CITIZEN: AN AMERICAN LYRIC - CLAUDIA RANKINE

I guess I should read more current poetry? I got this because I was hearing about it again as I read over these “best book of the decade” lists and I remember what a hubbub it created when it dropped in 2014. At that time it seemed outrageously timely; like Ta-Nehisi Coates here was a “new” writer writing about race and Amerika and policing right at a moment when all of those fault-lines seemed particularly volatile. I’m not sure why I didn’t read it at the time. Actually, I’ve certainly read the stanza: 

because white men can’t

police their imaginations

black people are dying

That sentiment was all over at the time, but I was unaware of the pedigree. As a YT man it was devastating then and now. The terroristic incidents, from the Baltimore Uprising, to Trayvon Martin to the London Riots to Stop-and-Frisk and on, sickeningly and indefinitely, are addressed directly. Rankine coins the phrase, “wrongfully ordinary” to sum up the sensation. Rankine chooses a Chris Marker, San Soleil epigraph to begin the book which had me sold from the jump. That’s a top 5 movie for me and the connection is so clear throughout. You can easily imagine these poems being read over the footage were all so familiar with from the aforementioned incidents, in fact that’s exactly what was going on in my, and I expect all, readers’ heads. Very moving overall, I was able to read it in 2 long sittings and really lock in. I was really touched by the sections towards the end about the nature and prevalence of injury, obviously a constant obsession of mine given my work. I’m sorry I waited so long to read this but I’m glad to see it’s getting the respect it deserves. I guess I should pay attention the contemporary poetry scene more closely. 2014 Citizens