My Feelings: Poems

"Every dismissive thought you could have about Nick Flynn’s feelings — or, by extension, a book called My Feelings — he’s thought already. “Inappropriate,” “extravagant,” “misguided,” “entitled,” “f**** up”* … he writes them down and crosses them out. What do we gain, after all, by pretending we’re above our own emotions? So the poet, playwright and memoirist lays it out: the lingering ache of one lost parent, the sharp shock of losing another, the baffling surprises of fatherhood, the dark jokes of addiction. Some of the poems are elaborate and abstracted; others are spare, plain and transparently personal. But they all ring true, and a few linger long after the book is shut."