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Stones
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE T.S. ELIOT PRIZE 2021**
A book of loss, looking back, and what binds us to life, by a towering poetic talent, 'one of the poetry stars of his generation' ( Los Angeles Times ).
'We sleep long, / if not sound,' Kevin Young writes early on in this exquisite gathering of poems, 'Till the end / we sing / into the wind.' In scenes and settings that circle family and the generations in the American South - one poem, 'Kith', exploring that strange bedfellow of 'kin' - the speaker and his young son wander among the stones of their ancestors. 'Like heat he seeks them, / my son, thirsting / to learn those / he don't know / are his dead.'
Whether it's the fireflies of a Louisiana summer caught in a mason jar (doomed by their collection), or his grandmother, Mama Annie, who latches the screen door when someone steps out for just a moment, all that makes up our flickering, precarious joy, all that we want to protect, is lifted into the light in this moving book. Stones becomes an ode to Young's home places and his dear departed, and to what of them - of us - poetry can save.
A book of loss, looking back, and what binds us to life, by a towering poetic talent, 'one of the poetry stars of his generation' ( Los Angeles Times ).
'We sleep long, / if not sound,' Kevin Young writes early on in this exquisite gathering of poems, 'Till the end / we sing / into the wind.' In scenes and settings that circle family and the generations in the American South - one poem, 'Kith', exploring that strange bedfellow of 'kin' - the speaker and his young son wander among the stones of their ancestors. 'Like heat he seeks them, / my son, thirsting / to learn those / he don't know / are his dead.'
Whether it's the fireflies of a Louisiana summer caught in a mason jar (doomed by their collection), or his grandmother, Mama Annie, who latches the screen door when someone steps out for just a moment, all that makes up our flickering, precarious joy, all that we want to protect, is lifted into the light in this moving book. Stones becomes an ode to Young's home places and his dear departed, and to what of them - of us - poetry can save.
112 pages, Paperback
First published September 28, 2021
15 people are currently reading
460 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Young
85books353followersKevin Young is an American poet heavily influenced by the poet Langston Hughes and the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Young graduated from Harvard College in 1992, was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University (1992-1994), and received his MFA from Brown University. While in Boston and Providence, he was part of the African-American poetry group, The Dark Room Collective.
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Young is the author of Most Way Home, To Repel Ghosts, Jelly Roll, Black Maria, For The Confederate Dead, Dear Darkness, and editor of Giant Steps: The New Generation of African American Writers; Blues Poems; Jazz Poems and John Berryman's Selected Poems.
His Black Cat Blues, originally published in The Virginia Quarterly Review, was included in The Best American Poetry 2005. Young's poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and other literary magazines. In 2007, he served as guest editor for an issue of Ploughshares. He has written on art and artists for museums in Los Angeles and Minneapolis.
His 2003 book of poems Jelly Roll was a finalist for the National Book Award.
After stints at the University of Georgia and Indiana University, Young now teaches writing at Emory University, where he is the Atticus Haygood Professor of English and Creative Writing, as well as the curator of the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library, a large collection of first and rare editions of poetry in English.
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Young is the author of Most Way Home, To Repel Ghosts, Jelly Roll, Black Maria, For The Confederate Dead, Dear Darkness, and editor of Giant Steps: The New Generation of African American Writers; Blues Poems; Jazz Poems and John Berryman's Selected Poems.
His Black Cat Blues, originally published in The Virginia Quarterly Review, was included in The Best American Poetry 2005. Young's poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and other literary magazines. In 2007, he served as guest editor for an issue of Ploughshares. He has written on art and artists for museums in Los Angeles and Minneapolis.
His 2003 book of poems Jelly Roll was a finalist for the National Book Award.
After stints at the University of Georgia and Indiana University, Young now teaches writing at Emory University, where he is the Atticus Haygood Professor of English and Creative Writing, as well as the curator of the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library, a large collection of first and rare editions of poetry in English.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
April 11, 2023
Sharp and deeply cutting; a look at what binds us to our identity. Kevin Young has the ability to transport the reader out of the common day to day mechanical observations and flay open what is underneath - that raw core we all encounter when life allows us to meditae on what really matters. Form and flow of conceptualization is superb.
November 12, 2021
I've read two other Kevin Young collections, and . Here's an unexpected advantage to using ŷ: Looking back on past reviews, you see trends.
