The Gospel of Breaking

By Jillian Christmas

In The Gospel of Breaking, Jillian Christmas confirms what followers of her performance and artistic curation have long known: there is magic in her words. Befitting someone who “speaks things into being,” Christmas extracts from family history, queer lineage, and the political landscape of a racialized life to create a rich, softly defiant collection of poems.
Christmas draws a circle around the things she calls “holy”: the family line that cannot find its root but survived to fill the skies with radiant flesh; the body, broken and unbroken and broken and new again; the lover lost, the friend lost, and the loss itself; and the hands that hold them all with brilliant, tender care. Expansive and beautiful, these poems allow readers to swim in Jillian Christmas’s mother-tongue and to dream at her shores.

This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. A Simple book with few images, which is defined with accessible structural markup. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and semantic structure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press
• Release date: May 5, 2020
• ISBN: 9781551527987

Book preview

a home I can only leave once

tell mewhat is a body

of thoughtof workpolitic

practicehow many vessels

gather together around one soul

and what is eachholding

and howwill we know them

to call themby their names

if I openthe skin of myself

an invitationyou may wonder

if this waterever be made land

you may desireto question

if there is containerenough

for both of us

saviour enoughfor any

but what is a bodyof pleasure

collectiveknowledgedelight

in motionhow will we know it

unless we go searchingthrough

the roughness of being alive

and where do we go to find it

at restresistancebreaking

how far will I travel

which machinecan carry

bones through time

and river blood across

continentsbeneath seas and

what is a bodywith disease

and who is familyenough

to hold itheal it

are you onedear readera body

that wouldgather

next to mineerase the line

for a moment

so that urgent truthcan be born

on new lipscould you learn

a body imperfectand gorgeous

as this

comecloser dear heart

I want to knowyour rhythm

and you mine

(from the ground, up)

A non-exhaustive list of things growing in mommy’s rainforest garden

plantain

julie mango

sweet lemon/ orange hybrid

cashew

avocado

cocoa

pomerac

regular island orange

breadnut

red cherry

white cherry

bayleaf

fig

banana

one sweet plump strange girl learning to tend herself

casting

housewarming

tonightwebeloved misfits had a fire

we didn’t mean to

but the candles met our shrine of love letters

with suchcommitment

that we had to stand back

and watch

once the flames were out

all we could think about

was making new letters

I miss you much

I miss youlike dark

and icy waters miss the

warmth of sun’s sweet

kisses

or lustfor the hard

handof wind’s

fleeting embracesI

miss youlike a

hungry storm

wet and urgent carving

torrents through rough

and choppy placesI

miss you deepand

aching

longand heavy and

though you may not

heed thistruth is by

the time you read this

I will miss youmore

alreadymy room is

hotthe air hangs

dampand heady and

I miss you

I am missing you in

placeswhereother

lovers’ hands become

unsteadyat the

mention of our skin

where others’ sin is

weak and thin and

other fingers dare not

dream to touch come

backtometonight

my loveI promise

I am readyand I

miss you muchmy

loveMy God

I miss you much

who’s the malcontent now?

the most perverse