[Book Review] Outliving Michael by Steven Reigns

Outliving Michael by Steven Reigns

Review by Maria Duarte

               Steven Reigns’s Outliving Michael is not just a collection of poems commemorating his friendship with Michael but also a fragmentated storyline of Michael’s life. Throughout the poems fragments of Michael’s personality can be seen by the reader which is not only getting Reigns’s perspective of Michael but also Michael’s way of living.

               The images on the poems are clear and concrete and give the book a very fluid rhythm, helping the reader to keep flipping pages until the end. By the time the book is finished, the reader has a very concise image of Michael. Steven is able to transmit the love felt through the various moments shared with Michael. For example, when Steven met Michael: “He tugged on the side of his wig/ until it slid off his bald head,/ leaving a face full of makeup and two double pearl drop earrings./ Even intoxicated, his wit was quick.” “That night, I knew I wanted to spend every moment I could with him./ I had found my queen.”

               This book is a manifestation of friendship, love, and most importantly, it shares a story of how we grieve someone that we love; in this book time allows us to appreciate living.