For World Poetry Day 2021, I am featuring a book by Dr. Martina McGowan called i am the rage, a February 2021 release by Sourcebooks. Even if poetry isn’t your thing, do yourself a favor on World Poetry day and I highly encourage you to pick up this collection of poems.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links, see disclosures for more detail.
About the Book:
For fans of Amanda Gorman’s The Hill We Climb and Morgan Parker’s There are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé, comes a diverse poetry collection like no other. From two Black women of two different generations, I am The Rage provides insights that no think piece on racism can; putting readers in the position of feeling, reflecting, and facing what it means to be Black in America.
Dr. Martina McGowan, a retired doctor and grandmother, uses powerful free verse poetry to express the range of emotions and thoughts she had following the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests, giving readers a glimpse into an experience that may or may not mirror their own.
Contributing her art, Diana Ejaita’s work has been featured in Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, The New York Times and The Economist. “The poetry is so intense, the book is so strong, I am very honored…every word was turning and touching my soul. Very emotional,” said Ejaita in reaction to her poems being a part of this groundbreaking and educational collection.
My Thoughts
I gave this book 5 stars
This is such a powerfully affecting collection of poems. Raw. Real. Honest.
The utter pain and lament echoes from these words. I am not usually one to enjoy poetry, but this book doesn’t need extended flowery descriptions in order to convey the author’s bitter despair and disappointment with the world as it is today for Black people in America. Illustrator Diana Ejaita’s artwork serves to enhance each poem, providing a visual framework for the intense words.
“The intensity of life has not changed in these 400 years 200 years as freed-men and freed-women
Or, only free-ish
Our lives only remaining physically intact if we can continue to outrun
The slave patrollers and the police”
Every poem has a story to tell from McGowan’s unfiltered and unapologetic point of view. We need to listen to these words, take action, take them to heart. It is not enough to just nod in agreement and move on with our days, especially for those of us who do not live in her skin and who do not experience this day after day.
The poem entitled “Spoken Words Fail Me But…” is an absolute must read. I’d love to quote the entire thing here, but let me just say you need to get this book and absorb everything the author has to say. If you are a person of color, you will relate to her words more than you want to. If you are a white person, you need to read them to try to break free of your comfort zone and to avoid relegating racial justice to the back burner when it isn’t in the forefront of the news.
“But take heart
We will disappear from your sight again
In a few months
This broken world will return to business as usual
And our ambiguous losses will still be lost
Our freed spirits will once again
be locked in amber
Awaiting release in another age of outrage”
