Poets Should NOT Write About Politics
- ISBN-10
- 1937347648
- ISBN-13
- 9781937347642
- Category
- Poetry
- Pages
- 68
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2021-06-01
- Publisher
- Evening Street Press
- Author
- Jerry T Johnson
Description
The Sinclair Poetry Prize for 2020 Jerry Johnson’s new book, Poets Should Not Write about Politics, immediately undermines its title in seemingly innocent poems about daisies, bison, and kittens that hit hard in their love for America and their rage against her injustices. Musicality and rhythm reinforce this message in these poems, as in the poem “Trains” where they ground a voice that aches for a different world, even as it honors the beauties of this one: “…we find night has taken the helm/the crescendo climbs, the stars overcome the darkness/i overcome the darkness, my grief, the darkness of my soul/ and my train moves on and on and my train moves on and on.” This is a collection of longing and hope and passion. -- Laurel S. Peterson Poet Laureate, Norwalk, CT, 2016-2019 Professor, English, Norwalk Community College We land in this world, travel, leave, and yet, as Jerry T. Johnson examines in this engrossing collection, we cannot leave history behind. Through deft storytelling, he highlights the past and future and how art needs to move beyond pleasantries. The Jim Crow signs may fade, but the danger remains current. A thought-provoking and highly enjoyable book. -- Jane Ormerod, writer and editor, great weather for MEDIA In Poets Should Not Write About Politics, Jerry T. Johnson proves in the opening poem, and many of the poems that follow, exactly why poets need to write about politics. While many of the poems focus on politics in the broader sense of the word, in a gifted and challenging way, my favorite poems, including A Song Of Remembrance For Mama and I Dare Not Divulge, marry the personal with the political, in a way that's deeply impactful and will linger with me for a long time. Yet there is joy here too, and laughter, a sharp turn of phrase surprising it out of me at unexpected times.'-- Caitlan Jans, Editor of Authors Publish Literary Magazine
Get the book
Similar books
-
Penguin's Poems for Life
By Laura Barber... Or if the secret ministry of frost Shall hang them up in silent icicles, ... A Noiseless Patient Spider A noiseless patient spider, I mark'd where on a ...
-
Penguin's Poems by Heart
By Laura BarberAn anthology of some of the best English poems.
-
Scales of the Dragon
By James TimberlakeCombining journal entries, poetry and formal e-mails, these books celebrate the sights, sounds, flavors, (and the physical and mental strain), of crossing mountains, rolling landscapes, and unchanged rural villages, as well as vibrant ...
-
Upon This Stoney Holy Year
By James TimberlakeThere are no Formal E-mails, no Definitions, no Autobiography or Research here. And because of all that it is not, this book completes those first two in the pilgrimage series in a gentle way.
-
Heaven Is My Real Home: Volume 1
By Karen FreemanKaren Freeman! Was born August 22, 1950 in Newark New Jersey. She had a “BRIGHT” daughter named Kira. She Married Warren W. C. Freeman March 1, 1998. They were married for 13 years and 20 days. She “PASSED-ON” March 21, 2011.
-
Battle Dress: Poems
By Karen SkolfieldWinner of the Massachusetts Book Award "A terrific and sometimes terrifying collection—morally complex, rhythmic, tough-minded, and original." —Rosanna Warren, 2018 Barnard Women Poets Prize citation In a poetic voice at once accessible ...
-
Glossator 9: Pearl
By Karl Steel, David Coley, Daniel RemeinO. D. Macrae Gibson points out that the function of pyȝt as a concatenating word stresses its capacity to mean both arrayed and set.8 Gordon glosses the word as varying in sense throughout the poem between “set,” “fixed,” and “adorned” ...
-
The Truth
By Karen Michelle ThompsonThis riveting poetry collection is a fresh and witty account of thoughts and experiences that everyday people have in their day-to-day lives.
-
Heart on Fire
By Karen Teich ClusterSELL. IT. SOMEWHERE. ELSE. Well, you can take your good looks somewhere else Cuz they're not for sale 'round here... I've heard about you and the things you do And I don't need you anywhere near. Yeah, I've met your kind a time or two ...
-
Lerna, a Preclassical Site in the Argolid: Results of Excavations Conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens
By American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Jeremy B. Rutter, Elizabeth BanksI was indeed fortunate in being able to recruit a pair of talented , conscientious , and unfailingly cheerful draftsmen in the persons of Julie Baker and Kathi Donahue ( now Sherwood ) to collaborate with my wife , Sally , in producing ...