I Will Destroy You: Poems

by Nick Flynn

The newest collection from Nick Flynn, whose “songs of experience hum with immediacy” (The New York Times)

Beginning with a poem called “Confessional” and ending with a poem titled “Saint Augustine,” Nick Flynn's I Will Destroy You interrogates the potential of art to be redemptive, to remake and reform. But first the maker of art must claim responsibility for his past, his actions, his propensity to destroy others and himself. “Begin by descending,” Augustine says, and the poems delve into the deepest, most defeating parts of the self: addiction, temptation, infidelity, and repressed memory. These are poems of profound self-scrutiny and lyric intensity, jagged and probing. I Will Destroy You is an honest accounting of all that love must transcend and what we must risk for its truth.

Genres: Poetry, Addiction

96 pages, Paperback

Published September 3, 2019

About the author

Nick Flynn is an American writer, playwright, and poet.



Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

full of ruefulness, remorse, ruin, regret, rawness, and reflection, the forty-four poems that make up nick flynn's latest collection, i will destroy you, find the poet/memoirist expounding ever further upon themes he's explored in previous works, perhaps most notably in another bullshit night in suck city (later adapted into the film, being flynn). the suicide of his mother, as it does elsewhere in his writing, looms large in his dark, but stirring new collection. flynn is a father now and throughout i will destroy you, his sense of wonder (and paternal love) is quite evident, however interspersed with fears of failure and inevitable worries over genetic predispositions for addiction. flynn's writing has always been bold, unabashed, and often gut-punchingly candid. nearly twenty years after his first collection of poetry, flynn remains a vital, singular voice.

balcony

the radio claims the secret is
simple—it's to always want
to know what comes next
& to let that want pull you
back from the ledge, again
& again. i have a friend who,
the years he was drinking,
would, every night, stack all
the furniture in his living room
in front of his sliding glass door,
which led out to his fifth-floor
balcony . . . . he knew that once
he'd had his first drink, not right
away but eventually—soon—he'd
blackout & he worried he'd try
to fly again. couch. table. chair.
bookcase. for years he dragged
his furniture, every night as the sun
went away & in the morning he
put it all back in place, never con-
sidering, not once, that maybe
he should stop. the one promise i
can make is that i'm staying
even though what knocks on our
door at night has at its heart only
my getting lost, even though
some part of it wants me dead,
which is why i feed it with a stick.
you've already met it, but it didn't
show you all its teeth. it knew
it had to lull you in, it knew you were
skittery. it let you feed it by hand, it
let you put a finger in its mouth,
into its good, good mouth. it didn't
bite down, not hard, not then,
not yet.

[Julie Ehlers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's
the deal—if you die

then I will be able to
drink again & no

one alive will even
blame me—this,

child, is the dark wind in-

side, but not
the darkest ...

—From "Poem to Be Whispered by the Bedside of a Sleeping Child"

Yes, this is dark, but, in I Will Destroy You, possibly not the darkest. But I Will Destroy You is the darkest Nick Flynn has been, and that's saying something. Undeniably effective and affecting, but I hope the next one is a little bit lighter, for the sake of both the reader and the writer.

[Sarah Katz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Will Destroy You is the modernized retelling of Icarus—except that, after the speaker’s fall, its protagonist is resurrected. In the opening poem, “Confessional,” he lays himself bare to the reader—“admits” to his faults, preparing the reader for something dark and heavy. “Now, it [this poem] wears its shame like a halo,” read its final lines. “Please, take it, rip it up, put it in your glass. / We can watch it dissolve.” Throughout the book, through some sort of sleight of hand I can’t quite put my finger on, he transforms the loss of his mother to a house fire, himself to addiction, his marriage to infidelity—into an all-consuming, redemptive light. Despite—because of?—the tragic subject matter, Nick Flynn has found a way to answer that eternal, burning question: why live? Because “people are not // replaceable.”

[Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars
After reading the fourth poem in this book, Poem to be whispered by the bedside of a sleeping child I closed the book for a moment and audibly said, "damn." I Will Destroy You will feel familiar to fans of Flynn's previous works. But, this one comes with a warning, with lessons to be learned. Compelling, clever, and accessible.

[emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very badly wanted to like this collection of poems from Flynn more than I actually do. But there's only a small bunch of poems in there that I actually like. But those that I like, I like quite a lot. Considered giving it a 4-star rating, but somehow I just can't make myself do it.

