I Do Know Some Things
by Richard Siken
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2025 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST
I Do Know Some Things is a brave book, both in content and method.
It is brave to write about childhood scars and the heartbreak the dead leave behind. It is brave to reconfigure one's life in the aftermath of a stroke. Richard Siken presents these subjects directly, without ornament, and with nothing to hide behind, confronting the fact that he can no longer manipulate the constructions of form, or speak lies that tell the truth. In spite of these limitations, Siken chooses to write these poems and release them into a dangerous world. Each image, each sentence, is as direct as the American artist Jasper Johns's shooting targets. Each poem is like a small room in a house, a room where you will be punched in the throat. As he claws himself back into a self, into a body, Siken has written a book that is unsettling and autobiographical by necessity, and its seventy-seven prose poems invite the reader to risk a difficult intimacy in search of yet deeper truths.
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Book Details
ISBN:
9781556596247
EAN:
1556596243
Binding:
Hardcover
Pages:
128
Authors:
Richard Siken
Publisher:
Copper Canyon Press
This is a fantastic book of poetry. Readable, accessible, honest, deeply moving. I have been a fan of Siken’s work and enjoyed his previous work in Crush, and War of the Foxes. This book is different partly because its prose poetry and partly because its memoir and personal accounts about suffering a stroke and family stories, which are not only interesting, but horrific, and recounted in a poetic, condensed and with an original vision and childlike straightforwardness. His best book to date. I have recommended to friends. Don’t miss his interview on Rattlecast!
Beautiful poems.
There is no one like him.
These prose poems serve as a key opening to the maze of recovery from a serious stroke. Language is revealed as a multi-layered compass--go one way, you reach one destination, interpret an event another way, you reach another destination. I was fascinated by the poems' dexterity and multi-functionality.
I'm a massive fanboy of Richard Siken, and will purchase perhaps any work that comes from him. From browsing his tumblr tag to stalking his twitter, he's my favorite modern poet since the moment I picked up a copy of Crush. So it was a no brainer that I really wanted this book and purchased it the second I heard that it existed, and it arrived super quickly, like next day, and everything inside of it is masterfully written and amazing but, unfortunately, the cover and back of the book arrived damaged. Whatever matte finish they used on the book was rubbed off in splotches, ruining the beauty of the book from the outside.I'd give this a 5 star, but it's a bummer how the handling was done on the book when it was shipped out. The book was not given the love and respect that it deserves, and it makes me sad to own the only copy of a Richard Siken book that is damaged in a way that isn't me underlining my favorite qoutes or dog earing a favorite section, making it completely out of my control.Not a refundable purchase, definitely, because I'll love it all the same, but just a bummer!
