Description

Our Bookseller says:

In these poems, Barnes sings with a vernacular music. But anyone can glean that from a shallow read. Here, poetry isn’t high-brow, formal speech, but a mirror to everyday genius — with all that conversational spark, pop, and sizzle. (The group chat roasting, too.) There’s blackness and realness, the merits of abstract images versus direct political action, shitty Brooklyn apartments, and highrise cocktails. Too, this is an observer’s book. One for the person on the edge of every friend group, who absolutely belongs but maybe doesn’t always feel it, who floats in the in-between, who maybe prefers their own company and art, who thinks about self-versus-other frequently. If “watching couples take selfies makes me anxious,” then yeah, Barnes sees you. – Mason