Rudy Francisco

In his stunningly intimate, highly anticipated follow up to Helium, Rudy Fransico has created a collection of poems that savor the day-to-day. Treating it as worship, turning it into an opportunity to plant new seeds of growth. Language so often fails us, but Fransico has found his way around this as he creates his own words for the things our language cannot give name to. "Felenter (Noun) Definition: Someone who finds joy in things that people believe to be mundane." I'll Fly Away Uses fascinating metaphors to convey common emotional states. These poems are an act of remembrance, and an act of believing that you dear reader, are a celebration waiting for the lights to come up.

I'll Fly Away

Daisy Nicholls 

Ethel

A great collection of poems that makes you think and fly

Key words: poetry, grow, remembrance, believe, memoir

I hadn’t heard of Rudy Francisco before, what about you? I was first attracted by this really pretty cover and by the title. I took my time to savour this book and I do not regret it. What I like about poems is that they make you think, they make you feel, dream and reading one poem a day is very easy to do. The poems discuss many themes such as race and discrimination, personal development, death, love and hate, etc. I felt like most of them were quite relatable and true. It is kind of like an admission of the truth, nothing new but things that should be said and acknowledged. I liked how the author made poems by erasing words from some song lyrics. It was original. Moreover, Rudy Francisco challenges the concept of language and its adequacy to talk about our experiences by suggesting words that could/should be added to the dictionary and, after reading their definition, it’s true that some could be useful. For example, "Felenter (Noun) Definition: Someone who finds joy in things that people believe to be mundane." The verbs were more difficult to imagine in a sentence but I like the concept. After finishing this collection of poems, I went on YouTube to listen to this poet and I enjoyed it a lot. I recommend both reading this book and listening to his poems.

4/5

Thank you Netgalley for this eArc in exchange of my honest opinion.

Language so often fails us. In his highly anticipated follow up to Helium, Francisco has created his own words for the things we cannot give name to. English is the shiniest hammer I own, but it’s also the only thing in my toolbox. Nolexi noun no·lex·i | \ nō-lek-si \ Definition of nolexi: 1 : a word or phrase that does not exist or has no direct translation in a particular language I’ll Fly Away uses Francisco’s invented lexicon as the palette to paint an intimate portrait of Black life in America — one that praises joy and grace without shying away from the hard truths confronting all of us today.

I'll Fly Away

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