Thrown in the Throat

by Benjamin Garcia

“Tongues make mistakes / and mistakes / make languages.” And Benjamin Garcia makes a stunning debut with Thrown in the Throat. In a sex-positive incantation that retextures what it is to write a queer life amidst troubled times, Garcia writes boldly of citizenship, family, and Adam Rippon’s butt. Detailing a childhood spent undocumented, one speaker recalls nights when “because we cannot sleep / we dream with open eyes.” Garcia delves with both English and Spanish into how one survives a country’s long love affair with anti-immigrant cruelty. Rendering a family working to the very end to hold each other, he writes the kind of family you both survive and survive with.

With language that arrives equal parts regal and raucous, Thrown in the Throat shines brilliant with sweat and an iridescent voice. “Sometimes even a diamond was once alive” writes Garcia in a collection that National Poetry Series judge Kazim Ali says “has deadly superpowers.” And indeed these poems arrive to our hands through touch-me-nots and the slight cruelty of mothers, through closets both real and metaphorical. These are poems complex, unabashed, and needed as survival. Garcia’s debut is nothing less than exactly the ode our history and present and our future call for: brash and unmistakably alive.

Genres: Poetry, LGBT, Latinx, Queer

96 pages, Paperback

First published August 11, 2020

About the author

Benjamin Garcia’s first collection of poems, Thrown in the Throat, was selected for the 2019 National Poetry Series by Kazim Ali. He is a 2019 Lambda Literary Fellow, was the 2017 Latinx Scholar at the Frost Place, and was a 2018 CantoMundo Fellow at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival. His work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Best New Poets 2018, Crazyhorse, Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, and New England Review. Garcia received his MFA from Cornell University and currently works as a sexual health and harm reduction educator in the Finger Lakes region of New York.

Reviews

[Areeb Ahmad (Bankrupt_Bookworm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"mom didn't know I was gay
because she chose not to see
like the maidens of Pompeii
that were instead two boys
we'd now call gay we found
in a last embrace his head
on his chest we might change
our minds about who can hug
who and girls might be boys
people don't stop being people
like the iis at the end of Pompeii
all on their own tongues do things
without us when we aren't looking
the least of which is holding hands"

// Averting the Gaze



The collection is a resounding affirmation of Garcia's strong belief that the language in question is a "squishy, worm-like squirm, can contort and go down the wrong pipe". His is an attack against sanctimonious & holier-than-thou attitudes. Crass and brash, going down in the dirt, it has no truck with sanctity and eschews all sanitization. He pulls no punches, takes no prisoners and abandons the convenient nature of vagueness. There's a lot of linguistic play, layered language bursting with flavour, indulgently constructed & free reined.

Garcia really isn't interested in pithy platitudes or ineffectual compromises, instead of pleading and begging he exhorts and demands. His poetry moves violently, firmly displacing the status quo, breaking out of dour respectability and the "acceptable". So if there is bitterness, it gags on it instead of disguising it as sweet. The odes center fascinating subjects - pitcher plant, corpse flower, Touch-Me-Not - while another series bares all the deficiencies of language. Unapologetic, vibrant, basking in glory, he asks: "... give me more / I thrive in shade // my throat is my throne so // queen me bitch".




(I received a finished copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)

[anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

a few good lines but generally i haven't been his bored by poetry in ages

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book of incredible linguistic energy, creative power and moral authority. I am a little in love with this explosion of poetic riches.

[Alicia Farmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know how to review (or, really, read) poetry. I saw one of these poems -- Keeping Home, I think? -- somewhere online and liked it. So I read a few more and delighted in the way Garcia plays with language, layering double-meanings, homophones and rhymes on top of each other.

This collection is chock full of his playfulness. From "The Language in Question" (p. 27):

[..]When my mother left,
my father ate a box of Morton salt hoping he would die.
He didn't die and I called you a beluga whale and I'm sorry
you're salty because you think belugas are dopey dolphins --
but did you know they train their masters and not vice versa?
Belugas blow hoops of bubbles like smoke rings off a cigar
right into the trainer's face, and the sub smiles at his dom,
won like a cheap prize at the ring toss. [...]

Still, I often felt I missed the point. And the subject. What were these poems about? What was I supposed to take from them? I wanted to go deeper than just the superficial joy with words. Occasionally I did. Then the delight doubled. As in "Keeping Home:"

...But we are growing old, and we are growing
together, like the wild vine along our fence
that, nameless, appeared to have been planted
overnight, when in truth it fed on our neglect,
crept, link by link, until it was the only thing,
link by link, holding the fence together. [...]

[JADE · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Thrown in the throat is dedicated to anyone who has lived in a closet. It sucks. I’m sorry. I’m here, in this book, with you.” —Benjamin Garcia

This is such a remarkable and stunning book of poems. I love how Benjamin weaves his words together in such an intricate and exquisite way. This one is so underrated. Highly recommend this gem, and the cover of the Book is so Lush! Surprised not a lot of people have this on their poetry TBR. smh. Well this is your sign to pick it up now.

