Keep Your Little Lights Alive

by John-Francis Quiñonez

Keep Your Little Lights Alive explores the Folkloric Nature of how Music intertwines and Opens Windows into our Memory. Sometimes confessional, sometimes playful and fae-like in its elusively - these poems grapple with the pains and gifts of Queer discovery, Gender, Mental Health, and Family. Anchored in a series of Poems Responding Track-by-Track to Kate Bush's Hounds of Love (sometimes directly, sometimes based on what the song unlocks) the book, like the album, is split into two parts. The First - Narrative and free-flowing, The Second - imagines the speaker lost out at sea & astrally visiting and being visited by loved ones.

Genres: Poetry

110 pages, Paperback

Published October 3, 2022

Reviews

[Catherine Van]

an astonishing collection of poetry that made me feel big and small and important and like i was peeking inside something special.

[Kay Kinderman]

A tender and intimate gift. Read it cover to cover in one sitting.

[Amy Colleen]

Stunningly personal and at the same time impressively inviting and warm. I found myself brought to tears or smiling to myself on almost every page.

[Sara K]

This poetry book is so poignant. It truly feels like the author is presenting their tender soul in fragments to the reader through captivating lines, particular moments in time, and raw emotions. I feel like I, as a reader, am compelled to see all these facets of the author that are presented to the reader over the course of the book come together as a beautiful shining constellation of themselves. This poetry book gives honest accounts of moments in their coming into Queerness for those who are searching for first-hand accounts to relate to or seek solace and understanding in.

Keep Your Little Lights Alive

John-Francis Quiñonez

[Hannah Bae]

This is one of the loveliest poetry collections I’ve ever read. There’s so much range here, and it feels like a time capsule to recent years (2020-21) in a way that preserves what matters — tenderness, love, nourishment, a sense of wonder for the world around us. John-Francis Quiñonez is a gift to us readers. If you ever have a chance to get your hands on their zines, jump on them — they pair their gorgeous poetry with vivid, charming illustrations! Ditto for if they’re ever reading live near you.

[Lee]

This is SUCH a moving / elegant / beautiful book!!! So skillfully written, insightful, and with a delightful sense of humor. Couldn’t recommend it more highly!!

[Shay Ingram]

3.5 “Rabbit” and “Re: The Jig of Life” were huge stand-outs for me.