Roget's Illusion by Linda Bierds

Roget's Illusion by Linda Bierds

Bierds finds inspiration in the work and notes of Peter Mark Roget, most known for his expansive thesaurus.

The poems in this collection emulate Roget through not only direct quotes but what feels, from Bierd, a personal connection with the man. Ponderous and curious, the poems bring to mind images of their creator hunching in the dark, writing by candlelight, brow furrowed lightly.

The sloping language and careful attention to meter, spacing, line breaks, stanza breaks, and pacing create a mood calm and intense all at once.

The poems are sectioned into four sections,  each beginning with a poem called Roget's Illusion, followed by its respective number in the series.

The collection is concerned with what lies beneath the surface of words, of ideas, and how we make meaning from both, using one to inform the other and vice versa. 

Post Subject: A Fable by Oliver de la Paz

These DEAR EMPIRE poems explore the ever-growing mechanism of empire. Each poem is addressed to the empire and begins with the phrase "These are your [blank]..." creating a shape to the free-wheeling witnessing of the empires reach.

From the publisher: https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/uapress_publications/188/
Poems: https://poets.org/poem/dear-empire-these-are-your-temples
http://www.versedaily.org/2010/dearempire.shtml
https://therumpus.net/2011/04/national-poetry-month-day-12-dear-empire-by-oliver-de-la-paz/

First Hand by Linda Bierds

First Hand by Lind Bierds is a series of connected poems that tell a story of scientific and historical facts and achievements over the centuries. Her poems include characters such as Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton, and Gregor Mendel. The collection has three parts, along with a prologue and epilogue. A few poems are written in italics. 

Buy: 

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/295774/first-hand-by-linda-bierds/9781440627576/

Review:

https://www.valpo.edu/vpr/byrnereviewbierds.html

https://blackbird.vcu.edu/v4n2/nonfiction/williams_ss/bierds.htm

Irradiated Cities by Mariko Nagai

Irradiated Cities by Mariko Nagai is a collection of prose poems and photographs about the destruction of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Fukushima by nuclear weapons. The long prose poems are comprised largely of fragments of narrative, research and voices of the victims. The dialogue is sometimes in italics, but not always, and not always specified where it has originated, either from documents, conversations and interviews or the imagination of the poet. The collection traces the impact of the bombing and resultant radiation on the area, surrounding areas, on its people and infrastructure over time (from the bombing through the present) through medical documents, scientific reports, personal testimony, interviews, personal experience of the poet, news articles and other avenues. Notes for the poems are found between the collection’s sections.

purchase: https://lesfigues.com/book/irradiated-cities/

reviews: http://losangelesreview.org/review-irradiated-cities-mariko-nagai/

https://newfound.org/archives/volume-9/issue-1/reviews-irradiated-cities/

the author’s website: https://www.mariko-nagai.com/

The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart by Gabrielle Calvocoressi

The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart by Gabrielle Calvocoressi is a collection of poems about spectacle and disappearance largely in rural American life (specifically mining and factory towns), and, sometimes, the queerness in these spaces. The collection begins with a series of persona poems about the last time individuals from her town, her life, and her team saw Amelia Earhart. The speakers include Earhart’s husband, a housewife, a school teacher, a flight mechanic, and bystanders. Another series of poems is threaded throughout the collection, “From the Adult Drive-in”, are also persona poems written in the voices of the various viewers of the adult films, many of them including lesbian encounters between actors. There are a series of poems about a “Circus Fire, 1944” including poems in the voices of attendees, workers, performers, the coroner, an abandoned child and even the arsonist himself. The collection interrupts itself, here, with the poem “Backdrop” in which the poet claims that all of these things “never existed” – not the town, the fire, the films, even parts of the speaker themselves. The book closes with a series of poems about the death of Margaret Fuller, a 19^th Century feminist scholar and transcendentalist, who was lost in a shipwreck off the coast of New York – her body and the body of her husband were never recovered. There are no notes on the research for the collection, but most of the poems are titled using the names of their speakers and dates and locations are often provided as well.

Purchase: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780892553150

Read poems from the book here: https://www.theparisreview.org/poetry/462/circus-fire-1944-gabrielle-calvocoressi

and here: http://www.meetmein811.org/2007/04/poem-a-day-april-27-some-distant-trembling-warmth

the author's website: http://gabriellecalvocoressi.com/

Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York

Buffalo Dance is a collection of poems by Frank X Walker about the experiences of York as a slave and his journey to freedom. 

