Customer Reviews

Absence in the Palms of My Hands: & Other Poems

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I stumbled across Bendele during an Amazon.com search for new poets and ordered this book as a gift based only on the reviews. I feel SO lucky to have found it. Bendele writes raw, powerful, honest poetry that causes the reader to draw in a deep, sudden breath time and time again as each poem surprises and enlightens. Bendele says the things that need to be said, and she does it so well that her message is unforgettable and undeniable.

And the best thing? You may be reading her poetry silently to yourself, but it reads like it's being spoken aloud to a packed auditorium. As a reader you get the sense that you're on the edge of something big and brilliant - the end of denial, and the acknowledgment of survival and hope in a painful and unjust world.

Please, Ms. Bendele, more, more, more!

Asha Bandele has a way with words. As always she calls us to dissect ourselves. To dig away at the surface in order to reach the core. Her words of poetry float over each page, and is able to attack the mind and force us to think. She is able to deliver and articulate what we think but so often afraid to say. She is the voice of my generation. A voice demanding to be heard.

Asha has developed a distinctive way of writing her poetry that lends its reading her own poetic voice. But her own voice can not be matched. Her poetry is emotional, powerful, blood curdling, and blood boiling. When she reads it, she transcends the words carries it one step further, making it tangible as few poets can.

Asha Bandele is the Maya Angelou of my generation. I have read this book over a hundred times and have bought numerous copies for my friends (both men and women). Asha blesses each page with her truth and ability to express it so fluently. She gives back to all that are reaching out for a positive yet realistic voice.

this book allowed me as a poet to reach deep inside my soul and feel every thing asha has felt...she is a poet that knows how to grab the reader and pull him or her into her world...i have not put this book down since i bought it...

one line in the title poem for Audre Lorde: " "you left me there with / your head raised and still dreadlocked walking/ toward the beginnings of your death"

one poem: 4:15 a.m./ a jailhouse luv story: "in this institution that is rank with the bizarre & vicious oder of/ annihilation,/ we have only ourselves to hold up as light and possibility/ and i hold you up & i hold you in as/people tell me i am crazy,/loving you across barbed wire & time/ but i believe in our love because you struggle with me"

OK next poem your turn to pick.... as you can tell I love this poet.

When I leave San Quentin's death row, and I feel I am not qualified to carry the lessons I've learned, the truth I have seen, I read Asha's words and find strength. Her words are a gift to all of us, words I find myself reading again and again. Thank you, Asha. May you find continued courage to speak.