The Braid

by Lauren Levin

Poetry. Women's Studies. Parenting. THE BRAID is a fever dream of pregnancy and early parenting in the era of the police state. Meditative and urgent, it interrogates the idealized portrait of mother and child to wind up somewhere much messier. A love poem shot through with ambivalence; a sustained fuck you to Ronald Reagan and his legacy; a moment of feminist possibility on the far side of collapse.

"I eat crumbs out of the baby's neck / I'm glad there are no great poems by women / I'm glad there are no great poems by Jews / I'm glad there are no great poems about motherhood / I'm glad no great poems have ever been written."

Genres: Poetry

130 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2016

About the author

Lauren Levin is a poet and mixed-genre writer, author of Nightwork (Golias Books, 2021), Justice Piece // Transmission (Timeless, Infinite Light, 2018), and The Braid (Krupskaya, 2016), which won the SFSU Poetry Center Book Award. With Eric Sneathen, they edited Honey Mine by Camille Roy (Nightboat Books, 2021). Their gender identity is some mix of belated queer, Jewish great-aunt, and aspirational Frank O'Hara. They are still figuring it out. They live in Richmond, CA, are from New Orleans, LA, and are committed to queer art, intersectional feminism, being a parent, and anxiety.

Reviews

[Kevin O'Rourke · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE BRAID is excellent & I highly recommend it, especially if you like discursive, politically engaged, long-lined poetry.

See a longer review on my site: https://goo.gl/1X2rxZ

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I want to ask the question, why is Reagan so dull

The answer I have arrived at is
because Reagan is a sleeping pill that offers those who swallow it
the unalloyed enjoyment of white innocence"

"It takes more than seeing to make a dent in white innocence"

"Wanting to be with her
Wanting to be alone

Not working is an opportunity to create new needs"

I liked this book's essayistic qualities. I liked what I already knew and could recognize; its intimacy and vulnerability; its long, messy lines; its exploration of politics and parenting. It was pretty exciting to encounter such a variety of ideas in one book.