These are poems that I think are rather lovely :

POEM TO BE WHISPERED BY THE BEDSIDE OF A SLEEPING CHILD

HORSE THIEF

WHAT YOU CAN’T HEAR

NOW

[Kathleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

NOW

Tomorrow, or
the day after, I'll press my

mouth to your scar & run
my tongue along it

so I can taste how you were once
opened, so I can know where

you never closed.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, Nick Flynn, you will. You did. You will always. America's greatest living poet.

[Astro · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I want to enter into that moment my mother
strikes her first match, but I’m still asleep
upstairs. In the dream I’m walking through
the marsh, because only there, surrounded
by water am I safe. Are your hands
the water? Are these words the flame?”

-Saint Augustine by Nick Flynn


I swear to all things holy I always forget how much these poems affect me, comparing this to Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry is like comparing apples and oranges because John Murillo is imagistic and soft where Nick Flynn is hard and emotional and wow both of these collections are totally worth the read. This book in particular has always been like a knife to the heart because of Flynn’s poetry about his mother, and as someone who has also struggled to write about their complicated relationship with their mother it hits really close to home but his poems are so true. I’m not sure how else to describe them, because they’re not flowery and they aren’t all that beautiful most of the time, they’re harsh and they’re ugly in the most powerful of ways. Anyhow, highly recommend this book.

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up from a Goodreads rec after reading through all of the work of Jeffrey McDaniel, and I would say they are comparable. He has an edgy wit backed up by compelling life stories. Plus he's married to Lili Taylor and she's a pretty cool cat. Looking forward to reading more.

[Kasandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my intro to Flynn - will definitely be reading more. I felt the first section was the strongest part of the book on the whole, but there were poems to admire throughout. As a non-parent, the poems dealing with parenting struck me as particularly well-crafted, but what do I know? My favorites: Balcony, Haecceity, Unghosted, Sky Burial, and Killdeer. Is it dark? Yup. Is it super-personal/confessional? Yup. And some won't like it because of these things, but that's exactly why I liked it.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe closer to 4 stars but when I began reading it the one-two punch of "Balcony" followed by "Poem to be Whispered by the Bedside of a Sleeping Child" took my breath away with such force that I said that it was an automatic 5 star rating for me. I had to stop and reread each of them several times, share them with friends... These two poems are Flynn at his most forceful - freaking brilliant.

That is not to discount the rest of the book. I personally feel that the first section is the strongest but the whole thing is just so gorgeous and powerful.

Maybe... *maybe* not as good in my opinion as Some Ether but so so very close.

[Karla · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was kind of surprised to see this collection so highly rated, but to each their own. I struggled to appreciate this collection, which seems steeped in a kind of aimless rage. Many of the poems were dull and felt underbaked. In particular, the attitudes extended toward women were off-putting, narrow, and felt confined to the speaker's personal immaturity and egotism. It just wasn't for me.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

My version of coping with absurdly horrifying news includes reading poetry. This collection was pretty terrific.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was good. i liked it. yeah. the poem titled “balcony” was very very good. a lot of nice good poems in this collection. but i inherently like bad things. i love things that are just plain horrible. and this book i think is that. this dude is just so fake deep. it’s a little funny. this is a little tiny fake deep poetry book. imagine him sitting down, as a man, and writing this. and then him reading it over and being like, yeah this sounds sophisticated. omfg. i bet this dude is really a great guy, i really bet, but for some reason in my head he’s a piece of shit. just an absolute piece of shit. like he asks women if it’s that time of month. he understands the deeper, complex meaning of fight club. he really does. he loves harvey weinstein films. he’s a creep, he’s even a weirdo. he would wear a little pearl necklace if given the chance. if you saw him in public, he might even be wearing a red hunting hat. i feel a little bad absolutely tearing this poor man to shreds but something about this poetry reeks of arrogance. i like his poetry, i’m not denying that. but something feels off. i feel bad because very serious topics are in this book. and like these poems are good. but oh man. man oh man this dude just loves the joker i know it.

