A collection of moving and tender poems that delves into questions of masculinity, fatherhood, home, and learning to live in and love oneâEUR(TM)s own body. In his second full-length poetry collection, Chicago-born poet Dan âEURœSullyâEUR? Sullivan considers the male bodyâEUR"its momentum and privilege when moving through the world, but also its softness and vulnerability. As the poems unfold and questions unravel, the book challenges wider social systems that uphold patriarchal notions of masculinity, seeking to achieve a new register of compassion, of self-love. O Body is also a migration narrative, navigating the physical distances between citiesâEUR"the speakerâEUR(TM)s movement between Chicago and his new home in BloomingtonâEUR"and beyond that, the expansive, immeasurable distances within the self. Cityscapes come alive on the page and relationships bloom and deepen as Sully explores love, fatherhood, and family; here, traditional assumptions regarding masculinity and beauty are called into question through the speakerâEUR(TM)s tenderhearted wondering. As more and more people awaken to the realization that the patriarchy oppresses people of all genders, SullyâEUR(TM)s work in O Body offers a much-needed narrative of that shifting perspective. This deeply self-aware and big-hearted book holds space for reflecting on oneâEUR(TM)s physical body and interiority: the complex relationship between the two as well as their intricate and often fraught connections to the wider community and the places we call home.
