I also actively disliked “Complainers” (to paraphrase: if you’ve never had to saw your own arm off with a rusty butterknife, stfu!), which is kind of a bummer: the second-to-last poem in the book, it left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Though I suppose it could just be the jaded, 39-year-old widow in me silently screaming, “Please don’t be a love poet!” Though Francisco is at his best when writing about social justice issues – toxic masculinity, misogyny, religious intolerance, art as resistance, police brutality, etc. Not that it will stay there indefinitely: this is a book I’m likely to revisit again in the future. “Adrenaline Rush,” “Rifle II,” “To the Man Standing on the Corner Holding the Sign That Said ‘God Hates Gays'” - these poems will stick with me long after HELIUM claims its permanent home on my bookshelves. Many of these pieces appear in Parts I and II but it’s those poems centered on social justice issues (Part III) that really stunned me speechless. I especially adore the poems that tackle mental illness – which is no surprise, as I struggle with anxiety and depression myself, and thus find this genre incredibly relatable and applicable to my own life. Also daring, insightful, passionate, and unfiltered. Even then I fear I’m a poor barometer, since I’m as likely to understand it as not.īut Rudy Francisco’s poetry is accessible AF.

I have a terrible time reviewing poetry I can’t tell you whether a poem is “good,” technically speaking, only if I liked it. The first poem in HELIUM, “Water,” took my breath away – and more or less set the tone for the entire volume. Why there aren’t more black people in the X Gamesīeing black is one of the most extreme sports in America. (“To the Man Standing on the Corner Holding the Sign That Said ‘God Hates Gays'”)

Helium rudy