The Rose by Reines, Ariana

Description

Author: Reines, ArianaOf specific Gay & Lesbian interestPublished on 2 April 2026 by Penguin Books Ltd (Penguin) in the United Kingdom.Paperback | 144 pages129 x 197 x 13 | 134g
The award-winning poet reckons with feminine archetypes, erotic love, and the shifting boundary between power and surrenderFury is very lustfulA body concealing its hearts desireHas a certain textureA tang or an edge if you willThat the openhearted cannot match& when exactly does the deceitfulHeart open? At climax.from The Hanged ManThe Rose navigates the intersection of power and surrender. Drawing on the history of romance as the troubadours knew it, and the titular flowers ancient allegories for sexuality and mystery, award-winning poet Ariana Reines plunges into feminine archetypes to explore masculine pain: I have always liked helpless / & terrible men because they break my mind. In these poems, inherited ideologies of gender performance are replaced with bold vulnerability: paradoxes of power and surrender transmute the speakers understanding of suffering, desire, and the soul.The voice in The Rose is wry and bare, approaching the connection between erotic love and spirituality with humour. Investigating war, maternity, violent sensuality, and the role of language in magical acts, Reines is unafraid to uncover the secret / & terrible shovelings / Of love, and the result is a bloody and pulsing, sexy and unabashed bloom.