You can buy the book here:

https://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-Dance-Journey-Kentucky-Voices/dp/0813190886

author's website here:

http://www.frankxwalker.com/

faculty page listing his "artist statement"

https://english.as.uky.edu/users/fxw2

Names Above Houses by Oliver de la Paz

In Names Above Houses by Oliver de la Paz, we are introduced to Fidelito, a Filipino boy and his family.  The book explores the experience of a Filipino family moving to San Francisco and the obstacles they must face.  It is told mostly in prose poems with magical realism.  The poems feel like fairy tales, intertwining animals, faith, myths, cultures and religions to show us the view point of a child and a difficult thing.  Fidelito is obsessed with flying, symbolized by wings on his back (real or imagined), airplanes, and his constant obsession with the sky. 

You can learn more about the poet here: https://www.oliverdelapaz.com/

buy it here: https://www.amazon.com/Names-Above-Houses-Orchard-Poetry/dp/0809323826

and read more here: http://www.fishousepoems.org/school-years/
and here: http://www.fishousepoems.org/fidelito-takes-flight-up-a-ladder/

Dangerous Goods by Sean Hill

Dangerous Goods by Sean Hill explores distances, migration (both of people and of animals and plants), and relationship through generally free verse poems. Through discussing location, ontology, and place, he writes too about memory. "my brother's twenty-five-year-old body startled me...I didn't recognize him since I hadn't watched/him the way I do the ground (always/a window seat, so I can see how far/we'll fall" (23).

Particularly instructive is how Sean Hill incorporates his research into his poems. Many poems are dedicated to, mention, or are based on historical figures. He also uses footnotes, which are oftentimes just as long, and as beautiful, as the poems themselves.

Brother to Dragons by Robert Penn Warren

Robert Penn Warren's Brother to Dragons: A Tale in Verse and Voices is a republishing of the original version from 26 years prior. This book, a singular, long-form poem, is concerned with the brutal murder of a slave by Thomas Jefferson's nephews, and the poems are formed through "dialogue spoken by [relevant] characters, but it is not a play." These characters, long dead, meet in 'no place' at 'any time', and their interactions forms the basis of the collection.

In crafting this piece, Warren and his historically-based characters aim to examine the murder and the situations both surrounding and resulting from it; and, in doing so, engage with themes of race, violence, innocence, and the blood that too often results from democracy.  The poem "brings not only reconciliation among the ghostly figures but healing for Warren’s persona as well."

The long-form narrative poem is broken up into Roman-numerically numbered sections. Much like a screenplay (with no stage movement) the text is entirely composed of character tags with dialogue.

After the poem, in a section entitled "Notes," Warren moves through his piece page-by-page and addresses changes from the first draft, historical context, and his own sources.

Buy the book here:
https://lsupress.org/books/detail/brother-to-dragons/
https://www.amazon.com/Brother-Dragons-Verse-Voices-South/dp/0807121231

Robert Penn Warren's website:
https://www.robertpennwarren.com/

Leadbelly by Tyehimba Jess

leadbelly written by Tyehimba Jess is a collection of poems inspired by the life and music of folk and blues artist Huddie William Ledbetter.  The book title is taken from Ledbetter's stage name.  Jess used historical documents, Leadbelly's recorded songs and lyrics, several biographies, and his own genius imagination to craft the poems found in his book.

Taken from Wikipedia: Huddie William Ledbetter (/ˈhjuːdi/; January 20, 1888 – December 6, 1949) better known as stage name Lead Belly was an American folk and blues singer, musician and songwriter notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the folk standards he introduced.



The poem, for trouble's sake, is one of my favorite's because of it's grittiness and poetic charm. While I don't know if the character thought of himself in this way in real life, giving the life circumstances he had, I can empathize with him if he did.

Another favorite, because of the raw emotion behind it.  I'm thinking, it took much courage for a Black man to even think he could initiate a conversation with a White politician in such volatile times, let alone write to one.

The book contains a notes page, Leadbelly's life timeline, a reference page, as well as an acknowledgments page.

This book can be purchased on Amazon for $11.10
https://www.amazon.com/leadbelly-National-Poetry-Tyehimba-Jess/dp/0974635332/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=9780974635330&qid=1568395604&sr=8-1