Salt.
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Salt.

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Reviews

Photo of Q
Q@qontfnns
4 stars
Mar 13, 2024

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.

Photo of chloe rae
chloe rae@heychloerae
4 stars
Feb 14, 2024

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!

Photo of Shareca
Shareca@infectiousreading
5 stars
Jan 19, 2023

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.

Photo of High Fidelity
High Fidelity@highfidelity
2 stars
Sep 19, 2022

Nije moja solja caja.

Photo of Athena Eloy
Athena Eloy@athenaeloy
5 stars
Jan 12, 2022

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

Photo of celeste
celeste@corcordium
5 stars
Nov 12, 2021

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

Photo of Paduraru Constantina
Paduraru Constantina@byelulu
2 stars
Oct 23, 2021

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

Photo of Shannon O’Connor
Shannon O’Connor @shan_oconnor
4 stars
Sep 24, 2021

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.

Photo of Natasha Johnson
Natasha Johnson@tricksntreks
5 stars
Sep 9, 2021

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.

+7
Photo of Linn
Linn @moonriver
5 stars
Sep 3, 2021

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

Photo of Kate
Kate@girlreading
5 stars
Aug 12, 2021

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!

Photo of aybüke
aybüke@cescedes
0.5 stars
Mar 15, 2024
Photo of Nour
Nour@nour_z
4 stars
Jul 7, 2023
Photo of Charlie
Charlie@therosepages
4 stars
May 13, 2022
Photo of Nova
Nova@clandestine
5 stars
Apr 28, 2024
Photo of Maria
Maria@nocturnes
4 stars
Apr 2, 2024
Photo of mju
mju@lafilledemiel
4 stars
Mar 20, 2024
Photo of Emma Bose
Emma Bose@emmashanti
5 stars
Mar 3, 2024
Photo of Najat ♡
Najat ♡@najatpewpew
5 stars
Jan 31, 2024
Photo of Kendall McClain
Kendall McClain@kendallmcclain
3 stars
Jan 29, 2024
Photo of Deepika Ramesh
Deepika Ramesh@theboookdog
5 stars
Jan 25, 2024
Photo of désirée
désirée@desireereads
1 star
Jan 14, 2024
Photo of Yasmin
Yasmin@yasamarante
5 stars
Jan 12, 2024
Photo of kiko
kiko@piranesi
5 stars
Jan 8, 2024

Highlights

Photo of Natasha Johnson
Natasha Johnson@tricksntreks

i fell apart many times. SO. what does that say about me besides i live through wars.

Page 209
Photo of Natasha Johnson
Natasha Johnson@tricksntreks

you are a story. do not become a word. one word. because you want to be loved. love does not ask you to be nothing for something. name

Page 176
Photo of Natasha Johnson
Natasha Johnson@tricksntreks

even if you are a small forest surviving off of moon alone. your light is extraordinary. reminder

Page 156
Photo of Natasha Johnson
Natasha Johnson@tricksntreks

these are not tears. this is the sea. - tides

Page 139
Photo of Natasha Johnson
Natasha Johnson@tricksntreks

your skin smells like light. i think you are the moon.

Page 130
Photo of Natasha Johnson
Natasha Johnson@tricksntreks

Sometimes the night wakes in the middle of me. and i can do nothing but becomne the moon.

Page 120
Photo of Natasha Johnson
Natasha Johnson@tricksntreks

cry wild. you have probably never cried wild. but, you know what doors feel like. you have an intinacy with doors that is killing you. break

Page 83
Photo of Natasha Johnson
Natasha Johnson@tricksntreks

what can i do when the night come and i break into stars. Osmosis

Page 73
Photo of Natasha Johnson
Natasha Johnson@tricksntreks

stay is a sensıtive word. we wear who stayed and who left in our skin forever. sojourn

Page 67
Photo of Natasha Johnson
Natasha Johnson@tricksntreks

she asked you are in love what does love look like' to which i replied like everything i've ever lost come back to me.

Page 16
Photo of Natasha Johnson
Natasha Johnson@tricksntreks

i knew you. before i met you. ive known you my whole life. nafsi

Page 15