Thanks to the author for the review copy.
Gaze is a collection of poems written by Omo Pastor. The collection of poems in this book begins beautifully with tenderness and remains nuanced in it while writing with empathy towards masculinity. It moves with grace and compassion that is sweet, sour, bitter and necessary in all its three sections. These poems work exquisitely together to render an intimate experience throughout the book.
Gaze is a meditation on what manliness has been, is, and could be. The author writes of authentic experiences in uncomplicated language.
What I loved about this collection is that it is a record of the heart; the hearts of victims of male identity, hearts that hurt/are hurt and hurting hearts that need healing.
The book begins with a poignant question that effortlessly sets the stage for the premise that dehumanisation of femininity is at the heart of the brutal conditioning of males; that they are victims of the system, nonetheless. It reflects on the weaponization of societal standards for devaluing tenderness in the male consciousness.
In the first few poems (stranger, Repetition...), the book reveals the vicious loop of the physical and emotional detachment of fathers and recycling of generational trauma.
The speaker(s) in these poems are diverse: a 25-year-old daddy's girl, a six-year-old girl, a broken man, survivors, victims, a friend, a graceful lover, etc.
This book walks you into male vulnerability (in Protector), "black boy joy", and male privilege. It is a recount of liberation (in Ghost) and restitution. Gaze is the space taken up by a black woman in the masculinity dialogue and a victim's capacity for forgiveness.
I think this book is amazing through the way it finesses its subject matter with verse. In the end, it proceeds to admonish, forgive, celebrate the love between black men. Gaze imagines a better world with tenderness from and to masculinity.
Komentáře