Lilith, but Dark by Nichole Perkins

Lilith, but Dark reveals a series of confessions and penances, exploring a southern black woman’s tour through lover’s lament. It explores intimacies from home to the schoolyard to the bedroom. It is a journey through tornado alley, a search for power and peace in the eye of a southern storm.

“‘There is a woman here, heady and blooming’ reads the last line of the last poem in this astonishing collection. And there is a woman here, heady and blooming in each of these infinitely resonant poems. With poise and precision, Nichole Perkins lays bare a black woman’s life, her love, her loss—how she has come apart and pulled herself back together, how she has wanted and been wanting. There is so much beautiful writing to be found in these pages, such a fine attention to detail, such a seductive way of imbuing each line and verse with intimacy and wisdom, so that we always understand how time and place have shaped the poet and the unforgettable way she renders this world.” —Roxane Gay, author of Difficult Women

Review at Barrelhouse