{"id":1700,"date":"2025-01-17T15:38:48","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T15:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/goldlinepress\/?page_id=1700"},"modified":"2025-01-17T15:40:27","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T15:40:27","slug":"boy-with-flowers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/goldlinepress\/boy-with-flowers\/","title":{"rendered":"BOY WITH FLOWERS IN HIS MOUTH"},"content":{"rendered":" \n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n by Phillip Watts Brown\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n \n
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\n ADD TO CART<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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ISBN 978-1-938900-56-3
\nRelease Date: Winter 2025
\nPerfect-bound, 68 pages, 5.3″x7″
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SYNOPSIS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Boy with Flowers in His Mouth<\/em> witnesses a gay identity unfurling: from the earliest stirrings of desire through the tangles of young romantic relationships and, eventually, marriage. The speaker journeys from Utah to Oregon to California, from adolescence to adulthood, from the rigidity of religion to a softer spirituality. A garden growing both flowers and weeds, this collection contains moments of joy and pleasure complicated by sorrow and shame. Weaving in references to art and photography, the collection demonstrates a sensitivity to symbolism, beauty, and light that infuses the writing, reminiscent of Mark Doty and Richie Hofmann. \u201cShame unfurls in the silence\u201d in the first poem, but blooms into a reflective voice\u2014a poet more sure of himself in the present, now tending to the boy he used to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\u201cIt\u2019s slow work, unlearning paralysis.\u201d And this slow work unfolds with gorgeous precision across Phillip Watts Brown\u2019s Boy with Flowers in His Mouth<\/em>. A story of queer desire told in intimate couplets, this focused collection charts a path from repressive religions and masculinities toward a gentle blooming, a liberated love. These poems move like a held breath and sigh, quiet devastation giving way to wisdom \u2014 \u201cnot how I imagined heaven, \/ but any freedom to breathe is paradise.\u201d Brown writes with a startling sensitivity, the smallest moments rich with meaning, and readers will leave this taut and aching work more attuned to their own tenderness.<\/p>\n

\u2014Kemi Alabi, author of Against Heaven<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n

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Phillip Watts Brown is a poet and artist. After earning a BA in graphic design from Brigham Young University, he earned an MFA in poetry from Oregon State University. His work has appeared in literary journals and anthologies, including Ninth Letter<\/em>, The Common<\/em>, Ruminate<\/em>, Nimrod<\/em>, Tahoma Literary Review<\/em>, and others. Phillip lives with his husband in northern Utah where he works as a graphic designer. He is also a poetry editor for the online literary journal Halfway Down the Stairs<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n

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