Saul Williams’s poem, “, said the shotgun to the head”, is shocking, loud, chaotic, beautiful, daring, and piercing… sometimes in isolation, and sometimes all at once. It screams to hear itself and hear it you will as you attempt to follow its pages, line breaks, and storyline. I found myself enthralled at times, scared at others. The book itself is jarring; its form and presentation takes a life of its own and jumps out at you unexpectedly. It is a love story, a proclamation, and a testament, riddled with imagery open to interpretation in a myriad of ways. It is a political poem, equally god-loving and god-fearing (whatever god is or means to you, as many gods seemingly exist in its pages). It is a spiritual poem, a power(ful) poem, one that cries for you to pay attention to its undercurrents of uncovering and accepting the human condition and experience. It will keep you guessing, keep you alert, keep you curious, and albeit a bit unexpectedly, keep you wanting more. I am ashamed this book sat on my shelf for as long as I let it.

At times, I struggled to follow the work. This was part of its beauty. But in the end, I remembered poetry does not always need to be followed right or well (who defines right and well, anyways?) to leave an imprint, to be memorable. This will be a treasure I’ll turn to when a healthy shake up of spirit, perspective, and creative exploration is needed, one that I’m sure will be read and read again… new meaning found each time.

i am a simple disoriented man in her presence i wear my loincloth over my eyes and ejaculate too soon. really wish i hadn’t given my annotated copy away.

Powerful, emotional and raw. I whizzed through this, but I think I'll need to revisit it later, because some of the pages were just too intense to be analysed right away.

very striking rhythm, fun but also impressive.

Last night I was trying to decide which books to take with me to my parent's house for Christmas, picked up this book meaning to read a few lines, ended up reading the entire poetry collection in roughly an hour. I don't think I've ever read poetry quite like this before.

The introduction says that these poems are basically the nonsensical ramblings of a man after a kiss. There is a lot of passion in these poems, some sexual, but the poems are more than just about love. There's a lot of social commentary and activism in there, for example anti-war, pro-culture,patriarchy, anti-racism. Also the references to Langston Hughes and Jimi Hendrix gained Saul Williams some brownie points.

One thing that did make me cringe was his anti-religion stance. I'm not sure if he's against the idea of religion in general or just against the fact that people do use religion as an excuse to do evil. Obviously the last point is true but as a person with a faith, I'm not going to say that religion has to be bad, it really depends on the person and how they use it and interpret it.

I am very glad to own a copy of this book. I can tell I'm going to be re-reading it again and again.

This was a journey well worth taking. This poetry was rhythmic, scatological, beat, beauty, profundity and screamed with the love of the Mother God. The epitome of unspoken Def Poetry. I can highly recommend taking this ride. Stunning work.

I've been meaning to read this one for a long time. I went in with high expectations and they were blown right out of the fucking water.

I'm going to have to read it again (and again) to make sense of it, but holy fuck. I can't even fully explain why this poem effected me so much. It's bizarre, but much of Saul's words resonated with me very deeply.

I knew I was gonna love it as soon as I read the line: "note: books are carefully folded forests"

Some more of my favourite lines:
"Rivers like oceans, oceans like answers, questions in cloud forms, raindrops in stanzas"
"she kissed as if she, alone, could forge the signature of the sun"
"a truth that mushrooms it's darkened cloud over the rest of us so that we bear witness to the short-lived fate of a civilization that worships a male god"
"Oil slicked feathers, putrid stenched water-bed, "mother nature's a whore," said the shotgun to the head"
"I have seen the moon in a sun dress. The ocean beneath her, rippling in laughter at the sight of a lone man who learned to walk on water for a glimpse of his truth in her crater"
"I surrendered my beliefs and found myself at the tree of life injecting my story into the veins of the leaves only to find that stories like forests are subject to seasons"
"she is a distorted horn solo fingered by the hand of a master, time's signature has done no more than punctuate her curvature"

Like, goddamn, something about the way he words things fucking blows me away.

Excellent read. Will be revisiting very shortly.

3.5 stars!

Saul Williams’ poem , said the shotgun to the head. is a visceral love letter, a furious condemnation of inequality, and an impassioned appeal to morality. I can’t help but admire Williams’ enthusiasm and message, but that message is all but drowned out in the noise created by this frantic and uncontrolled howl of a poem.

Williams’ , said the shotgun to the head. is anything but subtle. Between the violent imagery of the title, the introduction that details the poet’s inspiration and intent, and the explicit demands of the poem (“the greatest Americans are not yet born, / they are waiting for the past to die. / give blood.”), not much is left to the imagination. Williams did not try to craft an exquisite work of art; he fashioned instead a cudgel with which to beat his audience. And he has succeeded. , said the shotgun to the head. is explosive, angry and direct, proving that Williams is not one for mincing words.

Any kind of subtlety would have cut against the passion the poet has for an immediate and final end to war and inequality. However, Williams could have spent a lot more time editing. Though passionate, the poem is also uneven and hysterical. While , said the shotgun to the head. contains a plea for love and acceptance, it is all but lost in the angry yelling of the belligerent persona, and even though there is a strong identification with the feminine, it is often overshadowed by a combative masculine narrator (ironic, considering how Williams identifies the “enemy” as exclusively masculine). Throw in several groan-inducing puns (at one point Williams claims the American war on terrorism is a jihad inspired by a “burning Bush”) and this poem quickly loses any kind of credibility it might have had if it had taken a more balanced approach. Also, while this may not be the intention of the poet, the constantly changing style and size of the text came across as a weak attempt to make the poem more “alternative.”

I don’t disagree with everything Williams has to say in , said the shotgun to the head. However, I do believe that he could have done a lot better with the delivery.

At once political, heretical and passionately romantic. Saul Williams creates a mythology for a Female God, and the mad prophet who proclaims her word on the streets after receiving a kiss. Style is short and distracted but remains appealing.

"you've worshipped
loopholes in a story
and war shipped
mythic men to glory

if in god's image
then your god's
a plastic surgeon

a tyrannic dictator

a coward behind a curtain
with a megaphone

an aging oil tycoon
on viagra
ramming his plow
into the earth
turning up disease
and disaster
out of an ever-drying womb

you will become her cyclical sacrament."

I read this in Finnish and English at the same time. The Finnish translator is my co-worker and he brought me these.
What a treat it was: reading two books at the same time. Especially this strong and beautiful one. There was beautiful wordplay, all along important topics of prefering matriarchy over patriary, love and criticism of war and the government of George W. Bush.
This had rhythm, reading this was hip hop.
A very nice experience.

3.5*
This was a roller coaster ride from start to finish. I loved it!