to claim those spaces that were once denied or withheld from him. Prelude to a Bruise is a daring debut.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e―Rigoberto González\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eFrom \"Sleeping Arrangement\":\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTake your hand out\u003cbr\u003efrom under my pillow.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd take your sheets with you.\u003cbr\u003eDrag them under. Make pretend ghosts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI can't have you rattling the bed springs\u003cbr\u003eso keep still, keep quiet.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMistake yourself for shadows.\u003cbr\u003eLearn the lullabies of lint.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"IPS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51687515750716,"sku":"9781566893749","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0273\/2005\/files\/81VhBPSMM1L._SL1500.jpg?v=1758220694","url":"https:\/\/frugalbookstore.net\/products\/prelude-to-bruise","provider":"Frugal Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}