A few of my favorite poems:

💎 WARRIOR SONG
💎 ODE TO THE CORPSE FLOWERS
💎 HEROIN WITH AN E
💎 THE GREAT GLASS CLOSET
💎 MUTUAL MONOGAMY
💎 GAY EPITHALAMIUM

[Oscreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obsessed with this poetry collection! One of my favs

[Tutankhamun18 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Filled with inquiry into language, a love of flowers, blatant truths and hidden meanings, this fantastic poetry collection explores love, bien gay, sex, family, being the child of immigrants, belonging, longing, truth, lies and storytelling. Garcia illuminates the space between words to reveal joy, sadness, hate, love, hope and rage. This is done through violent line breaks, running sentences and clipped questions that delight, question and challenge the reader. I adored this whole collection SO MUCH. Every poem was great, but my favourites were: The Language in Question, Heroin with an E, Conversations With My Father // A Poem in Closet Verse, Ode to the Peacock, The Great Glass Closet, A Toast To The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Ode to the Pitcher Plant, Nonmonogamy, Gay Epithalmium, Huitlacoche, Ode to the Touch-Me-Not and Keeping Home.

What is so fantastic about this collection is that it equally exposes the experiences of the author and interrogates words and language, meaning that this is both a masterful writing exercise, decolonial project, confessional and an absolute joy to read all in one.

[✨ Aaron Jeffery ✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Yet farmers in your homeland treat it like a sickness and because disease can decimate a culture"

this collection provoked me to reconsider many aspects around cultural prejudices and communities opinion and relevance in the midst of ones personal ideas, but overall, only a few of the poems were stunning and the rest were meh or utter trash (imo)


major trigger warnings for
- sexual assault
- homophobia
- racism

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved just about every poem in this. Garcia has such a strong voice in his poetry and I loved the way he plays we language. The pop culture references can be a bit overused, but for the most part I thought they were used well. My favs were all of the odes to different flowers, cuz I'm a sucker for nature themed poetry.

[Adrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a pleasure to read. The odes are my favorite, unexpected, each in a strikingly different voice. Garcia plays with language, interrogates language, questions "the language in question" in this collection, and is at all times, in charge of the language used here.

[Ryleigh Wann · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterclass is sound, linguistics, and exploring sexuality. This collection reflects on one’s shame and celebrations, and provides a refusal to look away from the beautiful and the painful. This book sang loudly and honestly.

[naviya]

- hungry, fast, angry
- made me realise that i too want so much from life, from myself
- nature poetry? that's also very vengeful and upset, and upsetting, destructive?
- lots of fav poems!
- the language in question (both poems), averting the gaze, on the slight cruelty of mothers, ode to the corpse flower, the darkest lashes, the great glass closet (HAH), bliss point (pls this was so funny-sad), anti-ode to the man of war, silver city new mexico, self portrait as a man made diamond, gay epithalamium, keeping home

[k-os]

Hot damn!! Vivacious and audacious!!

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read an excerpt of Ode to a Corpse Flower and added this collection to my purchase list right away. Have I bought myself a poetry collection in the last 10 years? Nope. But I really wanted to see what else the poet had to say.
The answer is a lot, and all of it is vibrant and clever. I loved the variety in this collection, with different meters and styles throughout. All of the botanical odes were favorites of mine, but I enjoyed the poems about deconstructing language, as well. The one about Adam Rippon’s butt is also a solid highlight.
The poetry in this collection is alive and beautiful, but also tough and nervy. I want to shove it into the hands of everyone I know.

[mmmm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous, moving, so gay, definitely recommend! This made me cry a couple of times, and I will return to it to read again. The only ones that didn't hit as hard for me (which included the back-to-back prose poems Mutual Monogamy and Nonmonogamy) mostly made me excited to read Garcia's work as he continues to develop.

There are some incredible images in here, and the one that's stuck with me for the past week is your mother dying of cancer making you, a child, blow cigarette smoke in her face so she can smell it.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

You know how a lot of poetry collections get described as "brave and bold" but don't really merit the descriptor? This book actually does. There are several poems in the collection titled "The Language in Question," and the one that begins "He has a mouth on him." is a perfect encapsulation of the brashness and risk-taking of Garcia's poems.

If some words don't belong in poems, then
I say some people can go fuck themselves.

Brace yourself, lol. Also, not a book for the prudish.

Not every poem worked for me, but the ones that did really did. I particularly liked the duo of poems titled "Mutual Monogamy" and "Nonmonogamy". And I love that moment when you're reading a collection and stumble upon the poem you read in a journal that caused you to pick up the full collection in the first place (two poems, in this case). These poems are playful yet biting, resilient, and unflinchingly authentic.

