love love love love love love love love love love !!!!!!!!!!!! this book was absolutely gorgeous. happy poems, sad poems, relatable poems, but all poems completely drawn from the soul and I think any artist or human being could relate to it. WOW.

If you haven’t read any of Saul Williams’ works, you definitely should! He’s a creative genius with an amazing talent for imagery & word play!

I think Saul's stuff lends itself more to the stage than the page. Didn't do much for me after a couple of readings.

Two shocking things:

#1: MTV has a Book Publishing department...

#2: They put out two amazing books by Saul Williams.

...

"she asked that I remove my dreams
before entering her home
one cannot enter a courtroom bearing arms"

Overrated, spoiled, contemporary pseudo-academic poetry, which makes no difference to me.

This book forever changed the way I read, studied, and understood poetry. Saul created a paradigm shift that left me with fingers itching to write and eyes hungry for words. (It only got better when the book came out with his CD as Saul's voice is haunting)

little penned thoughts, large concepts.

Stunning and staggering. For anyone who's loved, liked, adored and pined, this book of poetry will make your chest ache with perfection; and somehow it manages this without the schmaltzy twee of most poets. I could read one poem over again for hours and each time find subtlety and significance. Williams has a unique and rare talent.

Very cool poetry book.

My copy didn't include the CD.

As a performance poet, Saul's words really sing when they are read.

Nice solid book of poetry (more of a 3.5)

im not VERY into poetry, but did enjoy, specially with all the women references, of which i can identify with as well..

was debating between a 3 and a 4, maybe a 3.5 then. i think i was disappointed because of all the raving reviews that i'd heard about this. i struggled to get through the beginning half, i didn't really get what the poems were about sometimes and i just hated the line break at like every three words, i felt like it just made it hard to read and didn't serve any real purpose. there were some pieces i enjoyed a lot though, a few very good lines, and there were some later on that even if i didn't really "get", i enjoyed the ride/feeling while reading it anyway. i don't think i could have given this a higher rating because personally for me, the collection just didn't hit me with any impact - i just kind of was whisked along the journey without taking any particular insight or emotion or feeling from this. maybe i just couldn't relate? or i just didn't get it at all? i disliked the 'performance paintings' included within as well, i feel like they actually detracted from the work, especially because the photocopy was so grainy and low contrasted (so i guess quality of presentation), but also i didn't like its content either.

I love Saul Williams, but this book was underwhelming. It has a few good poems (none of which are named, which made me confused as to whether or not this was 1 long epic about a breakup, or several poems about a breakup. Of course I only really know Saul Williams from 2007 onward, and this was about 10 years before, so clearly he developed as a poet. I'm glad.