Book

The Rose

Name: The Rose
ISBN: 9781644453346

Poems

Ariana Reines

Graywolf · Print & ebook · April 15, 2025

Reading lane: Love Poetry

In The Rose , award-winning poet Ariana Reines navigates the intersection of power and surrender.

Poetry About Death Love Poetry African American Poetry

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At a Glance

Why This Clicks

Desire and Surrender

These poems meet erotic love and spirituality with wryness, vulnerability, and a taste for paradox.

Come here for

Poems probing power, gender, desire, and the soul
A wry, bare voice with humor amid violent sensuality

Expect

Romance, feminine archetypes, and the flower’s ancient allegories
A restless interplay of suffering, surrender, and spiritual longing

Book Details

Authors: Ariana Reines
Publisher: Graywolf
Published: April 15, 2025
Format: Print & ebook
Theme: Love Poetry · Poetry About Death
Reading lane: Love Poetry

Affinity

Publisher Categories

American Poetry
LGBTQ+ Poetry
Love Poetry

About This Book

Read full description

In The Rose , award-winning poet Ariana Reines navigates the intersection of power and surrender. Drawing on the history of “romance” as the troubadours knew it and the titular flower’s ancient allegories for sexuality and mystery, 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 speaker’s 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 humor. 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.