full of ruefulness, remorse, ruin, regret, rawness, and reflection, the forty-four poems that make up nick flynn's latest collection, i will destroy you, find the poet/memoirist expounding ever further upon themes he's explored in previous works, perhaps most notably in another bullshit night in suck city (later adapted into the film, being flynn). the suicide of his mother, as it does elsewhere in his writing, looms large in his dark, but stirring new collection. flynn is a father now and throu...

Here's the deal—if you diethen I will be able todrink again & noone alive will evenblame me—this,child, is the dark wind in-side, but notthe darkest ...—From "Poem to Be Whispered by the Bedside of a Sleeping Child"Yes, this is dark, but, in I Will Destroy You, possibly not the darkest. But I Will Destroy You is the darkest Nick Flynn has been, and that's saying something. Undeniably effective and affecting, but I hope the next one is a little bit lighter, for the sake of both the reader and the...

I Will Destroy You is the modernized retelling of Icarus—except that, after the speaker’s fall, its protagonist is resurrected. In the opening poem, “Confessional,” he lays himself bare to the reader—“admits” to his faults, preparing the reader for something dark and heavy. “Now, it [this poem] wears its shame like a halo,” read its final lines. “Please, take it, rip it up, put it in your glass. / We can watch it dissolve.” Throughout the book, through some sort of sleight of hand I can’t quite

Very badly wanted to like this collection of poems from Flynn more than I actually do. But there's only a small bunch of poems in there that I actually like. But those that I like, I like quite a lot. Considered giving it a 4-star rating, but somehow I just can't make myself do it.These are poems that I think are rather lovely :POEM TO BE WHISPERED BY THE BEDSIDE OF A SLEEPING CHILDHORSE THIEFWHAT YOU CAN’T HEARNOW

4.5 Stars After reading the fourth poem in this book, Poem to be whispered by the bedside of a sleeping child I closed the book for a moment and audibly said, "damn." I Will Destroy You will feel familiar to fans of Flynn's previous works. But, this one comes with a warning, with lessons to be learned. Compelling, clever, and accessible.

NOW Tomorrow, orthe day after, I'll press mymouth to your scar & runmy tongue along itso I can taste how you were onceopened, so I can know whereyou never closed.

Yes, Nick Flynn, you will. You did. You will always. America's greatest living poet.

Picked this up from a Goodreads rec after reading through all of the work of Jeffrey McDaniel, and I would say they are comparable. He has an edgy wit backed up by compelling life stories. Plus he's married to Lili Taylor and she's a pretty cool cat. Looking forward to reading more.

Maybe closer to 4 stars but when I began reading it the one-two punch of "Balcony" followed by "Poem to be Whispered by the Bedside of a Sleeping Child" took my breath away with such force that I said that it was an automatic 5 star rating for me. I had to stop and reread each of them several times, share them with friends... These two poems are Flynn at his most forceful - freaking brilliant.That is not to discount the rest of the book. I personally feel that the first section is the strongest

“I want to enter into that moment my mother strikes her first match, but I’m still asleep upstairs. In the dream I’m walking through the marsh, because only there, surrounded by water am I safe. Are your hands the water? Are these words the flame?” -Saint Augustine by Nick Flynn I swear to all things holy I always forget how much these poems affect me, comparing this to Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry is like comparing apples and oranges because John Murillo is imagistic and soft where Nick Flynn i...

This was my intro to Flynn - will definitely be reading more. I felt the first section was the strongest part of the book on the whole, but there were poems to admire throughout. As a non-parent, the poems dealing with parenting struck me as particularly well-crafted, but what do I know? My favorites: Balcony, Haecceity, Unghosted, Sky Burial, and Killdeer. Is it dark? Yup. Is it super-personal/confessional? Yup. And some won't like it because of these things, but that's exactly why I liked it.

My version of coping with absurdly horrifying news includes reading poetry. This collection was pretty terrific.

this was good. i liked it. yeah. the poem titled “balcony” was very very good. a lot of nice good poems in this collection. but i inherently like bad things. i love things that are just plain horrible. and this book i think is that. this dude is just so fake deep. it’s a little funny. this is a little tiny fake deep poetry book. imagine him sitting down, as a man, and writing this. and then him reading it over and being like, yeah this sounds sophisticated. omfg. i bet this dude is really a grea...

I don't know the best way to read poetry. There are poems and better yet, single lines in this work that are so beautiful and moving and stick with me still. The entire collection, read in one sitting, was too much. Too private, too personal, too much like well-crafted therapy, which leads me to conclude that I am not taking this in in the right amounts.The writing is beautiful and interesting and visceral.

I stayed with many of these -- "Killdeer" for instance-- because they held so much inside them. Curled up and tender. And "Amanuensis" (love the idea of it) and then "Parrot" (oh my god the title) -- and loved that it wasn't until the notes that I learned of the rules and games Nick was playing to make these.

Is it refreshing to read a poem with references, not to ancient gods, heroines, or myths, but, instead, to pop musicians and the horror and sci-fi films of 30 years ago?Flynn’s work reminds me of the fragility of our existence. We are always a breath away from being undone, by our trauma or someone else’s. Flynn reminds us of that precarity, at turns, abruptly, rationally, with grace, and always with a little mystery.There are probably as many gods and myths as there are rock stars and films...

Equal parts Augustine, parts pop culture detritus, Nick Flynn writes with anger about developing into middle age: love, alcoholism, his mother's suicide, the loss of a childhood home, and his daughter all permeate the book. Yet the anger doesn't feel middle-aged exactly, Flynn also likes to remix and rebuild: gods and monsters, classical references, and sci-fi films and punk rock ethos. Flynn wants art to be redemptive even if it emerging from a mock of pain and darkness.

Rebuilding, remolding, reflection. Flynn's collections (and memoirs) are always heavy and this one is no different. These poems will gut you, drag you down the street, and throw you on your knees, where you will form the most wondrous prayer, a mantra that was within you all along. A favorite here is "Pied Piper": https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...

I was kind of surprised to see this collection so highly rated, but to each their own. I struggled to appreciate this collection, which seems steeped in a kind of aimless rage. Many of the poems were dull and felt underbaked. In particular, the attitudes extended toward women were off-putting, narrow, and felt confined to the speaker's personal immaturity and egotism. It just wasn't for me.

favorite poems: Sleeping Beauty and Unghosted also especially enjoyed Now and The Angel of Forgettingsat and read this in a branch of the NYPL near my apartment after stumbling across it while picking up some other books. liked it as much as I enjoyed Some ether; his writing hits on disgust in love well, as well as feelings towards the emptiness in oneself and navigating relationships within that, and i really enjoy it