Customer Reviews

Sister: Poems

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Glancing like a dove, Nickole Brown's poems pierce the heart's monotony,
breaking through the mind's gate, revealing vistas in one's own interior
familiar yet long forgotten. Til now. Reading her is like hearing one's
own song.

-Michael Fitzpatrick

I recently had the great fortune to hear Nickole Brown read from SISTERS. I was blown away by the dignity she gave to each piece. I was caught up in the storyline and overjoyed to hear her refer to this collection as a novel.

There are not a great many poets who can tell a story with the sensitivity that Nickole was able to do with SISTERS. Some of the stories were difficult to hear. Nickole didn't hold back on any of her depictions--presenting the reader/listener with complex, flawed characters that were honest, vulnerable, yet at the end of the day, redeemable.

Louisville is fortunate to have such a dynamic writer in our presence.

I sleep in bed--even when I try to read. Sister kept me pillow-propped, riveted and awake, carrying me, line after line through a girl's life rife with beauty and ugliness and introspection. I was swept up in this collection--learning to look for the milepost poems entitled What I did I-VII. How stirring, these deep, dark, honest, revelations were to me. I enjoyed the second read even more. Finally I can put out the light. But trust me, sleep will still be elusive

Nickole Brown has created a unique work - crayon-simple at times, life-complex at others. Yet throughout it oozes earthiness, honesty, courage and brilliance.

Read it in one sitting for full impact. Then read it again.

This is one of the best books of poetry I've read in awhile. A great book for anyone who grew up in the 70's and 80's, as there are some delicious details that will make you say, "Oh, yeah, I remember that. . . ." Brown writes heavy with contradiction, never allowing the reader to accept any absolute as the answer. The narrator finely teeters between acceptance and rejection, forgiveness and condemnation, love and hate, all through the eyes of a young woman struggling to come to terms with those oh-so-difficult familial relationships. Universally accessible, this book is full of poems that are like orchids, vulnerable at every turn, yet enduring.