, said the shotgun to the head. Book

Last night I was trying to decide which books to take with me to my parent's house for Christmas, picked up this book meaning to read a few lines, ended up reading the entire poetry collection in roughly an hour. I don't think I've ever read poetry quite like this before.

The introduction says that these poems are basically the nonsensical ramblings of a man after a kiss. There is a lot of passion in these poems, some sexual, but the poems are more than just about love. There's a lot of social commentary and activism in there, for example anti-war, pro-culture,patriarchy, anti-racism. Also the references to Langston Hughes and Jimi Hendrix gained Saul Williams some brownie points.

One thing that did make me cringe was his anti-religion stance. I'm not sure if he's against the idea of religion in general or just against the fact that people do use religion as an excuse to do evil. Obviously the last point is true but as a person with a faith, I'm not going to say that religion has to be bad, it really depends on the person and how they use it and interpret it.

I am very glad to own a copy of this book. I can tell I'm going to be re-reading it again and again.