I write anyway, because I imagine you, reader, basically two ways: 1) on the CTA to a job you hate, possibly hungover, thankful it\u2019s at least Friday or annoyed because Friday is your Monday or 2) at least partially responsibility-free and joyously cheering the end of the week. In both scenarios, this email is a treat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or as this week\u2019s author says in their Acknowledgments page, \u201cReader, your attention\u2014a measure of your time, your most non-replenishable resource\u2014is a profound gift, one I have done my best to honor. Thank you, thank you.\u201d THAT\u2019S RIGHT, WE\u2019RE READING KAVEH AKBAR THIS WEEK WOOOOOOOO!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I\u2019ve Been Reading Lately:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n First of all, Kaveh, if you happen to see this, sorry about the Bucks. At least Khris Middleton looked alive some this series. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quick story: I went to Kaveh\u2019s Chicago book tour stop at the Haymarket House, hosted by the incomparable Women & Children First, H Melt, and Eve L. Ewing. I was wearing a Bulls shirt and so Kaveh and I talked basketball. I know, right?! The world is sometimes full of good things\u2014couplets with caesuras, the swish of a three\u2014but I had something I really wanted to say that for once did not involve Dame-Giannis PNRs. For the record, I did not <\/em>tell him that he was one of the Twitter Poets Back In 2016-17 that inspired my beloved and I start a podcast originally called \u201cPoets Love Basketball.\u201d<\/a> What I wanted to say, and it\u2019s an incredibly true thing is: \u201chey Kaveh, I went through years of burnout, where I didn\u2019t write anything and questioned if I even liked poetry, and both your work and constant posting of poems on Twitter helped rescue me from writing burnout.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n You know what this man said to me? <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThank you sincerely for saying that. Writers have been that for me, I\u2019ve been that for writers, and one day, you will be that for other writers.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The opposite of Martin Amis<\/a>. Kaveh\u2019s about as tall as Victor Wembanyama, and all heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pilgrim Bell <\/strong><\/em>by Kaveh Akbar: <\/strong>Mal always says she can\u2019t trust me when I say she looks good because why would her husband say she looks bad? Well, lest you think I\u2019m going to spend the whole blog tongue-cleaning Kaveh\u2019s Jordans\u2014I thought Pilgrim Bell <\/em>was fine. Not as earth-shattering as Calling A Wolf A Wolf<\/a><\/em>, although I\u2019m always glad when a poet tries to write a different book from their first. These poems are more spare, more devotional. It\u2019s not that I didn\u2019t like this collection, it\u2019s that it didn\u2019t quite sing to me the way Kaveh\u2019s other two books have. I\u2019ll return to this at some point\u2014maybe a second reading will open me more to letting the poems\u2019 magic work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Martyr!<\/strong><\/em> by Kaveh Akbar: <\/strong>my God, this book. The trend of poets writing absolutely dynamite novels that I read for this blog continues. It takes a lot for me to say something should be required reading\u2014it\u2019s a thought-killing clich\u00e9 that reeks of Literary Hall Monitoring\u2014but I do think every writer should read this book. Certainly I, a recovering drunk who is obsessed with the idea of his books being meaningful<\/em>, wish I had read this book when I was 26 instead of 36. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, this is a book starring a writer main character\u2014normally a pet peeve, the realm of philandering Updike narrators or white male navel-gazing\u2014but the writing conceit serves the project. Cyrus Shams is a poet obsessed with death mattering\/the concept of martyrdom, and when poets have an obsession that they\u2019re trying work out in book form, it\u2019s interesting. Whether<\/a> or not you like poetry<\/a>, the poetic process is supposed treat even the simplest concepts \u201cwith rigor,\u201d as Jos\u00e9 Olivarez put on his <\/a>The Line Break<\/a><\/em> appearance<\/a>. To watch Cyrus grapple with his martyr-obsession\u2014and in doing so, get a better understanding of his own life\u2019s purpose\u2014that\u2019s interesting, in this context. The book is littered with Cyrus\u2019s bad rough drafts, but even bad rough drafts written in a character\u2019s voice is new Kaveh Akbar poetry. It\u2019s all a treat, is what I\u2019m saying, and the treat is wrapped in an actually compelling narrative that is hard to put down. To bring up another reader\u2019s cliche, I am sad to have finished this novel, because it means I\u2019m no longer reading this novel. You should, though. <\/p>\n\n\n\n LINKS!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There is simply too much going on with the campus protests right now for me to do it any justice in covering it here. Not to mention, it\u2019s basically the only thing on my Bluesky feed rn, maybe you want a break. Also, if you read this blog, you can probably discern where I come down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To the students who peacefully and clearly stating their demands (read: all of them?)\u2014solidarity. To the people brought in for the sole purpose of doing violence (read: cops)\u2014hey, consider a career change and therapy. To the administrators threatening to rescind degrees and having students<\/em> arrested for standing up to injustice\u2014shame is a deep well that\u2019s hard to crawl out of, and I hope your journey is difficult. Personally, my Jesuit alma mater told us, metaphorically, to \u201cgo forth and set the world on fire.\u201d If trying to upend the military industrial complex and end the United States\u2019s funding of genocide isn\u2019t<\/em> what Saint Ignatius was admonishing, then I must\u2019ve misunderstood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway, here\u2019s Operation Ivy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Martyr!](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/76d5d7cb-1178-4434-953a-c833f8c2512b.heic\")
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