{"product_id":"the-opposite-of-cruelty-poems-9781958888346","title":"The Opposite of Cruelty: Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSteven Leyva's second collection of poetry renders beauty through a Black man's lens in a post-pandemic world populated with superheroes and characters from ancient mythology.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Opposite of Cruelty\u003c\/i\u003e, Steven Leyva's poems ask readers to see and remember beauty when the world seems to be in ruins, to notice and praise \"the industrious cherry \/\/ trees budding despite a summer \/ full of bullets to come.\" For Leyva, beauty can be found in lineage and memory, in the heroes of the comics and TV shows he watched as a boy, in taking his children to the movies to see an Afro-Latino Spider-man on the big screen, and in doing so passing down that beauty, those means of survival. In these sonnets and urban pastorals you'll find Selena, UGK and Outkast, Storm, Static, and Batman, as well as Sisyphus, Medusa, Perseus, and Grendel. This weaving of modern culture and the ancient world calls attention to our need for stories, how heroes and villains take up residence inside us, how important it is to see one's self represented in art and film. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book does not look away from life's hard and cruel moments, it simply dares to ask \"What is the opposite of cruelty?\" The answers: The beauty of a Black boy in his school picture, the beauty of one man's hand touching another man's face at the barber, the beauty of a family home or a memory of what it once was, \"not a season of phantasmal peace, but what's left \/ when the world's terrors retreat.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Steven Leyva\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Blair\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/04\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 84\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.74h x 6.77w x 0.16d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781958888346\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSteven Leyva\u003c\/b\u003e was born in New Orleans and raised in Houston, Texas. He is a Cave Canem fellow and author of \u003ci\u003eLow Parish\u003c\/i\u003e (a chapbook) and the collection \u003ci\u003eThe Understudy's Handbook\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize. Steven holds an MFA from the University of Baltimore, where he is an associate professor in the Klein Family School of Communications Design.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"booksdeli.com","offers":[{"title":"Steven Leyva \/ Paperback \/ English","offer_id":47699064455325,"sku":"9781958888346","price":35.9,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0619\/5648\/9373\/files\/img_8c628582-505a-4298-8398-fe2313e5c40a.jpg?v=1772697369","url":"https:\/\/booksdeli.com\/products\/the-opposite-of-cruelty-poems-9781958888346","provider":"booksdeli.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}