Garcia is definitely a poet I will be keeping up with.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection was such a fascinating and playful approach to language, and I loved the way Garcia constantly prodded language from different angles to create opportunities for him to move fluidly and freely from one poem to the next. I really enjoyed how brash and unapologetic many of these poems were, particularly the ones that reflected on his identity. There’s so much life in these poems with such distinct imagery that will take you through a range of emotions.

(Also, on a nerdier note, incredible use of enjambment throughout.)

Some favorites: “Warrior Song,” “Reasons for Abolishing Ice,” “Conversations with My Father // A Poem in Closet Verse,” “The Great Glass Closet,” “A Toast to the Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,” “Huitlacoche,” and “The Language in Question”

Read for the Sealey Challenge.

[Patricia Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Day 10 of #TheSealeyChallenge 2023. Thrown in the Throat by Benjamin Garcia published by Milkweed.
@SealeyChallenge @bengarciapoet @Milkweed_Books

#thesealeychallenge2023 #sealeychallenge #poetry

I can see why Kazim chose this collection as a winner for the National Poetry Series. It is NPS worthy in every way. Love lyricism and so much beautiful imagery. This is the meaning of poetry.

Some of my favorite moments:

the river flowing like a scarf some magician just keeps pulling

Sometimes there’s no difference between the past and present except for the surroundings. You

Unhusk me if you must, call me acquired, call me dirty, call me corn smut.

defying gravity after all // isn’t the same as flying

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sealey book 21.

Super honest and vulnerable, hurt and angry, still aware of all the times he didn’t fit in, all the times he felt othered, all the times he wasn’t what someone expected or wanted him to be. It’s messy and mad. I thought the voice was very unique and there are a lot of powerful poems. I loved “Keeping Home,” I thought “Gay Epithalamium” was so good and really made me want to punch someone, “Heart Conceit” had really unique imagery, “Nonmonogamy” was powerful language play, and “The Memory Jar” made me laugh out loud on the bus which I almost never do. Such a great revenge.
.
For me, it was a like a lot moreso than love, but I’m also not really the target audience.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning. What a visceral collection, and I can already guarantee it'll be great to reread.



Some of my favorite lines:

"be the fig queen

who rips out her own wings
gnawing a path

to my chamber."
- "Heart Conceit"

"my mistake
if ever I made any // was not being carnivorous enough // nontoxic

or maybe not remaining my own // flowering clusterfuck // self-pollination
as a form of self-suck // this is a man's true fear // to be not needed"
- "Ode to the Touch-Me-Not"

[Kelsey Banerjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thrown in the Throat by Benjamin Garcia is a masterpiece.

It's impossible to say which poem I loved most, because this collection is fluid, each work shifting into the next, each one distinct yet linked. Garcia is a master of imagery, form and rhythm. This is a book I'm bound to read for a long time yet.

Looking forward to reading more of his work.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

In these gorgeous poems, Benjamin Garcia explores love, both familial and romantic. What I particularly appreciate is that poems deal with the forces that oppose love whether it be homophobia, racism, or just the ennui of growing older. One thing that stood out to me was the love a language as many of the poems play with words' sound and etymology.

[Shams Alkamil · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If some words don't belong in a poem, then I say some people can go fuck themselves."

"But where is your family really from? What's your native tongue? I ate it-"

Such a damn good book that I had to email the author and fangirl. Gritty. Healing. The perfect use of run-on sentences (enjambment for us pretentious poetry folk). Fucking wow.

[ifonly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very good, but I think a lot of it was lost on me as someone who is not a poetry buff. I did glean good bits, and I think if I were to dedicate time to rereading a couple and further contemplating them I might like it much better (I’m just not in the mood to reread right now).

[Sara Shocks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masterful, athletic diction and outstanding use of enjambment. I also found his use of // as punctuation effective as a differemt pause in a line. Favorites: "Ode to the Corpse Flower," "Reasons for Abolishing Ice," "Queso de Patas," "Ode to the Pitcher Plant," and "Heart Conceit"

[Camila · Rating 4 out of 5]

i don’t usually read poetry so i am not a big fan of this book. anywho, it is evident that a lot of the poems were speaking to the author’s inner child😢

my favorite poem was “Le daría mis pulmones”

stanza from it:
“So she had me smoke for her - nine years old -
I was her lungs. I blew the smoke right in her face, right
in her face. Just like that, over and over.”

[Sarah Karasek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely adored some of those poems, a couple of them, not so much. I had the privilege of seeing this poet read live, though (which prompted me to buy this book), and I cannot recommend that highly enough!

[Matt Feltman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This gutted me in unexpected ways. I wish everyone in America could read this, but we already know how certain people in this country feel about queer books these days. Say gay! Say gay! Let America Read, folks!

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3.5]

Poignant and vulnerable in a way you could feel. also, incredibly gay.

some favorites:

Averting the Gaz
Ode to the Corpse Flower
Conversations with My father // A poem in Closet Verse
Gay Epithalamium

[Kaity · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm thrilled to see what comes next from Garcia! This is a fabulously vibrant, unapologetic collection.