Magic Enuff: Poems by Tara M. Stringfellow

 

 112 Pages | 2024

Summary: “Gorgeous poetry” (People) that celebrates Black Southern womanhood and the many ways magic lives in the bonds between mothers, daughters, and sisters, from the bestselling author of Memphis.

“These are lush poems full of radical love and strength.”—Warsan Shire, author of Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head

“God can stay asleep / these women in my life are magic enuff”

An electrifying collection of poems that tells a universal tale of survival and revolution through the lens of Black femininity. Tara M. Stringfellow embraces complexity, grappling with the sometimes painful, sometimes wonderful way two conflicting things can be true at the same time. How it’s possible to have a strong voice but also feel silenced. To be loyal to things and people that betray us. To burn as hot with rage as we do with love.

Each poem asks how we can heal and sustain relationships with people, systems, and ourselves. How to reach for the kind of real love that allows for the truth of anger, disappointment, and grief. Unapologetic, unafraid, and glorious in its nuance, this collection argues that when it comes to living in our full humanity, we have—and we are—magic enough. (Courtesy of Amazon)

Review: Not only do I love the direction they went with the cover, but I could really create images in my head as the poems clearly brought me through the writer's thoughts and feelings on the above subjects of relationships (of various kinds) and the black experience. One of my favorite lines was in the poem "Picking No. 2" due to the satisfying alliteration used: 

"elaborate as the cobbler
complicated crisscross of crisp
and crushing correctness"

About Magic Enuff

“Gorgeous poetry” (People) that celebrates Black Southern womanhood and the many ways magic lives in the bonds between mothers, daughters, and sisters, from the bestselling author of Memphis.

“These are lush poems full of radical love and strength.”—Warsan Shire, author of Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head

“God can stay asleep / these women in my life are magic enuff”

An electrifying collection of poems that tells a universal tale of survival and revolution through the lens of Black femininity. Tara M. Stringfellow embraces complexity, grappling with the sometimes painful, sometimes wonderful way two conflicting things can be true at the same time. How it’s possible to have a strong voice but also feel silenced. To be loyal to things and people that betray us. To burn as hot with rage as we do with love.

Each poem asks how we can heal and sustain relationships with people, systems, and ourselves. How to reach for the kind of real love that allows for the truth of anger, disappointment, and grief. Unapologetic, unafraid, and glorious in its nuance, this collection argues that when it comes to living in our full humanity, we have—and we are—magic enough.