Name: Crush
ISBN: 9780300107210

Richard Siken

A collection of poems driven by obsession reveals a poetry that is at once confessional, graceful, and savage.

Crush

zee ✨️

Ana Belén

Lucía RG

I took several days to read this. It is a short book but a full collection. Still, it took me days. I do not think it is possible to read this in one seating without breaking something, without breaking a little. For some parts or rather for most of it, I had to slow down, take a breath, and reread. I’d go through one to two poems and call it a day. I do not think I am being dramatic in taking this route. I hope not. 

Moreover, for a lack of better words, the poems are visceral. I am new to poetry, in that this is the first poetry collection I have read in its entirety. I have favourite poems, of course. But anyways, I am not a connoisseur. Still, the poems reached me as violently visceral, especially in the third section. Almost like Siken had gone the David Lynch way of writing. Like he wrote sections, lines each on an index card, like how Lynch structures a scene, expands upon each, refines each and every one, and combines them by the end. Like a film. Some of the poems read like vignettes of a film, each line a scene flittering into each other. 

It is also visceral in the tenderest ways. I read that Siken had started writing this in his 20s. And continued to write from this perspective even when he was past the age. Maybe this is why it hit me so hard. The messiness of the 20s. The absolute drama and somehow ennui of it all which Siken perfectly captures. Though I confess I cannot comprehend all of it. Not to its full meaning. Largely due to the fact that I do not have this particular experience. Yet somehow, most of it registers. Which truly speak to Siken’s masterful writing.

Leontine

I took several days to read this. It is a short book but a full collection. Still, it took me days. I do not think it is possible to read this in one seating without breaking something, without breaking a little. For some parts or rather for most of it, I had to slow down, take a breath, and reread. I’d go through one to two poems and call it a day. I do not think I am being dramatic in taking this route. I hope not. 

Moreover, for a lack of better words, the poems are visceral. I am new to poetry, in that this is the first poetry collection I have read in its entirety. I have favourite poems, of course. But anyways, I am not a connoisseur. Still, the poems reached me as violently visceral, especially in the third section. Almost like Siken had gone the David Lynch way of writing. Like he wrote sections, lines each on an index card, like how Lynch structures a scene, expands upon each, refines each and every one, and combines them by the end. Like a film. Some of the poems read like vignettes of a film, each line a scene flittering into each other. 

It is also visceral in the tenderest ways. I read that Siken had started writing this in his 20s. And continued to write from this perspective even when he was past the age. Maybe this is why it hit me so hard. The messiness of the 20s. The absolute drama and somehow ennui of it all which Siken perfectly captures. Though I confess I cannot comprehend all of it. Not to its full meaning. Largely due to the fact that I do not have this particular experience. Yet somehow, most of it registers. Which truly speak to Siken’s masterful writing.

it’s good (esp the poems where grief is the strongest narrative) but all i can think of is my poetry workshop days from many years ago where everyone was trying to write like siken 😭 i think i would have liked this more if i read it earlier in life. also i did not know he’s gay. good for him! 

Ianna Chia

this was so heartbreakingly beautiful. atmospheric, raw, full of rage and love and guilt. resonated with me more than i thought it would. 

'with this bullet lodged in my chest, covered with your name, I will turn myself into a gun, because I'm hungry and hollow and just want something to call my own. I'll be your slaughterhouse, your killing floor, your morgue and final resting.' 

Anna 

this was so heartbreakingly beautiful. atmospheric, raw, full of rage and love and guilt. resonated with me more than i thought it would. 

. 

'with this bullet lodged in my chest, covered with your name, I will turn myself into a gun, because I'm hungry and hollow and just want something to call my own. I'll be your slaughterhouse, your killing floor, your morgue and final resting.' 

you are the fever I am learning to live with, and everything is happening at the wrong end of a very long tunnel.

when reading - novels, memoirs, poetry — sometimes, i struggle to truly feel and digest what it is that i am reading. these are stories that are personal, and i am stuck wondering if, although they are shared, it would be invasive to see myself in another persons words, another persons truths.

i can say i admired his storytelling, the visceral emotion within each line and paragraph; the imagery; the choice, or lack thereof. there is love and there is loss, pure happiness and regret. there are feelings that i couldn’t name, that are beyond me, but they are there and they are felt and maybe i feel them too in my own way. i have loved and i have lost, and maybe it’s not the same, but i’m not sure if the differences are that significant.

𝓒.

you are the fever I am learning to live with, and everything is happening at the wrong end of a very long tunnel.

when reading - novels, memoirs, poetry — sometimes, i struggle to truly feel and digest what it is that i am reading. these are stories that are personal, and i am stuck wondering if, although they are shared, it would be invasive to see myself in another persons words, another persons truths.

i can say i admired his storytelling, the visceral emotion within each line and paragraph; the imagery; the choice, or lack thereof. there is love and there is loss, pure happiness and regret. there are feelings that i couldn’t name, that are beyond me, but they are there and they are felt and maybe i feel them too in my own way. i have loved and i have lost, and maybe it’s not the same, but i’m not sure if the differences are that significant.

reread for brooklyn poets mentorship program reading group

personal library, bought from books are magic brooklyn heights

Patricia K

reread for brooklyn poets mentorship program reading group

personal library, bought from books are magic brooklyn heights

kelsey

four stars

it crushed me.... but it was so good and i love how richard siken writes

Place holder for different book, which is the graphic novel Crush by Svetlana Chmakova which I gave a 5:5

amelia <3

Monicap

katrina montgomery

Maria

“You see, I take the parts that I remember and stitch them back together to make a creature that will do what I say or love me back.”

mr. siken has his unique way in formulating a captivating sentence that form a biblically accurate feelings of longing and yearning. this book made me feel things i never thought i could. it is such a personal read, like i am sucked into someone’s mind and i get to see all their monsters while i find my own monsters in them. overall brilliant.

𓆨

"You see, I take the parts that I remember and stitch them back together
to make a creature that will do what I say
or love me back."

i don't know much about poetry as i don't usually read much of it, but i quite enjoyed this. i appreciated the human character of the poems as well as the coherence of this piece as a whole.

"oh, the things we invent when we are scared and want to be rescued."

casey

Kendall McClain

Richy I love you so dearly but please leave me alone! 4.5 bc I still prefer war of the foxes but she slays and makes me sad and nostalgic for the tumblr days

Annika Arguemore

Do we mean something when we talk? HAHA OUCH

“…the gentleness that comes, not from the absence of violence, but despite the abundance of it.”

i would not be the writer that i am now without mr. siken and this masterpiece of his. shaped me fr.

“…the gentleness that comes, not from the absence of violence, but despite the abundance of it.”

i would not be the writer that i am now without mr. siken and this masterpiece of his. shaped me fr.