A wonderful collection of poetry, separated into different sections with great introductions to begin each compilation based on the theme.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

This collection is a beautiful exploration of the different aspects of queer life, both positive and negative. The choice to put modern and classic poetry side by side showed the differences between queer poetry now and then. I felt particularly moved when reading the tender, almost secret writings about hidden feelings from past poets to the more stark, furious poetry exploring the aggression that queer people are experiencing now. Harry Josephine Giles' Elegy which referenced Brianna Ghey feels like a good example of this - it felt so raw and full of grief and anger.

You can also see the similarities between the love and joy that is explored in the older and newer poetry too. I liked that the book was split into sections for different topics so I could choose a theme when reading.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

This is a beautiful collection of older and newer poetry, a mix of those we recognise from history and those we don't yet. I loved the meshing of poems throughout time, that they weren't separated by time period, that sometimes you could tell and sometimes you couldn't, what was a historical piece and what wasn't. It felt nice to have them mixed, paying homage not by separation and saying here's a selection of the ones that made us, but rather, here's the ones that made us and the ones we made too.

Obviously through this I was introduced to a lot of new modern poets I hadn't heard of, but also some historical ones I hadn't too, such as Charlotte Mew and Amy Levy, and now I have so many writers to look up and learn about and I'm excited to do so.

Here's a big list of ones that I particularly loved and what started off as a plan to be a short look/quote from some of them...

A Room of Firsts by Karl Knights

Invisible Boy by Matthew Haigh

The Trick by David Ly

Natural Habitat by Kelsey Day -

"It arrives in the kitchen
one palm braced over the metal lid
of a French press, the smell of coffee blank & demanding:
my high school love, nudging me
aside, and insisting we set the timer for three minutes exactly.
no milk. no sugar. only the black soil between our teeth."

"uncurling ribbons" of black coffee, death and resurrection in a condensation filled kitchen, sense memory in the making of eggs...

Jesus at the Gay Bar by Jay Hulme - I've followed Jay Hulme for a long time online and just love how he writes and speaks on religion from his perspective. It's so interesting and so different from a lot of other LGBTQ+ relationships to religion.

Girl Guides by Jo Morris Dixon - there's a couple of Jo Morris Dixon poems on this list because wow the very specific feeling of my own childhood their work invokes is something else...

To the Girl at the Bus Stop by Nikita Gill

All the Dead Boys Look Like Me by Christopher Soto

Eating Slurs for Breakfast by Elspeth Wilson -

"You crack joke after joke, sunny side up, orange eggs in a black pan. I see lives cut short for a breakfast, you see nourishment, calories, something that will help us grow. It can’t all be doom and gloom you say when we can’t afford anything but our love for each other, and as you lay a grubby handprint on my white shirt, finally I laugh."


Today I Love Being Alive by Alex Dimitrov

Elegy by Harry Josephine Giles - A incredibly heartbreakingly beautiful poem in memoriam of Brianna Ghey. I want to copy and paste, no I want to re-type every word myself, of this here, but instead I'll just share this section I scribbled in my notebook which is already probably longer than I should share here. Please, please go read it all. The first of these poems to make me cry:

"Sister, I meant to meet you in the pit
of punks, girls to the front. I meant to brace
my marching voice on yours, our shivered longing
hoarse as rafters. I meant a moonstruck dress
my bones outgrew to settle on your shoulders.
I meant to sleep. I meant only to stay
safe in distant sisterhood. Now
it’s already morning and the dogs of news
are rattling the gate before your blood
has sunk into the earth. The fife and drum.
The column’s inch. The typing has begun.
My sister, when I call to pass the dead
weight from my heart to hers, says, “The worst
is hoping to hear that it wasn’t . . .” But when my sisters
walk with ghosts on either side, what odds
does it make: chance or choice, the edge of hatred

finds its mark. Sister, you were born
after I first ringed my eyes with black,
after I first skinned the street and tasted
desperation, after womanhood
began to ring her furious alarms
beyond my reach. I wrote a bloody book
before you took a breath. The space you left
cannot be filled, though we, your hungered sisters,
will drown the world-tree with grief."


If I Could Pray the Gay Away by Andrés N. Ordorica

playtime by Jo Morris Dixon - again, Jo Morris Dixon with my childhood in ten lines.

Except instead of Leo I got to be Romeo in our remake of Taylor Swift's Love Story and had to convince your parents to let us watch Alien when we weren't old enough yet and I think I didn't understand why at the time but I enjoyed you getting scared, you calling me brave, and you letting me be the one who got to comfort you.

Ringing in Sick to go Mermaid Hunting by Sarah Clancy

Having a Coke With You by Frank O'Hara - I loved getting to revisit a few poets that I fell in love with on my way out of teenagehood, and Frank O'Hara and his Lunch Poems is one of those. I remember beginning to study American Literature and these worlds of poets and writers opening up to me and Frank O'Hara being there.

Spout by John McCullough

1D3N+1+Y by Winter Chen

Queer Magic by Theo Parish

The Law Concerning Mermaids by Kei Miller

Practice by Mary Jean Chan - bruises and beauty and wanting to be a Knight (I kind of still want that)...

"I left a bruise: the blade’s tip ricocheting off chestguards
on to flesh. Just as often, I would feel yellow
blooms of ache where the girl I thought was
beautiful
had pierced my heart."


What I Always Wanted Poetry to Tell Me by Elizabeth Gilson

Tired by Langston Hughes - I will copy the whole of this here because it was true even before Hughes wrote it in 1931, it's still true now, and I dream of a day when it isn't.

"I am so tired of waiting,
Aren’t you,
For the world to become good
And beautiful and kind?
Let us take a knife
And cut the world in two
And see what worms are eating
At the rind."


We are Librarian by So Mayer (the second poem to make me cry in here.)

The Road from Hebden Bridge by Elizabeth Gibson (the third poem to make me cry in here.)
...solo trips to Hebden Bridge to write, walking past questionable Anne Lister pumpkin displays, video calls in covid planning future train trips and tours of Shibden Hall, writing notes in birthday cards in her code, meeting someone older, looking at those past, something/someone telling/showing you it's going to be ok. This poem just grabs a beautiful, visceral (in like a great teary way) moment and though it isn't your moment specifically, you've had it in your history too.

Not Even by Ocean Vuong

Here be by Harry Josephine Giles

What Kinds of Times Are These by Adrienne Rich - "I've walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of dread" is a line that is going to stick with me forever.

And I say to you someone will remember us
In time to come . . .
- Sappho

This is an absolutely stunning anthology of poetry. I really loved dipping in and out of this book and finding new poems that I loved. Flight, Criss-Cross and Us are just three of the many poems that spring to mind. What makes this book even more special is the reversible cover jacket on the physical copy, which allows the owner of the anthology to display their preferred pronouns as the cover. A really special book that should take pride of place on anyone's bookshelf.

This was a really beautiful collection of Queer poems. The anthology contained several chapters of well-grouped together poems, and the book had an overall flow which made it more enjoyable to read. There were stories from a range of Queer experiences - poems about being gay, bisexual, non-binary and trans, giving insight into others lives and validation for my own experiences and feelings. I would recommend this to any member of the LGBT+ community, or any allies wanting to hear more from Queer authors. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and will be purchasing a physical copy in the future.