My Specific Awe and Wonder

Reuben Jackson's rhythmic and musical poems merge love, beauty, justice, and the lived Black experience in America.

My Specific Awe and Wonder is a collection of new and selected poems Jackson described as "a love letter to Vermont" with "all the potholes visible." Here are poems about his experience living in, loving, and leaving Vermont, alongside poems of his childhood, his DC neighborhood, his travels-both physical and metaphorical-and the Kelly Donaldson persona poems that tell it like it is. This collection, Jackson's third, includes poems that he called his "strongest, most evocative work." Jackson (1956-2024) left behind handwritten drafts and voicemails, which have been transcribed and compiled posthumously to keep his voice and legacy of poetry alive.

This collection includes an introduction by poet and activist LN Bethea, and a tribute poem by Rajnii Eddins, author of Their Names Are Mine.