Arrival: Poems by Cheryl Boyce-Taylor (review)

Question: How does a black woman arrive, into a new year, into a space, at a place? More questions: Is her arrival a destined or a desired place? Is her arrival uncompromised by life? Is her arrival burdened by any one thing or person? Does her arrival lead to her being liberated and free? Does her arrival guarantee peace of mind and love? What motivates her arrival and why? These questions undergird Cheryl Boyce-Taylor's newly published Arrival, a demanding and theoretically rich volume of poetry that finds its own powers (and perhaps perils) in movement and migration. In this way, there is nothing easy about these poems because their words and themes refuse containment. Nevertheless, without question—and without much warning—Arrival breaks your heart, tickles your core, and stuns your soul; and it does so over and over again. Some poems are tasty, others quick, and a select number superfluous. All the poems, however, reflect Boyce-Taylor's style: diasporic, fluid, and vulnerable.