Reach: A Poem

By: Gabriel Antonio Reed

Winner of the Academy of American Poets First Book Award, selected by Brenda Hillman

New fatherhood sends the speaker of Gabriel Antonio Reed's Reach back to the tenderness and hurt of his own childhood. Moments with his child in the garden elicit memories of his grandmother, and intimate dreams about people outside of his romantic relationship recall his parents' histories and the queer experiences of his youth. Despite his own mental health struggles, his child becomes a reason to persist, which mirrors the role he played in his own mother's life.

Even as poems unearth patterns of care and harm, they turn to the sources of pain with radical empathy. Reed challenges the poetic line to reflect this dynamic, using indented pseudocouplets that imply a feeling too large for a margin. Through butterflies and shadows, kind words from friends and wisdom from Reed's creative influences, this debut collection argues that writing can be part of the way we tend to one another and to ourselves.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1644454378
• ISBN13: 9781644454374
• Release Date: April 2027
• Publisher: Graywolf Press
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.0"