Boneshaker (Pitt Poetry Series (Paper))

Rating:
Summary: Raw Work
Review: A raw, true, fierce book of poems. This is daily life shown for all its possible visceral pain, minimally digested to preserve its immediacy and beauty. One doesn't just admire Beatty's poetry but how she has survived her life. She maintains the complexity of a situation as well as the raging pitch or surprise it has left with her. In "Poetry Workshop at the Homeless Shelter" for example: "So I'm the white teacher reading/some Etheridge Knight poems to the four/residents who showed: For Black Poets/Who Think of Suicide -- thinking these guys have seen it all and want/something hard-core, when a blackman/named Tyrone raises his hand: These poems offend me./They do? I say. Yes, I was raised/not to curse, and I don't see why/a poem has to use those words. What poems do you like?/ Langston Hughes./Yeah, someone else says, Jean Toomer, man. Tyrone says, Let's talk about calculating a poem./Pardon me, I say --/You know......Tyrone draws this two-dimensional/image of this three-dimensional grid, based/on numerology, he says, in which each letter/of the alphabet corresponds to a number. Look it's like you start with a 13, 25, then got o a 8,5,1,18,20 -- that's the start of my first line: "My heart opens to the new world" --See? I am stunned by it all -- strange genius/or just strange?..." From "Dear Mother, Machine,": dear keeper, dear appliance/ I went looking for your house today,/ the mother womb, for barren ones,/ where they make the ones like you. I always knew your eyes were buttons, the gleam not human, a patch/ crosshatch of light in the pupil, A young girl could surely get lost in there/never heard from again/never heard." There are many more raw moments than what I've presented here. Teachers: This is a book that would get an intro class' attention and from which they learn about bravery and passionate subject, as well as form, arrangement, voice, and innovation.

Rating:
Summary: Gets under the skin
Review: An unfliching book of poetry. Jan Beatty captures the voice over playing in her head, the thoughts behind what is actually spoken. Poems about her Father brought me to tears. They are a tribute to a blue collar man and the love he shared with his Daughter. A must read for poetry fans or anyone interested in living honest and true. These poems haunt me. They follow me around. They have given me another perspective on living in my body and looking at the world. I could go on and on instead I will just say READ THE BOOK