Examples? In one I complained about the profusion of extremely short lines (usually 3-5 words). In other I noted a section of the book that was exclusively short-lined tercets.
Ah. Two observations that feed THIS review. Except for one, single-stanza'd list poem, this entire new collection of Young's is the poetry of tercets, occasionally with a single-lined finish. In all cases, too, the middle line is indented two tabs.
Young knows what he likes and likes what he knows, so for that he goes. Lots of random (not formal) rhyming and slant rhyming too. But again, no designs.
The trouble? The constant diet of same old, same old leavened his work with monotony. Not a great thing. Some enjoyable poems here, to be sure, but a lot of take-it-or-leave-it as well.
Beautiful artwork on the cover. Hardback, as you'd expect from a veteran hand who happens to be a professor and the poetry editor at The New Yorker (raises hand to ask where he finds time in a day).
Here's a poem I enjoyed in the collection that appeared in The Orion (note: you'll have to imagine the middle-lined indentations on second lines of the tercets as GR is not HTML friendly, except for a few limited tricks like "roll over" and, at times, "play dead"):
Egrets
Kevin Young
Some say beauty
may be the egret
in the field
who follows after
the cows
sensing slaughter�
but I believe
the soul is neither
air nor water, not
this winged thing
nor the cattle
who moan
to make themselves
known.
Instead, the horses
standing almost fifteen
hands high�
like regret they come
most the time
when called.
Hungry, the greys eat
from your palm,
ٱԻ-ٴǴdzٳ�
their surprising
plum-dark tongues
flashing quick
& rough as a match�
your hand, your
arm, startled
into flame.
Examples? In one I complained about the profusion of extremely short lines (usually 3-5 words). In other I noted a section of the book that was exclusively short-lined tercets.
Ah. Two observations that feed THIS review. Except for one, single-stanza'd list poem, this entire new collection of Young's is the poetry of tercets, occasionally with a single-lined finish. In all cases, too, the middle line is indented two tabs.
Young knows what he likes and likes what he knows, so for that he goes. Lots of random (not formal) rhyming and slant rhyming too. But again, no designs.
The trouble? The constant diet of same old, same old leavened his work with monotony. Not a great thing. Some enjoyable poems here, to be sure, but a lot of take-it-or-leave-it as well.
Beautiful artwork on the cover. Hardback, as you'd expect from a veteran hand who happens to be a professor and the poetry editor at The New Yorker (raises hand to ask where he finds time in a day).
Here's a poem I enjoyed in the collection that appeared in The Orion (note: you'll have to imagine the middle-lined indentations on second lines of the tercets as GR is not HTML friendly, except for a few limited tricks like "roll over" and, at times, "play dead"):
Egrets
Kevin Young
Some say beauty
may be the egret
in the field
who follows after
the cows
sensing slaughter�
but I believe
the soul is neither
air nor water, not
this winged thing
nor the cattle
who moan
to make themselves
known.
Instead, the horses
standing almost fifteen
hands high�
like regret they come
most the time
when called.
Hungry, the greys eat
from your palm,
ٱԻ-ٴǴdzٳ�
their surprising
plum-dark tongues
flashing quick
& rough as a match�
your hand, your
arm, startled
into flame.
September 28, 2021
This cover is fire. I liked what I could understand of this collection and know it’s better than I could comprehend. It just felt hard to click with because I knew Young was operating at a level I can’t. I just didn’t “get� a lot of it. I did love the poem “Joy�. A standout for me. I want to read about Young and this collection and then revisit.
May 22, 2024
nicely observed and expressed : nature, place, emotion, family, memory,
❤🌿🪦🍃🏡🌿♥
I liked his use of language, rhythm, structure, pattern, alliteration, allusion 🙂
🌟
accessed as an audiobook, from the National Poetry Library, read by the author.
❤🌿🪦🍃🏡🌿♥
I liked his use of language, rhythm, structure, pattern, alliteration, allusion 🙂
🌟
accessed as an audiobook, from the National Poetry Library, read by the author.
December 17, 2021
Excellent collection of very personal poetry by the director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Stones is an excellent collection of poems about family, history, death, and remembrance. Young's poems are rooted in the red earth of the south and feature images of decayed shotgun shacks, the families who have lived and worked the land for generations, and reminiscences of those who have moved away but but still find their identity in this history.
