Sacrilegion

Recommended by Susanna Siegel, Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy

Siegel typically skips poetry collections, but when she encountered “Sacrilegion” by the poet, journalist, and historian L. Lamar Wilson, she read it in its entirety.

This memoir in verse powerfully juxtaposes geography — such as Marianna, Florida, and DuPont Circle, Atlanta — with intimate or silent forms of consciousness — “I learned the power of the mind when I ignored my left arm, hanging limp like a tattered flag in my pledge of allegiance.” Siegel noted some scenes show holy and sexual postures mirrored, depictions “without any urge to debunk, downgrade, or decontextualize them.”

“These poems have momentum,” she said of the collection. Siegel mentions they can be read in any order, but particularly calls out “Substantia Nigra” and “What I Should Have Told the Homeless Man in Cleveland Who Mistook Me for Mary’s Son” as must-reads.