I Do Know Some Things

'' Cumulative, driving, apocalyptic power'' Louise Gluck, from the Foreword to Crush I Do Know Some Things is a brave book, both in content and method. It is brave to write about childhood scars and the heartbreak the dead leave behind. It is brave to reconfigure one''s life in the aftermath of a stroke. Richard Siken presents these subjects directly, without ornament, and with nothing to hide behind, confronting the fact that he can no longer manipulate the constructions of form, or speak lies that tell the truth. In spite of these limitations, Siken chooses to write these poems and release them into a dangerous world. Each image, each sentence, is as direct as the American artist Jasper Johns''s shooting targets. Each poem is like a small room in a house, a room where you will be punched in the throat. As he claws himself back into a self, into a body, Siken has written a book that is unsettling and autobiographical by necessity, and its seventy-seven prose poems invite the reader to risk a difficult intimacy in search of yet deeper truths. ''The immense wingspan of influence that Crush has on 21st-century American poetry cannot be overstated'' Ocean Vuong

About the author

Richard Siken

Product details

• Authors: Richard Siken, Siken Richard
• Publisher: Chatto and Windus
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 07.05.2026
• EAN: 9781784746629
• ISBN: 978-1-78474-662-9
• No. of pages: 128
• Dimensions: 135 mm x 216 mm x 20 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama > Poetry; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; POETRY / American / General, POETRY / Subjects & Themes / Death, Grief, Loss, POETRY / Subjects & Themes / Family, Narrative theme: Death, grief, loss, Poetry by individual poets, Modern and contemporary poetry (c 1900 onwards), Relating to LGBTQ+ people, FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / LGBTQ+, Narrative theme: Health and illness, Relating to LGBTQIA+ people