I'm a casual poetry reader and sometimes stumble over collections where poem styles change from page to page but Kevin Young's poems have a consistent structure that makes reading easier to do after you get into his rhythm. That said half the enjoyment of poetry is reading one multiple times to get a cadence that echoes with you and I quite enjoyed that with his work.
P.S. I'd like thank my local librarians for doing such a bang up job with choosing books for the poetry displays, I'd never have found this without them.
Stones is an excellent collection of poems about family, history, death, and remembrance. Young's poems are rooted in the red earth of the south and feature images of decayed shotgun shacks, the families who have lived and worked the land for generations, and reminiscences of those who have moved away but but still find their identity in this history.
I'm a casual poetry reader and sometimes stumble over collections where poem styles change from page to page but Kevin Young's poems have a consistent structure that makes reading easier to do after you get into his rhythm. That said half the enjoyment of poetry is reading one multiple times to get a cadence that echoes with you and I quite enjoyed that with his work.
P.S. I'd like thank my local librarians for doing such a bang up job with choosing books for the poetry displays, I'd never have found this without them.
October 1, 2021
Love this collection so much. Kevin Young expertly crafted each and every poem in this collection. His images were everything. I sensed the speaker’s anxiety towards trying to understand how to cope with his own grief. The moments where the speaker is in the cemetery really stood out to me. The images of a long gone home really captured that loss that the speaker grapples with throughout the entire collection. In the end we get a poem that explodes with language and images that wraps the speaker’s journey beautifully. Absolutely incredible work here. I know I missed talking about other things in this collection like the speaker’s relationship with his son, his father, and the women in his life. Or the major role that the weather plays in this collection. Or even the meaning behind the title of this collection. But hopefully after I sit down with my thoughts I can build a better review for the community because this book deserves it.
May 3, 2022
Kevin Young is one of my favorite poets, and this is the third book I’ve read of his poems in addition to the 5-star anthology he compiled that I recommend as a condolence gift: The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing. I’m especially fond of his family poems and odes to Southern cooking, having grown up with many of the same foods myself. If you don’t know his work, go to YouTube and look up: Kevin Young “Aunties.� For all these reasons, I knew in advance I’d love this book, but I was completely unprepared for the first section: “Oblivion.�
These were not typical Kevin Young poems, and I’m not sure I’m equipped to describe them. Of course, I was missing the Kevin Young I knew, but he came back around to that. These poems were more mystical, magical, atmospheric, and simply beautiful. I felt invited and compelled to go back to the top and read again. They spread through me like music, carrying a mood more than meaning. They were in no way esoteric: I hate stuffy “you’re not smart enough to read this� poems. He was simply inviting us into his way of viewing the universe.
The first poem in the section, “Halter,� is more straight forward, beginning,
“Nothing can make, make me want
to stay
in this world –…�
Then the poems become more abstract, using Young’s gift for metaphor. From “Egrets,�
“Some say beauty
may be the egret
in the field
who follows after
the cows
sensing slaughter –�
Then he launches into what the soul is and is not, finally landing on
“…Instead, the horses
standing almost fifteen
hands high �
like regret they come
most the time
when called...
plum-dark tongues
flashing quick
& rough as a match �
striking your hand,
your arm, startled
into flame.�
These were not typical Kevin Young poems, and I’m not sure I’m equipped to describe them. Of course, I was missing the Kevin Young I knew, but he came back around to that. These poems were more mystical, magical, atmospheric, and simply beautiful. I felt invited and compelled to go back to the top and read again. They spread through me like music, carrying a mood more than meaning. They were in no way esoteric: I hate stuffy “you’re not smart enough to read this� poems. He was simply inviting us into his way of viewing the universe.
The first poem in the section, “Halter,� is more straight forward, beginning,
“Nothing can make, make me want
to stay
in this world –…�
Then the poems become more abstract, using Young’s gift for metaphor. From “Egrets,�
“Some say beauty
may be the egret
in the field
who follows after
the cows
sensing slaughter –�
Then he launches into what the soul is and is not, finally landing on
“…Instead, the horses
standing almost fifteen
hands high �
like regret they come
most the time
when called...
plum-dark tongues
flashing quick
& rough as a match �
striking your hand,
your arm, startled
into flame.�
January 8, 2023
I liked absolutely nothing about this book
⭐️
⭐️
February 7, 2022
A beautiful book grappling mostly with death, the obligations to generations past, and a father‘s responsibilities to his son. Young is a master of the pithy twist of wisdom and at blending gravity with the passing vivid detail. I found the section “Rose Room� especially vivid and affecting, with its entanglement of the habits of drinking with familial burdens and rewards. By volume’s end though, the use of the same poetic structure in every poem and the refrain of the gravestone as trope become less rewarding than wearing.
