The New Testament - Jericho Brown

nHonored as a Best Book of 2014 by Library Journal Honored as a Standout Book of 2014 by American Poet magazineWinnner of the Thom Gunn Award for Gay PoetryPaterson Award for Literary Excellence, 2015 NPR.org writes: In his second collection, The New Testament, Brown treats disease and love and lust between men, with a gentle touch, returning again and again to the stories of the Bible, which confirm or dispute his vision of real life. 'Every last word is contagious, ' he writes, awake to all the implications of that phrase. There is plenty of guilt--survivor's guilt, sinner's guilt--and ever-present death, but also the joy of survival and sin.

And not everyone has the chutzpah to rewrite The Good Book.--NPR.orgBrown's is a necessary art in an era that has seen lingering racial conflict and growing acceptance of gays in America, as well as extreme intolerance and homophobia in many countries overseas. These poems work because while they emanate from an intimately personal place, social concerns loom as large as the barber in Bonnat's painting. To merge the private with the public so seamlessly is an enviable feat.

--The Antioch ReviewErotic and grief-stricken, ministerial and playful, Brown offers his reader a journey unlike any other in contemporary poetry.--Rain TaxiTo read Jericho Brown's poems is to encounter devastating genius.--Claudia RankineIn the world of Jericho Brown's second book, disease runs through the body, violence runs through the neighborhood, memories run through the mind, trauma runs through generations. Almost eerily quiet in even the bluntest of poems, Brown gives us the ache of a throat that has yet to say the hardest thing--and the truth is coming on fast. Fairy TaleSay the shame I see inching like steam nAlong the streets will never seep nBeneath the doors of this bedroom, nAnd if it does, if we dare to breathe, nTell me that though the world ends us, nLover, it cannot end our love nOf narrative.

Don't you have a story nFor me?--like the one you tell nWith fingers over my lips to keep me nFrom sighing when--before the queen nIs kidnapped--the prince bows nTo the enemy, handing over the horn nOf his favorite unicorn like those men nBrought, bought, and whipped until nThey accepted their masters' names. Jericho Brown worked as the speechwriter for the