News at Eleven: [Chris] Abani continually wonders,

"What can happen to all this hate?/Where do I bury it?/To exit is the first stage of enlightenment."

To reach that exit, the music of Sanctificum deserves emphasis, for it restores much joy. Abani's use of Igbo, a tonal language that seems to defy poetry on the page, stuns with its clarity and jazz lines. The simple word holy, so much lovelier than its Latin counterpart, supplies rest at the end of demanding sections, as in "Dew": "Holy the glow./Holy the O./Holy the old. Amen."

Like music, humor offers relief.

from The Philadelphia Inquirer: Poetry of cruelty and love

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