- 96 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
"Tough talk for tough times.
Silencer is both lyrical and merciless–Wicker's mind hums in overdrive, but with the calm and clarity of a marksman."
—Tim Seibles, author of One Turn Around the Sun and finalist for the National Book Award
A suburban park, church, a good job, a cocktail party for the literati: to many, these sound like safe places, but for a young black man these insular spaces don't keep out the news—and the actual threat—of gun violence and police brutality, or the biases that keeps body, property, and hope in the crosshairs. Continuing conversations begun by Citizen and Between the World and Me, Silencer sings out the dangers of unspoken taboos present on quiet Midwestern cul-de-sacs and in stifling professional settings, the dangers in closing the window on "a rainbow coalition of cops doing calisthenics around/a six-foot, three-hundred-fifty-pound man, choked back into the earth for what/looked a lot, to me, like sport."
Here, the language and cadences of hip-hop and academia meet prayer—these poems are crucibles, from which emerge profound allegories and subtle elegies, sharp humor and incisive critiques.
"There is not a moment in this book when you are allowed to forget the complexities of a black man's life in America. These poems evoke so much—strength, beauty, passion, fear. There is the quiet, ironic pleasure of life on a cul-de-sac juxtaposed with the tensions of always wondering when a police officer's gun or fists might get in the way of the black body. The stylistic range of these poems, the wit, and the intelligence of them offers so much to be admired. There is nothing silent about Silencer. What an outstanding second book from Marcus Wicker." — Roxane Gay
"Marcus Wicker's masterful and hard-hitting second collection is exactly the book we need in this time of malfeasance, systemic violence, and the double talk that obfuscates it all... He writes the kinds of vital, clear-eyed poems we can turn to when codeswitching slogans and online power fists no longer get the job done. These are poems whose ink is made from anger and quarter notes. They remind us that to remain silent in the face of aggression is to be complicit and to be complicit is not an option for any of us."
—Adrian Matejka, author of The Big Smoke and finalist for the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize
"Silencer is an important book of American poetry: wonderfully subtle, wholly original, and subversive. Politics and social realities aside, this is foremost a book that delights in language, how it sounds to the ear and plays to the mind. We have suburban complacency played against hip-hop resistance, Christian prayers uttered in the face of dread violence, real meaning pitted against materialism, and love, in its largest measure, set against ignorance.To say Silencer is a tour de force would be an understatement. What a work of true art this is, and what a gift Marcus Wicker has given to us."
—Maurice Manning, author of One Man's Dark and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize
" Silencer disarms and dazzles with its wisdom and full-throated wit. [This] collection snaps to attention with a soundtrack full of salty swagger and a most skillful use of formal inventions that'll surely knock you out. Here in these pages, sailfish and hummingbirds assert their frenetic movements on a planet simmering with racial tensions, which in turn forms its own kind of bopping and buoyant religion. What a thrill to read these poems that provoke and beg for beauty and song-calling into the darkest of nights."
—Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of Lucky Fish and poetry editor at Orion Magazine
—Tim Seibles, author of One Turn Around the Sun and finalist for the National Book Award
A suburban park, church, a good job, a cocktail party for the literati: to many, these sound like safe places, but for a young black man these insular spaces don't keep out the news—and the actual threat—of gun violence and police brutality, or the biases that keeps body, property, and hope in the crosshairs. Continuing conversations begun by Citizen and Between the World and Me, Silencer sings out the dangers of unspoken taboos present on quiet Midwestern cul-de-sacs and in stifling professional settings, the dangers in closing the window on "a rainbow coalition of cops doing calisthenics around/a six-foot, three-hundred-fifty-pound man, choked back into the earth for what/looked a lot, to me, like sport."
Here, the language and cadences of hip-hop and academia meet prayer—these poems are crucibles, from which emerge profound allegories and subtle elegies, sharp humor and incisive critiques.
"There is not a moment in this book when you are allowed to forget the complexities of a black man's life in America. These poems evoke so much—strength, beauty, passion, fear. There is the quiet, ironic pleasure of life on a cul-de-sac juxtaposed with the tensions of always wondering when a police officer's gun or fists might get in the way of the black body. The stylistic range of these poems, the wit, and the intelligence of them offers so much to be admired. There is nothing silent about Silencer. What an outstanding second book from Marcus Wicker." — Roxane Gay
"Marcus Wicker's masterful and hard-hitting second collection is exactly the book we need in this time of malfeasance, systemic violence, and the double talk that obfuscates it all... He writes the kinds of vital, clear-eyed poems we can turn to when codeswitching slogans and online power fists no longer get the job done. These are poems whose ink is made from anger and quarter notes. They remind us that to remain silent in the face of aggression is to be complicit and to be complicit is not an option for any of us."
—Adrian Matejka, author of The Big Smoke and finalist for the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize
"Silencer is an important book of American poetry: wonderfully subtle, wholly original, and subversive. Politics and social realities aside, this is foremost a book that delights in language, how it sounds to the ear and plays to the mind. We have suburban complacency played against hip-hop resistance, Christian prayers uttered in the face of dread violence, real meaning pitted against materialism, and love, in its largest measure, set against ignorance.To say Silencer is a tour de force would be an understatement. What a work of true art this is, and what a gift Marcus Wicker has given to us."
