God Was Right

Author: Diana Hamilton Publisher: Ugly Duckling Presse (2018) God Was Right collects poems that take the form of arguments, essays, and letters. The title poem argues that God was right to make us love cats (and then watch them die); another categorizes the way women like to be kissed; one proposes a sex ed that takes into account persuasion and pleasure; another argues men should write bad poetry; a letter tries to make friendship about love; a five-paragraph essay tries to disarm heartbreak via analysis; etc. These poems/essays are hyperbolic attempts to write something adequate to a feeling. "In the Gorgias, Plato triangulates poetry and philosophy by inextricably linking the former to rhetoric: the art of persuasion, and the linguistic hinge between freedom and domination. But Plato’s foundational philosophical texts are themselves more poetic than they would like to admit, and Hamilton’s poems drop his philosophical tradition straight into the abyss: Platonic dialogues for our s