I have to live Poems [Paperback]

A new collection ablaze with urgency and radiant inquiry from a 2015 finalist for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry

A demand and promise; an obligation and challenge; a protest and call:I have to live.
Juiced on the ecstasy of self-belief:I have to live.
A burgeoning erotics of psychic boldness:I have to live.
In which sensitivity is recognized as wealth:I have to live.
Trumpeting the forensic authority of the heart:I have to live.
This is original ancient poetry.
It fashions a universe from its mouth.GRIFFIN POETRY PRIZE FINALIST 

“Aisha Sasha John’s I have to live shows what poetry can become when stripped of prettiness and polite convention—when in survival mode. Spontaneous, its subjects unposed, its language unrehearsed, each poem has the effect of being taken with a polaroid camera. John writes poems that are resistant to overwrought aesthetics, poems that have popular appeal yet are uninhibited by audience, poems whose casual demeanour belie their fight against casualty. They wind their way into us like a chorus. They gain force by accumulation: 'I do. / I did it. / I did. / I had to. / I have to. / I have to live.' As a result, one does not engage with I have to live by familiar means of dissection and analysis. One need only listen, as to an aching friend. No need to fix anything. Just listen.” --Griffin Poetry Prize Jury Citation


Praise forTHOUby Aisha Sasha John:
 • An act of deep attention to the physical self, to the positioning of bodies in the world, Aisha Sasha John'sTHOUtakes us on a journey through power and society, hatred and love, anger and healing, offering an intimate, clear-eyed look at our shared humanity. Original, funny, sensuous; at once profound and unpretentious, John's lines are a pleasure and a revelation. -- Jury comment, Trillium Book Award forl“p