I want to think that God smiles
when a black woman is brave enough
to love herself.

I don't say this lightly when I say that soft magic. is my favorite collection of poetry I have read in years. It is powerful, and brave, and loving, and comforting, and flawless. I want to paper my walls with every page of this collection. There's nothing I can even say that Upile Chisala couldn't say a million times better, so instead of reviewing this, I'm just going to leave you with a few of my favorite poems and let them speak for themselves:

Little boys with sunshine in their giggles are being
mistaken for men
Because their bodies were built like those
of warriors.

—

If no one has called you brave lately, I will.
You are fighting sadness with everything you've
got and for that you are mighty.

—

Beloved,
gather up all the hurt in your body
and tell it how you weren't meant for broken.

All quotes come from an advance copy and may not match the final release. Thank you so much to Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!