Madness

Advance Praise for Madness Madness is a wild, resolute book. An exposed, unbridled energy drives its emotional truths while virtuoso technique undergirds its formal and intellectual authority. Sections lead with poems entitled 'Psychotherapy' and feature idiosyncratic songs, dramas and hallucinatory intensities. This is a fine, otherworldly madness. This is an ardent, vulnerable madness. This is an astounding debut. sam sax is an astounding poet. - Terrance Hayes I message you from the restive belly of these poems. I entered willingly, was knocked to my knees and gradually realized there was no way out. Behind some of these doors was sex that pulsed rampant and slipsilver; behind others were at least a dozen darknesses bulging frantically. However, this is not an urgent message. I do not desire rescue. I was born addicted to terror as lyric. This is a madness I relish. - Patricia Smith These are poems so unapologetically fierce and filthy they are holy. It's so rare to read words that know they are pushed to the brink, bringing their reader to an edge that didn't exist before. I'm astonished at the peculiarity and specificity of this poet's vision--it is a vision that encompasses all the other senses, which gathers and displays the senses it's quite possible we didn't have before, or took leave of, or have yet to grow. - Brenda Shaughnessey Advance Praise for Madness Madness is a wild, resolute book. An exposed, unbridled energy drives its emotional truths while virtuoso technique undergirds its formal and intellectual authority. Sections lead with poems entitled 'Psychotherapy' and feature idiosyncratic songs, dramas and hallucinatory intensities. This is a fine, otherworldly madness. This is an ardent, vulnerable madness. This is an astounding debut. sam sax is an astounding poet. - Terrance Hayes I message you from the restive belly of these poems. I entered willingly, was knocked to my knees and gradually realized there was no way out. Behind some of these doors was sex that pulsed rampant and slipsilver; behind others were at least a dozen darknesses bulging frantically. However, this is not an urgent message. I do not desire rescue. I was born addicted to terror as lyric. This is a madness I relish. - Patricia Smith These are poems so unapologetically fierce and filthy they are holy. It's so rare to read words that know they are pushed to the brink, bringing their reader to an edge that didn't exist before. I'm astonished at the peculiarity and specificity of this poet's vision--it is a vision that encompasses all the other senses, which gathers and displays the senses it's quite possible we didn't have before, or took leave of, or have yet to grow. - Brenda Shaughnessey