Salt Body Shimmer

by Aricka Foreman

Lyrical and rife with utterance, Salt Body Shimmer asks of the violence we who speaks from "the threshold throat" inside "the dark's dark"? Interior driven and intimately political, the poems in this stunning debut coax and trouble form, traversing the landscape of trauma and survival with a deft musicality of time, family, and slippery memory. At the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality, Foreman makes a song of the body-it's howl and jubilation-and invites us to confront our interior lives in the listening. Bold in its quest for knowledge and refuge, Salt Body Shimmer articulates a contemporary American experience, aware of the histories unsaid and unfaced, where women can inhabit their lives fully and freely, knowing safety is fragile and must be grabbed by whatever thread we can find.

Genres: Poetry

126 pages, Paperback

First published August 11, 2020

About the author

Aricka Foreman is an American poet, essayist and digital curator from Detroit, MI. Author of the chapbook Dream with a Glass Chamber, and Salt Body Shimmer (YesYes Books), she has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Callaloo, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. Her work has appeared in RHINO, Buzzfeed, James Franco Review, THRUSH and Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry (Northwestern University Press) among others. She serves on the Board of Directors for The Offing, and spends her time in Chicago, IL experimenting with photography & video-narratives.

Reviews

[Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poems about difference, margins, anger, while also staying present and grounded in her body.

"Pour myself a glass of red wine, let it stain my tits
Roast a chicken and suck the salt off every finger     Live"
— "I Got Mad Love"

There is repetition in the form, but every poem does its own thing. Language always surprising:

"My honeycomb illness of bees buzzing
bright in the brain, their sticky spittle
turning hours in kaleidoscope
that slow-drip, the trees' autumnal gold..."
— "Failed Reincarnation Before Olanzapine"

I am intrigued by the recurring mention of "og," defined as "a predator with no specific gender performance." It sounds like something it's important not to get to know too closely.

[Cameron Shirilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aricka is brilliant in many areas in life, but she is truly exceptional when it comes to crafting language.

[Kate Gaskin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Salt Body Shimmer is such a smart and compelling debut. Foreman's lyricism and inventive syntax stand out foremost, making these poems feverishly dreamy. Place is foregrounded, and family in all shapes and sizes is both critically examined and celebrated. Foreman's ear for music and her knack for lush imagery is unparalleled. Highly recommend this striking new book!

[Madeline Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

an unexpected brilliant collection i picked up at a used bookstore. her use of image and form cuts right to the heart, i could read it over and over again and keep getting so much out of it

[Skylar Miklus · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW WOW WOW. An exciting new voice from the Detroit School of modern poets, Aricka Foreman is seeing into my very soul. Her poems sing with striking, resonant lines. With the "camouflage it takes to be a woman," she writes of resistance to decades of violence. Her voice is timely, unique, and much-needed.