So to Speak

Penguin Poets

By: Terrance Hayes

Narrated by: Terrance Hayes

A powerful, timely, dazzling new collection of poems from Terrance Hayes, the National Book Award-winning author of Lighthead—to be published simultaneously with his latest work of literary criticism, Watch Your Language

The three sections of Terrance Hayes’ seventh collection explore how we see ourselves and our world, mapping the strange and lyrical grammar of thinking and feeling. In “Watch Your Mouth,” a tree frog sings to overcome its fear of birds; in “Watch Your Step: The Kafka Virus,” a talking cat tells jokes in the Jim Crow South; in “Watch Your Head,“ green beans bling in the mouth of Lil Wayne, and Bob Ross paints your portrait. On the one hand, these fabulous fables, American sonnets, quarantine quatrains, and ekphrastic do-it-yourself sestinas animate what Toni Morrison called “the writerly imagination of a black author who is at some level always conscious of representing one’s own race.” On the other hand, these urgent, personal poems contemplate fatherhood, history, and longing with remarkable openness and humanity. So To Speak is the mature, restless work of one of contemporary poetry’s leading voices.

* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF with visual poems.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Terrance Hayes (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Terrance Hayes is a fine poet and a fine reader of his poetry--and this audiobook offers a lovely experience of both.... There is a great deal of pleasure to be had in just listening to the author read as he explores his experiences as a Black man, a father, a son, a student, and an American in the time of President Trump." (AudioFile)

“These are pieces that fuse trauma and humor, erudition and silliness in ways that somehow preserve those disparate qualities.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post

“[A] polyphonic, multivalent collection of poetry . . . Hayes' role as an oracle of the auricular remains remarkable . . . The poet's nimble knowledge of music and visual arts is notable . . . Throughout, Hayes continues to stretch the limits of language and explore the far regions of English, while his formal experimentation shines . . . May this poet's brilliance always shine.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Across three various and virtuosic sections, Hayes examines the personal and public, from fatherhood to the murder of George Floyd, in his muscular and meditative seventh collection. With a masterful eye for image and description . . . Hayes’s writing unfolds musically and dynamically . . . These original, ruminative poems showcase one of the most rightly acclaimed poets writing today.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)