MACNOLIA: Poems

Rating:
Summary: Unique Poety
Review: I am thoroughly impressed that a book of poetry so succinctly captures the life of one person. A. Van Johnson tells the story of 13-year-old MacNolia Cox, the first African American finalist in the National Spelling Bee. Unfortunately MacNolia didn't win; she was given a word not on the official list and this left her profoundly wounded. So much so, that through these poems, one can experience the pain she suffers for 40 years after the contest.

The poems chronicle her life and explore the fact of how her dreams were predicated on and dashed over because of this traumatic event in her life. She had hopes of becoming a doctor, but seemed to have lost her desire after losing the contest. She married a man named John and seemed to exist in obscurity. Her son went to Vietnam but was killed in service so another wound was delivered to MacNolia. She was best described at one point as "The almost national spelling bee champion, almost a doctor, wife, mother, grandmother and the best maid in town." What a wide-ranging description.

Various types and meter of poetry are included in this book. The combination of these varied kinds in a story is notable and remarkable. I would like to read more works of poetry of this caliber in the future.


Rating:
Summary: Really imaginative book
Review: I really liked this book of poems for its imagination, its lyrical intensity, and its daring strategy of mixing so many different forms, levels of intensity, into one major book. This book takes a lot of risks in its writing and tells a tremendously interesting and sad story, but there is hope in the end that this story is told.

Rating:
Summary: Unique book of poetry...
Review: M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A is the story of MacNolia Cox, the first African-American to compete in a national spelling competition. Due to the racial injustice of her time, the judges used a word not on the official list and as a result she lost the competition. Although M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A is a collection of poetry, it is difficult to categorize it strictly as such because it is so much more. This poetic presentation is a history lesson, a documentary, a love story and a tragedy, all in one.

M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A is a very uniquely written book of poetry. It is the first story that I have read in the form of poetry and A. Van Jordan has captured her compelling story with great lyricism. Words alone can not describe the reading experience. This story and the poet's words moved me in unspeakable ways.

Reviewed by Aiesha Flowers
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Rating:
Summary: Unique book of poetry...
Review: M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A is the story of MacNolia Cox, the first African-American to compete in a national spelling competition. Due to the racial injustice of her time, the judges used a word not on the official list and as a result she lost the competition. Although M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A is a collection of poetry, it is difficult to categorize it strictly as such because it is so much more. This poetic presentation is a history lesson, a documentary, a love story and a tragedy, all in one.

M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A is a very uniquely written book of poetry. It is the first story that I have read in the form of poetry and A. Van Jordan has captured her compelling story with great lyricism. Words alone can not describe the reading experience. This story and the poet's words moved me in unspeakable ways.

Reviewed by Aiesha Flowers
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Rating:
Summary: passive
Review: yeats' advice to beware of poetry of "passive suffering" rings true with the (feigned) sentiments of this sophomoric effort. whereas Rita Dove's Thomas & Beulah derived from familial grounds, Van Jordan's hodgepodge hangs on its purported subject by a thin thread--unsure of it's direction and executed with a lackluster hand.

Rating:
Summary: Really imaginative book
Review: yeats' advice to beware of poetry of "passive suffering" rings true with the (feigned) sentiments of this sophomoric effort. whereas Rita Dove's Thomas & Beulah derived from familial grounds, Van Jordan's hodgepodge hangs on its purported subject by a thin thread--unsure of it's direction and executed with a lackluster hand.