No Matter the Wreckage: Poems by Sarah Kay

Like so many English teachers, I first came to hear the name Sarah Kay from her Def Jam Poetry performance of  "Hands." She has many more memorable performances that you can find on YouTube, but "Hands" is the one I keep coming back to again and again.

Having come to know of Sarah Kay through her powerful spoken word poems, I was elated to discover she now has a written and published collection of poetry in book form.

Even though I love poetry, I am usually a fast, fickle, and impatient reader of poems. My method of reading poetry is generally to scan the poem, and if I come to the last line and it has a powerful, resonating cadence, then I'll go back and reread the entire thing more slowly.

That was not my process with the poems in No Matter the Wreckage. I just wanted to slowly drink in every single word for every single poem.

No Matter the Wreckage is one of the most unique collections of poetry I have ever read. It's not a memoir in verse, but the poems are deeply personal, following an organization and chronology that make it feel as such.

Somebody better make this young lady Poet Laureate someday because her words have a power and beauty like nothing I've ever seen before. I hope we will be watching and viewing her poems for years to come.


No Matter the Wreckage by Sarah Kay 
Published: March 18, 2014
Publisher: Write Bloody Publishing
Pages: 143
Genre: Poetry
Audience: Adult/Young Adult
Disclosure: Purchased copy

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