This emotive, to-the-point debut finds a young poet exploring verse as urgent artistic outlet, a method to “try to paint things so they can see what going on with me”. In direct, pointedly vernacular language— “And Your mind might be disturbed like Van Gogh // But in reality, you are a starry night that will brighten up anyone night”—Harris works through relatable concerns. A lack of polish is balanced by emotional urgency, a sense of play, and how the act of writing itself becomes an act of seizing control over one’s heart and life. “There were some nights I laughed // There were some nights I wanted to give up,” he writes, of composing these verses. The result is uplifting and alive with playful insight, into the self and the world it inhabits.

It’s little wonder, then, that after sharing raw considerations of love that didn’t work out, of wishing his mother were around, of picking “my friends like I pick my fruits // so I won’t be like Eve picking fruits from the forbidden tree” Harris closes with a direct invitation to readers. “Tag, You're it. // It's your turn to start writing & I can't wait to read what you put out.” Some poems document the poet’s determination to live well (“Had to remove these negative thoughts from my head like lice”); others directly encourage readers. “Please realize your beautiful brown skin is rich and nourishing just like soil meaning you can grow into anything you want to be,” he writes in the tender, resonant “Dear little brown boys.”

As those quoted lines suggest, sometimes, especially when the poet has worked up to a big point or moment of catharsis, meter and rhythm slip away. That diminishes the verses’ power, on the page, though such passages might have significantly more punch read aloud. Even without professional polish, poems like the clever-yet-piercing “unsent love letter” capture emotional truths with power.

Takeaway: A young poet’s raw but upbeat dive into what usually stays unspoken.

Comparable Titles: Ben Esqueda’s Feeling This Way, Morgan Richard Olivier’s The Tears That Taught Me.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: B
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B-
Marketing copy: A-