Every Morning A Foot Is Looking For My Neck (Paperback or Softback)

Sometimes the cadence of our experiences cannot be expressed with traditional language and one must find a pace and rhythm that bellows what the mouth cannot. Bonita Lee Penn has done so with her chapbook of poems, Every Morning A Foot Is Looking For My Neck. Whether it is the thumping of a heart or a black body hitting the ground prematurely, her words elegize the cries of those who have left us in a violent frenzy and bring to light an all too familiar ache with wit, fire and a haunting truth.

In this striking debut collection, Penn is unrelenting in the pushback against a world that tries to force us "to press our- / selves into the recesses, into shadows / of our skin. to lay low, to be silent, to / shrink. disappear." These are vibrant and brilliant poems.

"Bonita Penn's poems are an unflinching testimony, a praise song for community in the tradition of black truth tellers. Unafraid to reach into hidden spaces, Penn explores and expresses the beauty of Black culture that is not often celebrated. She bravely navigates the relationship between the seen and unseen stories that live in shadows but need to be brought to light." --Lita Hooper, Author of Thunder in Her Voice: The Narrative of Sojourner Truth

"When existing in a world that marks some as invisible and unworthy, someone must stand as a witness. Someone must speak the truth. In her debut collection, Bonita Lee Penn offers a body of work committed to both remembrance and truth-telling. By providing us with a looking glass to better understand and confront the hold of history, trauma, and injustice, Penn uses language as a communal healing balm crafted to celebrate community, black women, and black culture with uncompromising love. Each poem is a resurrection, an act of protest, a prayer, and a pathway to reclaiming the spirit and all that has been lost." --Rashida James-Saadiya, Art and Culture Editor, Sapelo Square