It's Important I Remember: Poems [Hardcover]

An incantation of strength and solace for persisting in twenty-first-century America

History doesnt repeat, it rhymes. In his sweeping third collection, Charleston brings a poets ear for echo and rhythm to bear on American history and life after 2016. For Charleston, these rhymes cut two ways: the long tradition of American racism and fascism, and the steady pulse of Black persistence. The collections titular invocation frames each poem, at times an oratory to rally a crowd, in other moments a private prayer whispered as the speaker gathers himself to face another day. Charleston insists that should we cede memory of our national biographywhether to repression or indifferencewe will witness the countrys dissolution into something unrecognizable to many, yet all too familiar to its most marginalized people. But with each reiteration and riff, he also invokes a tenuous hopethat if we summon an American history of Black resistance, we might still make a more perfect union.

In his sweeping third collection, Charleston brings a poet’s ear for echo and rhythm to bear on American history and life after 2016.CORTNEY LAMAR CHARLESTON is a Pushcart Prize–winning poet and the author of Telepathologies and Doppelgangbanger. He has been awarded a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation as well as fellowships from Cave Canem and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

Its Important I Remember
           
this country is sick      
           
&I Can Never Wash My Hands Enough  
&There Are Several Ways to Kill Houseplants
&Survival Is a Matter of Luck
&Darkness and Blackness Arent Perfect Synonyms       
&White Blood Cells Fight l³§