September 26, 2021
A very beautifully written collection of poetry. Themes of loss and death. I was most taken by the scenes with the poet and his son, in the graveyard, amongst their dead. Really touching.
April 12, 2024
Enjoyed this collection of poetry on grief, loss, looking back, and looking forward. Thanks Knopf for the gifted copy!
October 6, 2021
Love the rhythms and subject matter. These work focus mostly on connecting with nature and surroundings.
February 1, 2022
This collection is spare at times, meandering, and plays with the sound of language. Like the title suggests, these poems are stones, small, self contained, and just weighty enough. Some look similar to others, some are wildly different from the rest, but they're all poetic and of a theme. There are glimpses of youth, family, the present moment, but unfortunately the through line is just not strong.
December 2, 2021
A deep rumination on life, death, family, nature, and ancestors from one of our most precise and on point poets, Kevin Young.
April 11, 2024
4.5 stars rounded up.
I really enjoyed this collection of poetry, graciously sent to me by the publisher just in time for National Poetry Month.
The poems are written in shorter stanzas, which I find easier to comprehend and follow. So, I felt like this is a collection that is easy for those dipping their toes into poetry. If I read the poems out loud and focused on what I was reading, I thought the messages in the poems were really beautifully told and powerful in how they were written. Stones: Poems touches on fatherhood and ancestry, memory and legacy, loss and mourning. The imagery within these pages are so well done. Sting is one of my favorites from this collection because of it: Hurt/is not meant/by the blades of summer/the bumblebee somehow/swims around--. SO GOOD. I also really enjoyed how the title of the collection carries throughout the poems.
Overall, yes. I say read this if you're new to poetry or looking for more diverse voices in poetry. This is an excellent collection to start with!
I really enjoyed this collection of poetry, graciously sent to me by the publisher just in time for National Poetry Month.
The poems are written in shorter stanzas, which I find easier to comprehend and follow. So, I felt like this is a collection that is easy for those dipping their toes into poetry. If I read the poems out loud and focused on what I was reading, I thought the messages in the poems were really beautifully told and powerful in how they were written. Stones: Poems touches on fatherhood and ancestry, memory and legacy, loss and mourning. The imagery within these pages are so well done. Sting is one of my favorites from this collection because of it: Hurt/is not meant/by the blades of summer/the bumblebee somehow/swims around--. SO GOOD. I also really enjoyed how the title of the collection carries throughout the poems.
Overall, yes. I say read this if you're new to poetry or looking for more diverse voices in poetry. This is an excellent collection to start with!
December 12, 2024
Young knows how to create poetic imagery without departing far from everyday speech, For instance, he characterizes gravestones as "ghost ships adrift, at sea, awaiting names." Note on the "a" sounds the strong use of alliteration, which Young doesn't over-indulge in. Other engaging phrases include "Of us there is always less" and "It is snow to see you buried here." Some poems approach having a narrative.
The poems in the first part of the book instantly evoke a timeless life in an unnamed rural setting. Death and mourning are the focus of this book, but other themes emerge too: family tales, life being brought up in an African-American church.
The poems in the first part of the book instantly evoke a timeless life in an unnamed rural setting. Death and mourning are the focus of this book, but other themes emerge too: family tales, life being brought up in an African-American church.
February 13, 2024
This is the first time I've read straight through a poetry collection, and it was a good experience. I liked many of these poems, but all the poems (except one) were written with the same format, and many of them dealt with the same/similar ideas. Sometimes that made the message of the poems much stronger with the slightly different viewpoints on the same topic, but other times (especially in the middle) it felt like a drag, like I'd already read those poems. However, there was a lot of beautiful imagery here and really thoughtful reflections on death and losing loved ones.
April 14, 2024
In the field the cows consider
oblivion, mulling
it over. They & their many
stomachs know nothing
stays lost forever -- that grass, almost
cruel, resurrects again,
again. They know even
drought will end
though the family they belong to
forgets. Cows know the slow
closing eye of the pond
will once more open
& the sky -- rain will find
their bowed backs,
the burnt earth's offering.
