Like many of my other poetry reads, I came across Bone during my first year of therapy. This was a “blind-buy” purchase, where I didn’t know anything about the author or have any expectations for the book. 

Bone is written by Yrsa Daley-Ward, a writer from the UK. She is also the author of The Terrible and The How. 

Bone is an extremely vulnerable and honest autobiographical collection of poems that gives a glimpse into the life and thoughts of Yrsa Daley-Ward. She tells of her experiences with love, sex, religion, family, society, and really the most profound to me, her experiences with discovering and rediscovering herself. 

One of the things I enjoy most about this collection is that it seems to follow no linear order or pattern. I think this is done intentionally, as Daley-Ward’s writing focuses on humanizing or “normalizing” life experiences, and if there is one thing that is absolutely true about life, it’s that it is not linear. 

Yrsa Daley-Ward’s experience as a first-generation Black Brit resonates throughout her poetry. Her descriptions of navigating the world as a person with a foot in many doors are extremely relatable. 

Here are a few of my favorite poems from this collection:

What is now will soon be past. Just because you do it doesn’t mean you always will. Whether you’re dancing dust or breathing light you’re never exactly the same, twice.

The pastor makes twenty-four
references to hell
in the sermon at church and forgets
to talk
about love.

Smiling at devils is a useful, learned thing

You are a beautiful danger. Do not force me to open up. Some books are bound tightly for years for reasons.

Thank you for reading,

Iyesha Ferguson, M.A.

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