After finding her profile on Instagram, at the time bursting with her poetry and beautiful interpretations of her work from her followers in the forms of photography and art, I was immediately sold. I saw it everywhere, being reblogged, retweeted, reposted by fellow lovers of words and fell in love. I discovered Nayyirah Waheed’s poetry on social media like much of her fan base. It expresses the type of raw, aching vulnerability that people yearn for. Nayyirah’s poetry is succinct, sweet, and dripping with softness. It provides the words that we have always needed to hear and from someone who looks like us. It is a map for the solitary journey of self-love for young and young at heart women of color. The work by Nayyirah Waheed in her debut poetry collection Salt is necessary. I can't wait to see what is next from waheed and her poetry. I haven't been this impressed with a poetry collection in a long time. It is incredibly beautiful and will challenge non black readers, while also offering catharsis to some people of color, especially black women. At any price it is a masterclass lesson in form, as well as a deeply moving series of intimate essays. It is one of the most accomplished collections I've ever read, far more than much of the collections by authors far more famous. Every poet interested in the micropoem form should read this refined, intense collection, which reflects topics as diverse as racism, childhood abandonment, bisexuality, gender, African-American identity, trauma and healing, writing, and love poems, all kinds of love, both bitter salt and honey sweet. They are whole cosmos exploding with meaning.
What has been done with such tiny poems is breathtaking. And then the next poem is a soft wash of ocean water reminding me that healing in a violent world is a radical act and the lancing of the wound is the beginning of healing from the pain and transforming it before it goes septic in the heart. The grief of diaspora and nonbelonging, the raw open softness of pain, the crystal clarity of the words, hurts like prodding a bruise I carry. nayyirah waheed has taken the unique experience of being an African-American woman and written poems that cut incredibly close to the bone as a mixed Asian-American poet. I read it in a single sitting and wanted to read it again and again. This book of poems (mostly micropoems) and prose poetry is utterly breathtaking.
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