That’s exciting because you’re wandering away from the things that you feel confident of, and you’re wandering into a place where-oh, maybe you’re not so right. “Language urges you to push against what you might think you know, what you might initially be inclined to draw from what you’ve observed and even what you believe. Smith described the act of writing poetry as perpetually, and necessarily, expansive: Last year, in an interview with Krista Tippett of On Being, Tracy K. Not the noise, but its rhythm an arrangement / of derangements I’ll eat you to live: that’s poetry.”īurt noted in her report that at a certain point, Hayes the person came as much, or more, a subject of public fascination as his writing, and that many people approach him by asking the excruciating question of “what it means to be a spokesman for poetry.” Hayes and his poems both push back on this kind of proclamation as well as any one particular form or identity removing himself from the equation entirely, Hayes writes in Lighthead, “I know all words come from preexisting words / and divide until our pronouncements develop selves.” Lighthead is an incredible collection of these pronouncements, and together they form a remarkable achievement. “Lighthead’s Guide to the Galaxy” points to this ability in a larger statement on what constitutes poetry in general: “Not what you see, but what you perceive: / That’s poetry.
#Best i am da one complation full
His prodigious ability to experiment with form and syntax are on full display in Lighthead, his fourth collection and the winner of the 2010 National Book Award for Poetry. His writing moves quickly, with a constantly changing rhythm and a center in motion, and the resulting poems are buoyant, often playful, as they cover ground from desire to race and violence. “You want it to be as complicated as your feelings.” “A poem is never about one thing,” Hayes said. Stephanie Burt of The New York Times described how their attention shifted, becoming sharper, as Hayes brought up film, hip-hop, their hometown, and, eventually, poetry. In 2015, Terrance Hayes visited a class of teenagers in Pittsburgh. It’s one of the best books of any kind I’ve read in the last decade (and definitely the best box), so I have no doubt that it belongs here. But there’s simply no other category for a book that’s as much art object as work of literature, or the enormous emotional weight shifted by just a few scattered words. It’s highly original, and, if I’m being fair, only halfway poetry. And as you’ll shortly see, we had a hard time choosing just ten-so we’ve also included a list of dissenting opinions, and an even longer list of also-rans. Tears were spilled, feelings were hurt, books were re-read. The following books were chosen after much debate (and several rounds of voting) by the Literary Hub staff. We began with the best debut novels of the decade and the best short story collections of the decade, and we have now reached the third list in our series: the best poetry collections published in English between 20. We will do this, of course, by means of a variety of lists. So, as is our hallowed duty as a literary and culture website-though with full awareness of the potentially fruitless and endlessly contestable nature of the task-in the coming weeks, we’ll be taking a look at the best and most important (these being not always the same) books of the decade that was. We’ll take our silver linings where we can. It’s been a difficult, anxiety-provoking, morally compromised decade, but at least it’s been populated by some damn fine literature. Politicians must realise that they didn't convince voters on their own therefore they cannot throw ultimatums, he adds.Friends, it’s true: the end of the decade approaches. We saw dispersion of political support across political parties and the word that characterised this election was disenchantment. Political analyst Dr Ralph Mathekga joins Bongani Bingwa to reflect on the election outcome. With the elections done and dusted, what happens now? The Democratic Alliance (DA) emerged with a majority in 13 municipalities and coming in third was the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) with a majority in 10 municipalities. RELATED: 'The people have spoken, elected councillors now need to get down to work' - CR Mashinini said there are 66 hung councils where no political party won a majority vote and out of 213 municipalities the African National Congress (ANC) achieved a majority in 161 municipalities. Political analyst Dr Ralph Mathekga reflects on the local government elections.Įlectoral Commission (IEC) chairperson Glen Mashinini on Thursday night announced the results of the 2021 local government elections.