—Maurice Manning, author of One Man's Dark and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize
" Silencer disarms and dazzles with its wisdom and full-throated wit. [This] collection snaps to attention with a soundtrack full of salty swagger and a most skillful use of formal inventions that'll surely knock you out. Here in these pages, sailfish and hummingbirds assert their frenetic movements on a planet simmering with racial tensions, which in turn forms its own kind of bopping and buoyant religion. What a thrill to read these poems that provoke and beg for beauty and song-calling into the darkest of nights."
—Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of Lucky Fish and poetry editor at Orion Magazine
Frequently asked questions
Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
- Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
- Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Silencer by Marcus Wicker in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & American Poetry. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Contents
Title Page
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Silencer to the Heart While Jogging Through a Park
Conjecture on the Stained-Glass Image of White Christ at Ebenezer Baptist Church
In My 31st Year
Taking Aim at a Macy’s Changing Room Mirror, I Blame Television
In Defense of Ballin’ on a Budget
Watch Us Elocute
Ars Poetica Battle Rhyme for Really Wannabe Somebodies
Prayer on Aladdin’s Lamp
Plea to My Jealous Heart
Confessional Booth with Lines from Heartbreak “Drizzy” Drake, Ending on a Theme from Oddisee
Ode to Browsing the Web
Stumped Speech on the Internet
Close Encounters
Creation Song in Which a Swift Wind Sucker-Punches a Transformer
Silencer on the Arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. After Sassing an Officer Who Assumed He’d Unlawfully Entered His Own Home
Silencer with Blues & Birds on a Wire
The Trees
Blue Faces
Theorizing Wesley: On the African American Nonresident Alien
Film Noir at Gallup Park, On the Edge
⦿
When I’m alone in my room sometimes I stare at the wall, & in the back of my mind I hear my conscience call
The Way We Were Made
Incident with Nature, Late
Shibboleth
When academia tells me only a fool believes in a God that he can’t see
On Being Told Prayer Is a Crutch
Deer Ode, Tangled & Horned
Nocturne with Revelations & Militant Black Jesus
Ars Poetica
⦿
The Most Dangerous Game
Animal Farm
Cul-de-sac Pastoral
Ars Poetica Battle Rhyme for Sucker Emcees
Bay Window Lauds
Weekend Open House Sext
Tiki Torch Cookout Vespers
Trash Night Compline
Materialist Matins
Prayer on the Subdivision
Conjecture on the Dream
Morning in the Burbs
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Connect with HMH
Copyright © 2017 by Marcus Wicker
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [email protected] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.
www.hmhco.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wicker, Marcus, author.
Title: Silencer / Marcus Wicker.
Description: Boston : Mariner Books, 2017. | Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed. Identifiers: LCCN 2017014165 (print) | LCCN 2017016611 (ebook) | ISBN 9781328715586 (ebook) | ISBN 9781328715548 (paperback)
Subjects: | BISAC: POETRY / American / African American. | POETRY / Inspirational & Religious. | POETRY / American / General. | HISTORY / Social History. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Black Studies (Global).
Classification: LCC PS3623.I268 (ebook) | LCC PS3623.I268 A6 2017 (print) | DDC 811/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017014165
Book design by Mark R. Robinson
v1.0817
Table of contents
- Title Page
- Contents
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Silencer to the Heart While Jogging Through a Park
- Conjecture on the Stained-Glass Image of White Christ at Ebenezer Baptist Church
- In My 31st Year
- Taking Aim at a Macy’s Changing Room Mirror, I Blame Television
- In Defense of Ballin’ on a Budget
- Watch Us Elocute
- Ars Poetica Battle Rhyme for Really Wannabe Somebodies
- Prayer on Aladdin’s Lamp
- Plea to My Jealous Heart
- Confessional Booth with Lines from Heartbreak “Drizzy” Drake, Ending on a Theme from Oddisee
- Ode to Browsing the Web
- Stumped Speech on the Internet
- Close Encounters
- Creation Song in Which a Swift Wind Sucker-Punches a Transformer
- Silencer on the Arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. After Sassing an Officer Who Assumed He’d Unlawfully Entered His Own Home
- Silencer with Blues & Birds on a Wire
- The Trees
- Blue Faces
- Theorizing Wesley: On the African American Nonresident Alien
- Film Noir at Gallup Park, On the Edge
- ⦿
- When I’m alone in my room sometimes I stare at the wall, & in the back of my mind I hear my conscience call
- The Way We Were Made
- Incident with Nature, Late
- Shibboleth
- When academia tells me only a fool believes in a God that he can’t see
- On Being Told Prayer Is a Crutch
- Deer Ode, Tangled & Horned
- Nocturne with Revelations & Militant Black Jesus
- Ars Poetica
- ⦿
- The Most Dangerous Game
- Animal Farm
- Cul-de-sac Pastoral
- Ars Poetica Battle Rhyme for Sucker Emcees
- Bay Window Lauds
- Weekend Open House Sext
- Tiki Torch Cookout Vespers
- Trash Night Compline
- Materialist Matins
- Prayer on the Subdivision
- Conjecture on the Dream
- Morning in the Burbs
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Connect with HMH