The book started with the robot-learning-to-speak-human gibberish style that i love love love so much i was so ready to give it 5 stars right there. I love stylistic experimental dynamics that only poetry allows, and the intro was absolutely exhilarating, it's perfect, everything i ever wanted from poetry. But it's just the intro. Then it proceeds to regular style which has great substance too, but only amount to good-great. I'm excited for her other works tho, now that i've seen what she's capable of writing. Also, i've heard that a certain popular poet is kinda a Nayyirah Waheed's knock off? Well Waheed's the real deal. Great diction packed with meaning, she's on A list.

Absolutely stunning and incredibly profound. What a marvelous poetry collection. I got this on my kindle but I can’t wait to get a physical copy so I can annotate and mark my favorites!

The poetry in this book is completely outstanding. Something that comes from the mouth of someone who is a war themselves. Is a tiny little version of a war constantly erupting within different situations and scenarios in life. This poetry book was something I might have never read it wasn't free on Amazon, it was marketed to me (I write poetry as well) and I would have paid for this. I adore this book and will keep it and reread it for decades to come.

Nije moja solja caja.

Beautiful. A collection I will come back to for healing.

you. not wanting me. was the beginning of me wanting myself. thank you. — the hurt, Nayyirah Waheed Simplemente hermosa toda la colección de poemas.

2.5/5 ✨ First I want to say that I really liked... a lot of poems. They were beautifully writen, powerful, poetic. "what can i do when the night comes and i break into stars." — osmosis One of the poems that really spoke to me (which was something I thought of and said trough other words and something that I heard some times from other people): "as a child there was either books or pain. i chose books." — how i became a writer And what I also liked it's that it supports women and men, it supports people. "when your mother unbirths you because she smells swans in your skin it feels like she is singing in salt. (...)" — swans "there have been so many times i have seen a man wanting to weap but instead beat his heart until it was unconscious." — masculine But. And there is a big one. I do not support in any way racism or xenophobic remarks (nor hate towards men or women which wasn't really the case here and I liked that). But this book tends to go in that direction. This book wanted to be about love and acceptance, yet it also wanted to be about rage and Hate. Which may not be really hate, just a really powerful rage who supports the author. And maybe she wanted for the reader to feel it, to be angry (which is a wonderful state of being, I can asure you that) towards the poems, towards racism. I can understand why she wrote those poems (one of the reasons is because of my Romanian heritage, which a lot of people hate and misunderstand, I am also — and there are a lot of chances to be in the future — not given the same chances, the same eyes who are directed to others) but I can not fully accept it. I'm not responsible for my ancestors' doings or for those with whom I share(d) the same skin color, I don't have to be held accountable for any of what they have done (or because of the ones who are alive and still racist). No one should be. People should be held accountable only for what themselves have done or said. Or thought. Yet the author tends to speak bad about the whole, not about the ones who did those things. Horrible things, of course. This kind of poem (and others like this one): "white people are not chinese. because they are born/live in china. white people are not indian. because they are born/live in india. white people are not african. because they are born/live in a continent they murdered their way into. - there is no such thing as a white african | colonial blood myths | a revisionist of history" (we can talk about the blood of our ancestors, yet that doesn't mean that people own what the old and dead ones have done) It's contradicting with this one (which I also liked): "for me there is no other. because there is no default. everyone is a variation of life." *but I will surely read the next books of this author

Insightful I really enjoyed this book. I wasn’t sure what to expect but a lot of these poems spoke the truth about living as a woman of color in a society that is clearly not always accepting. I feel as I am not a woman of color I cannot comment much on the poems speaking of race and her struggles but I found them to be beautifully written as well as the other poems that focused more on love and growth. Overall even if you cannot relate fully it is a great read.

I used to read this collection frequently about 7 years ago. Nayyirah is an incredible writer, you can feel the very core of her soul in her words. She will always be one of my favorite poets.

i read this on the bus and this poetry collection made me so emotional i was keeping the tears from flowing in public

stunning. simply stunning. Salt is without a doubt the best poetry collection I've read and I know I will not only be rereading it many times throughout my life, but also recommending it to as many people as possible. I was almost moved to tears multiple times (if I didn't have such a tin man heart, I'm sure I would have been...) I couldn't recommend this more highly. I don't think I will ever tire of reading this and I'm almost certain, each time I read it, I will find else more to admire. After finishing this, I'm not sure wether my heart is broken or quadrupled in size and I kind of love that. Please, please read this book. Nayyirah Waheed has a way with words I've not come across before and it's utterly wonderful!