Night Angler
Published April 30th 2019 by BOA Editions Ltd., Paperback 112 pages
WINNER OF THE 2018 JAMES LAUGHLIN AWARD
Geffrey Davis’s second collection of poems reads as an evolving love letter and meditation on what it means to raise an American family. In poems that express a deep sense of gratitude and wonder, Davis delivers a heart-strong prayer that longs for home, for safety for black lives, and for the messy success of breaking through the trauma of growing up during the crack epidemic to create a new model of fatherhood. Filled with humor and tenderness, Night Angler sings its own version of a song called grace―sung with a heavy and hopeful mix of inherited notes and discovered chords.
User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Gritty and heartfelt, painfully felt, yet also hopeful. This book is divided into 5 sections. My favorites include:
From Section I:
The Epistemology of Cheerios
Favorite line: "our son's first upright wobble"
Prayer with Miscarriage / Grant Us the Ruined Grounds
Favorite line, "to calyx together a body bold"
From Section III:
I Have My Father's Hands
Favorite lines: "from the daily stone-grief of family- each slab fitted and refitted with the gravity of tomorrow"
The Book of Family
Favorite lines: "our belonging has always been played in the key of desire on instruments my father lifted so well - got us to hand over the steel strings from our guitar hearts"
What I Mean When I Say Harmony
Favorite lines: "I want the Southern dark proud to hum another brown tiredness from your body, hymned by safety."
Rating: really liked it
My favorites-:
“Human Note”
“A Proposal from the Previously Divorced”
“Self- Portrait with Headwaters”
“Pleasure of Place
“The Night Angler”
Rating: really liked it
"Night Angler" is a truly fine collection of poems by Geffrey Davis, as he meditates on the meaning of fatherhood. His own father failed that role but finally asks for some forgiveness. The poet himself tries to learn and be truer to the name, Father. The title and title poems suggest a man who fishes the night for meaning and faith and forgiveness and hope.
Dear Boy: In the beginning,
father was a fear I wanted
to call love. For years I waded
heart-deep into that doubt
for version of my name
I could, with some forgiveness,
cast before your image.
Dear Boy: Here's my hand---
because your arrival has
mended the grave current
of time, in the beginning
I was talking to you.
The language is truly fine. The emotion personal yet universal, poetic yet deep and real.
...light creeps
all across a distinct range of mountain,
stunning plateau of birds into the original
sweetness of song. We want to understand this---
according to our appetite for pulling
a rare, angular music from the body's
dark cathedral. Or we grow stubborn
for the wild severity of wind
plying trees. We want the vastness of that
motion, the sleep. We desire so much from more.
Davis succeeds in "pulling a rare, angular music" from his desire and body, singing us some of that "vastness of motion" we all want to hear--- and to be.
Rating: really liked it
Night Angler by Geffrey Davis is a wonderful meditation on fatherhood, specifically his relationship with his son, his father, and amending trauma from childhood. Beyond that, this collection explores natural landscapes, Black identity in America, Christian identity, fishing, and grace in the face of loss. The poem "The Night Angler" intrigued me with the opening line: "A headlamp guides me through October cornfields" because the notion of an angler fish is that it has a small dangling light in the deep sea that it uses to lure out food and Davis is drawing this comparison to his own fishing adventure. As I moved through the book, I found that Davis often repeated titles such as "The Night Angler," "What I Mean When I Say Harmony," and "3:16." It seems that the title's meaning changes with each repetition and evolves to encompass each image he procures. With "The Night Angler," he begins by contextualizing the title in a. fishing context while evoking the image of a single headlamp in a swamp of darkness; the speaker in the second poem has a completely different structure and seems to speak directly to God when he says "Let this man teach another to move/ through the nothing/ that begs to be feared." To me, this sounds like he is asking the Lord for strength to be a good father who can hold the torchlight for his son to see the beauty of darkness. In the last "Night Angler," the speaker admits that he has been writing these guiding poems for fatherhood and life to "Dear Boy," which could be interpreted as his son.
Overall, I loved the intricate connection between poems and the exploration of fatherhood, revealing both the struggles and the light. In particular, I liked "The Epistemology of Cheerios," "Smolder," "3:16:: So Loved," "Like a River,"and "The Epistemology of Growing Pains." I am excited to read this collection again after experiencing being a parent (in the far far future, of course).
Rating: really liked it
Having used Geffrey Davis' first book in my classes for several years, I wanted more of his work, which I am using this semester to discuss what poetry means in my effective writing classes. For many students, there isn't a lot of background in contemporary poetry. So far, this book has sparked some lively discussions for us. Looking forward to seeing some papers on some of the pieces soon! Students also felt that the book was relatable and connected to issues they care about.
Rating: really liked it
I've been reading some great things lately, and while parts of this were fine, some things came across a bit uneven for me. Language can be like that. I get it. I am sure most of what I write, no one cares for. But why I read these things is for a glimpse into the life of another, even for a brief second, just that entryway into what otherwise is impossible. I can't say this didn't happen in some of these pieces.
Rating: really liked it
Both on the level of language and subject, I found this collection deeply beautiful. It is a book of poems I will read and re-read. It offers the reader a different model of masculinity. One which our violent world desperately needs, a determined tenderness, clearly hard-won and an ongoing effort, for Geffrey Davis and presents vulnerability (that is accepting imperfection and impermanence as part of human experience) as strength. Every poem blew me away.
Rating: really liked it
This book took me more deeply into what the experience of parenting might look like from my husband's side in all kinds of tender ways that I loved. It also help me add another angle to my understanding of the BLM movement. And the PNW references were delightful surprises that made me feel even closer to the book.
Rating: really liked it
Dense, electrified poems wrestling with fatherhood, fishing, wildness, and other matters. The most charged poems deal directly with the author's own father, who he knew as "
father-abuser", "
father-addict", and "
father-thief", concluding, about his own growth as a new father, "Do you hear / what it means to me to sing my son to sleep?"
Rating: really liked it
A stunning read and beautiful follow up to one of my favorite books, Revising the Storm, Davis excels even more in this book. What I enjoy most is the deep and honest intimacy the poet shares of fatherhood, a kindred voice for any parent, for any reader reflecting on family and race. I return to these poems often and always find new meanings.
Rating: really liked it
my god. i’d give this little tome more than 5 stars if i could. these poems gutted me in the best possible way. they’re full of both the pain and magic of being alive. read them.
Rating: really liked it
Not since BLESSING THE BOATS by Lucille Clifton have I enjoyed a collection so completely.
Rating: really liked it
A heartfelt poetry collection that felt powerful and tragic all at once. And the way Davis is able to combine these categories into a powerful collection makes it a beautiful work of art.
Rating: really liked it
He did a gallery reading yesterday at Crystal Bridges. So touching. Can't wait to dive into this!
Rating: really liked it
My first book of 2020! And what a way to start the year! I'm not a huge poetry reader because I find most of it goes waaaaay over my head, but Davis is almost always understandable and his work stings in just the right place, at just the right time. The first poem made me go "Hmph!" in self-flagellation from the start.