5, 9, 20-21, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 36, 41, 49, 50-52, 53, 56-57, 58, 59, 63, 70

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been wanting to read some Nick Flynn for a while, and I finally picked this collection up at the most amazing book store in Vegas, The Writer's Block. Seriously, this is one of the best book stores I've ever been to. Their poetry selection was very well curated, they had a really cute kids and young readers section, the birds, the birds, the birds! Their matcha latte was meh, though. And so was this book? Here is what I liked: "The Unclaimed," "The Ethics of the Third Person," "See Through," "Daughter," and

"I Will Destroy You"
& when he turns & faces himself // he raises a finger to his own face / as if to point out that they are the same // but the finger turns into a blade / & he pushes it right into & through // his own eye / & then he goes looking for mom.

"Sky Burial"
once // she was hand & now she is wing, once she was dirt & / now she is air, she was food & now she is bird, was // lifted & now just gone.

[Chris]

Is it refreshing to read a poem with references, not to ancient gods, heroines, or myths, but, instead, to pop musicians and the horror and sci-fi films of 30 years ago?
Flynn’s work reminds me of the fragility of our existence. We are always a breath away from being undone, by our trauma or someone else’s. Flynn reminds us of that precarity, at turns, abruptly, rationally, with grace, and always with a little mystery.
There are probably as many gods and myths as there are rock stars and films...

[morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I really didn't like the setup/style most of the poems followed (which is 100% personal preference on my part) so I was a little hesitant at first but I found a few poems that I just LOVE. Ones that really stood out to me included Balcony, Now (which was my overall favorite by far, I ADORE this one), I Will Destroy You, and Prince Performing "Motherless Child" (live). I feel like the themes of the collection were also really clear so besides the poetry style not being my favorite, I did really like this collection!

[C. Varn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Equal parts Augustine, parts pop culture detritus, Nick Flynn writes with anger about developing into middle age: love, alcoholism, his mother's suicide, the loss of a childhood home, and his daughter all permeate the book. Yet the anger doesn't feel middle-aged exactly, Flynn also likes to remix and rebuild: gods and monsters, classical references, and sci-fi films and punk rock ethos. Flynn wants art to be redemptive even if it emerging from a mock of pain and darkness.

[lys · Rating 4 out of 5]

favorite poems: Sleeping Beauty and Unghosted
also especially enjoyed Now and The Angel of Forgetting

sat and read this in a branch of the NYPL near my apartment after stumbling across it while picking up some other books. liked it as much as I enjoyed Some ether; his writing hits on disgust in love well, as well as feelings towards the emptiness in oneself and navigating relationships within that, and i really enjoy it

[Easton Parks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Given as a gift from my advisor, it’s spontaneous treasures that can affect you most. This book of poetry is so touching, heartbreaking, and REAL and it feels similar to the film Manchester By The Sea, in which I’ve been obsessed with. How aptly chosen by Tony as a gift, I cried when he gave it to me. I’m moved as I read every poem. “Haecceity,” “Dharma,” “Acceptance,” and “The Angel of Forgetting” all hit hard personally.

Thank you. Loved it.

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rebuilding, remolding, reflection. Flynn's collections (and memoirs) are always heavy and this one is no different. These poems will gut you, drag you down the street, and throw you on your knees, where you will form the most wondrous prayer, a mantra that was within you all along.

A favorite here is "Pied Piper": https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stayed with many of these -- "Killdeer" for instance-- because they held so much inside them. Curled up and tender. And "Amanuensis" (love the idea of it) and then "Parrot" (oh my god the title) -- and loved that it wasn't until the notes that I learned of the rules and games Nick was playing to make these.

[Chris Roberts · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Art"

The artist creates second-hand reality,
i.e., creation is wholly dependent on observation,
art lacks every verity, it is a bastardized construct.

#poem

Chris Roberts, God Endlessly

[Anatoly Molotkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

"...Others live//inside those windows// that line the shore, held inside/ by lightbulbs. Out here// we are the light, out here the salt/ holds us." Beautiful and painful work from Nick Flynn, as always.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nick Flynn's poems have a muscular style full of anger, love, sorrow and regret. There is a raw intensity of a life informed by addiction and the full knowledge of death, beauty and the fragility of life.

[Bryan Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flynn stays true to form here, both in style and in content. I don't know that this collection of poetry will make any new converts, but to those already familiar with and fans of his verse, this is a solid addition to his oeuvre.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The deeper I went into this collection the deeper the work seemed - the darker and more profound it became. It started well enough - but was hit and miss, then it turned the corner and I couldn't put it down. Read. And re-read. So good.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not great...

[Chy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the second poetry book I've read by this author, and I couldn't put this one down either.