Cows keep no cry, only
a slave's low moan.
This slight rise
they must climb.
-- "Oblivion"
oblivion, mulling
it over. They & their many
stomachs know nothing
stays lost forever -- that grass, almost
cruel, resurrects again,
again. They know even
drought will end
though the family they belong to
forgets. Cows know the slow
closing eye of the pond
will once more open
& the sky -- rain will find
their bowed backs,
the burnt earth's offering.
Cows keep no cry, only
a slave's low moan.
This slight rise
they must climb.
-- "Oblivion"
March 2, 2023
Expressive and personal, the poems let me peek into the places and people of the poet. The poetry often takes place in graveyards and rural towns. It's weird to say that I 'enjoyed' poems that were so personal and often with varying shades of darkness, but I'm not sure other words to describe my desire to keep reading, and sometimes re-reading.
This is the first book of poetry that I've read by Kevin Young; I would certainly read more.
This is the first book of poetry that I've read by Kevin Young; I would certainly read more.
July 29, 2023
As Stones delves into the magnitude of quiet heartache, Young cultivates form and sonic with violent care and memory. It is reminiscent and forward wandering. Young's life echoes from the death of a father in every line. From the very first page, as a reader, I couldn't resist feeling honored and welcomed to read the entries of Young wishing his lost one back into memory. This is wonderous and makes you wonder. This is a brilliant collection in form and scope from start to finish!
December 10, 2021
the universal, connection to the familial and natural worlds, nicely done. for reminiscing, maybe i need more detail to understand better, or perhaps it's a "you had to be there" and simply couldn't appreciate certain elements on that level. i typically enjoy young's work, so this very well is likely a "me problem." solid collection overall.
May 5, 2022
Kevin Young is one of the most prolific poets in the USA with numerous titles to his credit. He's won many awards, and also is the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. These poems are wise and thoughtful, each one a gem of poetic communication.
November 17, 2022
Poetry that I kind of get. Past, Present, Future lives in a family. The reoccurring theme is burial and grief and living on. The mood is reflective, acceptance. That is a single reading, but I suspect if I as a reader was at a different place in my life, I would see/feel these poems from a different view.
March 22, 2023
Stones by Kevin Young
***
Beautiful work by Kevin Young. It reads to me like a book of poems that’s serving as an elegy to someone left the Earth far too early. The language is carefully chosen. I wish there had been a little more movement when it came to his stanzas, but overall, beautiful images and word play.
May 9, 2023
"...the fog that finds/ my glasses// whenever I exit/ the car left/ idling like the dead// among tilted stones./ It is snow/ to see you// buried here - a frozen/ fallen light/ we lie down & try// making angels in." Kevin Young's translucent poetry is populated by the dead and animated by our longings. A very personal, soulful collection.
December 29, 2024
Sadly, I was only able to listen to the audiobook because the ebook wasn’t available on my Libby app. I really love Kevin’s poetry style, but usually when I listen to an audiobook of poems, I read and then listen. I feel as though I would be rating it higher if I could have read the ebook as well, but rate it a 4/5 for now.
January 10, 2025
nice! liked not loved. reminded me of Ross Gay’s “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude,� but I found it a bit less lush.
enjoyed the reflections on father/sonhood and on finding the faces of those you’ve lost in other passersby.
favorite poem in the collection was “Tonsure�
beautiful cover & typeface
enjoyed the reflections on father/sonhood and on finding the faces of those you’ve lost in other passersby.
favorite poem in the collection was “Tonsure�
beautiful cover & typeface
January 26, 2022
I hardly ever read poetry. This collection caused me to think “oohh…that was well said� or “that was a great observation� repeatedly. I’m not sure that this is my genre of choice, but it was enjoyable to read a different way to tell a deep story quickly.
April 21, 2022
Of the poetry books, this is one of them. The writing was a bit generic and otherwise forgettable as far as poetry goes, with the subject material not as engaging for me personally as I would have hoped. I did enjoy the lyrical wordplay, which was above average.
July 22, 2022
everything was technically right with this collection (my kind of short sparse poem, wordplay, vivid and intimate locale, hard-hitting emotional content, still soft spoken) but it didn’t really resonate with me. missing something. probably on my end as a reader i just need a change of scene
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