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Not Normal Anymore
Innocence never goes quietly.
Sean Lionadh’s poem, Time for Love, was published online as a short film in 2018. Inspired by a homophobic encounter, the poem has since reached sixteen million people, pissed off an Archbishop, and inspired a growing movement called the Time for Love Project in America � one line ever made its way onto a strangers ankle in tattoo form.
The poem sits as part of this debut collection, alongside the TedX talk it inspired, and other poems that explore how innocence is abused, lost, grieved, and remembered in a world at war with what makes us who we really are.
Published by Speculative Books.
Sean Lionadh’s poem, Time for Love, was published online as a short film in 2018. Inspired by a homophobic encounter, the poem has since reached sixteen million people, pissed off an Archbishop, and inspired a growing movement called the Time for Love Project in America � one line ever made its way onto a strangers ankle in tattoo form.
The poem sits as part of this debut collection, alongside the TedX talk it inspired, and other poems that explore how innocence is abused, lost, grieved, and remembered in a world at war with what makes us who we really are.
Published by Speculative Books.
- GenresPoetry
90 pages, Paperback
Published August 20, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 27, 2020
The review is taken from my Instagram account: @descanto
What is it being normal? Why is it important to remain normal? What does it take to become normal?
Sean Lìonadh answers those question through his collection of queer poems "Not Normal Anymore." The book is divided into four parts: losing, lost, finding, and found. It comes to me that Sean wants to take his readers and to drag them into what he has been through through those divisions. He seems like telling the readers that he once was losing something and was lost. And at a certain point of his life, he was trying to find that back and in the end found it. The poems in those parts are relatable. In the Losing part, for instance, Sean starts with a boy who thinks that he is losing something because he somehow thinks that he is abnormal. It is probably like what our queer friends feel when they are questioning about their sexuality, "is it right? Am I normal?" Anyway his poems are open for interpretations. My favourite one is Living --- simple but meaningful to the heart... �
The poems are also beautifully written and illustrated. The poems are delivered in simple language that people can simply understand but are still classy. The readers can also relate themselves to every line in Sean's poems.
Sean to me is a poet to be reckoned with. He does not only try to unveil that 'normality,' is nothing but a social construction but his works are also worth reading.
What is it being normal? Why is it important to remain normal? What does it take to become normal?
Sean Lìonadh answers those question through his collection of queer poems "Not Normal Anymore." The book is divided into four parts: losing, lost, finding, and found. It comes to me that Sean wants to take his readers and to drag them into what he has been through through those divisions. He seems like telling the readers that he once was losing something and was lost. And at a certain point of his life, he was trying to find that back and in the end found it. The poems in those parts are relatable. In the Losing part, for instance, Sean starts with a boy who thinks that he is losing something because he somehow thinks that he is abnormal. It is probably like what our queer friends feel when they are questioning about their sexuality, "is it right? Am I normal?" Anyway his poems are open for interpretations. My favourite one is Living --- simple but meaningful to the heart... �
The poems are also beautifully written and illustrated. The poems are delivered in simple language that people can simply understand but are still classy. The readers can also relate themselves to every line in Sean's poems.
Sean to me is a poet to be reckoned with. He does not only try to unveil that 'normality,' is nothing but a social construction but his works are also worth reading.
September 28, 2019
The way Sean writes lets you know him and his experiences so intimately you'll think you're his friend, his confidant, his companion, his lover. A truly unique and powerful voice that I look up to. A debut I hold dear to my heart.
May 20, 2020
“So I will be hungry, dirty, empty cupboards, and dead / (And happy)�, Sean Lìonadh writes in his poem ‘Living�. So the question is this: did I cry through the day when I read Sean’s book Not Normal Anymore because it’s magnificent, a debut collection brimming with such tender and honest and artfully composed poems, queer and incendiary in their righteousness, or because I read it with the the new Nick Cave album Ghosteen playing in the background? Of course the answer is both: Nick Cave has made a devastatingly beautiful album, human and searching, and Sean Lìonadh has made a book more-than-deserving of such a gorgeous soundtracking. I’d heard ‘Time For Love� which is included in the collection (and I’d seen the stunning BBC The Social video), and I’d read a couple of his poems on Instagram and loved each one, but still I wasn’t prepared for the rest of the poems in this collection, nor the text of his TedX talk on gay shame, in which he writes “For me / Love always came hand in hand with / A shout or a relapse or a darkness / At the border / There love is / A bridge that should feel to the foot / Like old safe stone / But in shame’s shoes, it’s a step into the unknown / I never trusted it / I took other routes.� I guess what I loved most about reading this small and powerful book is how it articulated so much of the gay experience that only ever percolates in the back of the mind; but Lìonadh is unafraid of the dark places. Ultimately, unexpectedly, it was a poem not directly (or at least not overtly) about the gay experience that resonated most deeply: ‘On the First Night of the Hike�, where a passing encounter with a trapped sheep, “The loneliest creature I have ever seen�, starts to take on a transformative significance. “In the end / I think the trap was so brutal / Because it had done it to itself� � the image is aching and haunting, as much for the poet as for his future reader. So read Not Normal Anymore, because Sean Lìonadh is a poet we’ll be reading more from in times to come.
May 20, 2020
It's been a while since I've had so many goosebumps prickle when reading a book. It's shocking and soothing, refreshing, insightful, surprising and funny. The confessional poems proved to me that when a soul expresses oneself in all it's nuances and darkness, it speaks to many-as they are an interesting portrayal of what it means to be both a gay man in Britain, but also a human.
The contradictory pull towards self care and self destruction, cold detachment and burning obsession are captured in images that comfort, arrest and haunt like an old church hymn. The poems explore in an interesting and personal way themes of privilege, parenthood, shame, faith, beauty, and freedom, to name a few.
I was brought to Sean Lionadh's book through his music and I loved reading it, I know it'll stay with me for a long time. If you have a refined ear for poetry, or just a heart- you won't regret reading this book either.
The contradictory pull towards self care and self destruction, cold detachment and burning obsession are captured in images that comfort, arrest and haunt like an old church hymn. The poems explore in an interesting and personal way themes of privilege, parenthood, shame, faith, beauty, and freedom, to name a few.
I was brought to Sean Lionadh's book through his music and I loved reading it, I know it'll stay with me for a long time. If you have a refined ear for poetry, or just a heart- you won't regret reading this book either.
August 25, 2020
This man is more than a pleasant poet, or a fine wordsmith; he is easily the most talented young poet of our generation. Sean shares his soul in these carefully chosen words and imaginatively structured lines, and in doing so creates an authentic experience for the reader. Nerves will be touched, emotions sparked, thoughts provoked. You will pick this book up again and again with fervor. Astounding work. Beguiling from start to finish. A must read!
May 20, 2020
Amazing, very emotional and written by a very talented writer
June 1, 2021
i <3 sean
such a beautiful poet, although some are lowk a little too much rupi kaur for me, still an emotional read :,)
such a beautiful poet, although some are lowk a little too much rupi kaur for me, still an emotional read :,)
August 20, 2019
Simply stunning. Lionadh is a poetical force to be reckoned with. He shows so much insight and wisdom for someone of only 21 years. The book includes the poem Time for Love which had a powerful impact globally. His poems stay with you long after you have read them and each time you do, you see something you didn't the first time round. A natural born poet with his own distinct style.
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