Saeed Jones works as the editor of BuzzfeedLGBT. I can't have you rattling the bed springs Prelude to a Bruise is a daring debut.' -Rigoberto Gonz lez With impressive grace, Saeed Jones situates the queer black body at the center, where his visibility and vulnerability nurture emotional strength and the irrepressible energy to claim those spaces that were once denied or withheld from him. 'Inside each hunger, each desire, speaks the voice of a boy that admits 'I've always wanted to be dangerous.' This is not a threat but a promise to break away from the affliction of silence, to make audible the stories that trouble the dimensions of masculinity and discomfort the polite conversations about race. Saeed Jones' Prelude to Bruise, a collection of poems that narrates the wounds of a black gay boy in the American South.' Pacific Standard 'Poems like 'Post Apocalyptic Heartbreak,' 'History According to Boy,' 'Prelude to Bruise,' and others will break your heart and force you to investigate and confront the unconscionable brutality of this.

And it's unforgettable.' -Brenda Shaughnessy In a poem, Jones says, 'Boy's body is a song only he can hear.' But now that we have this book, we can all hear it. This is not just a 'new voice' but a new song, a new way of singing, a new music made of deep grief's wildfire, of burning intelligence and of all-feeling heart, scorched and seared. Here we absorb each quiet resistance, each whoop of joy, a knowledge of violence and of desire, an unbearable ache/loss/yearning. Jones takes a reader deep into lived experience, into a charged world divided among unstable yet entrenched lines: racial, gendered, political, sexual, familial. Not just brilliant, caustic, and impassioned but a work that brings history-in which the personal and political are inter-constitutive-to the immediate moment. The doors of the church are open.' -Patricia Smith Jones undoubtedly dipped his pen in fierce before crafting these stanzas that rock like backslap. 'Prelude to Bruise works its tempestuous mojo just under the skin, wreaking a sweet havoc and rearranging the pulse. 'I get shout-happy when I read these poems they are the gospel they are the good news of the sustaining power of imagination, tenderness, and outright joy.' -D. 'This book leaves your body transformed in a way that poetry should.' - ElevenEleven 'Jones is the kind of writer who's more than wanted: he's desperately needed.' - FlavorWire

Prelude to bruise by saeed jones