Praise for Jelly Roll

I feel it is a rarity for poets to allow themselves to play linguistically with their poems, or maybe just play in general. So many poets take themselves and their work so seriously, somehow along the line their poems become a monotonous, intelligent whine. This is not, in any way, the case for Kevin Young's Jelly Roll. The collection of poems dance from page to page with simple colloquial language, effortless rhymes and tight lines. Jazz and blues rings out of each stanza, inciting one to desire to sing the poem while reading aloud.

Some reviewers of Jelly Roll have compared Young to the great Langston Hughes, while aesthetically their work doesn't seem to be alike, the musical prosody is much the same. The word choice, topics and internal rhymes of the poems are alive, youthful, sexy and exciting: "Gimme some fruit, baby/ Gimme some fru-uit/Something red/ & juicy I can sink/ these teeths into." Young's intelligence is seen in his ability to take language and break it down for the poems benefit, as poet he is not worried about what one may think of him, he cares about the music of the picture he is creating. He brings the sounds of the south alive with images and rhymes, " Who can stand/ spring? The weeping/ willows drooping/ The azaleas bright". This collection is a very important collection for young poets to read, to remember that though it may be 'easier' to take yourself seriously in your writing, it could be brilliant to break your language down and remember how to play.

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The Wild Iris

In terms of who I am indebted to as a poet, Luise Gluck just recently made the list. Her book of poetry The Wild Iris is one of the most brilliant collections I have read in a long time. I will be honest, the fact that I am whole heartedly obsessed with gardening may play into it. It is a desire of mine to one day live on a self sustaining commune, family only please apply, and no secret that gardening appears in most of my poetry. After I read Wild Iris, I had one of those 'Why didn't I think of that!?" moments.

The poems are in the voice of different flowers through out the garden, Gluck gives the flowers human thoughts that are explored through the flowers different attributes. In the poem The Wild Iris, the iris is a flower which blooms a part of the year, once it dies it's bulb lies dormant till the next blooming season, " Then it was over: that which you fear, being/ a soul and unable/ to speak, ending abruptly, the stiff earth/ bending a little." This flower lays underground, dormant while listening to life happen above it, as it is 'buried alive.' As Rilke explores death through angels and humans mortality, Gluck explores death through the rebirth of a flower. I am indebted to Gluck for letting my garden have a voice in my poetry, it is a conversation that will have life in my work. "Time to rest now; you have had/ enough excitement for the time being", the voice of the flowers is that of a wise sage, teaching humanity to be present and teaching poets to give the small things life.

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Howl- To See With the Eyes of the Angels

In William Carlos Williams introduction to Allen Ginesbergs Howl he says, "Poets are damned by they are not blind, they see with the eyes of the angels. This poet [Ginsberg] sees through and all around the horrors he partakes of in the very intimate details of his poem. He avoids nothing but experiences it to the hilt." If Howl by Allen Ginsberg is anything, it is alive. It's language, prosody and choice of words make the poem, as the title suggest, howl out to the world demanding it's presence be known.

"I'm with you in Rockland/ where we are great typewriters on the same dreadful typewriter." In the third section of howl, the poem becomes a loud chant. Begging for everything, specifically nothing and demanding understanding. The form of the entire poem is written as a rant, which many mistake for lack of attention to detail. However, the poem specifically breaks and rhymes, it has it's own form which was not developed within the first draft. This can be seen in compilations where Ginsberg's drafts are put back to back, he created the form to justify and blend with the content.

The poem is a complete commitment to detail, though the content is vast every idea introduced is specific and true; " who cut their wrists three times successfully unsuccess-/ fully, have up and were forced to open antique stores where they thought they were growings old and cried". The poem may be a howl, a rant, a cry for 'the best minds of a generation' but as an artist the poem reads a testament to the turmoil of artists in society. For the madness one must endure to give duende, life to creative works, for how an artist must go against the grain of the norm only to be called mad in order to give life to poems/sculptures/stage characters/novels/etc.

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The mastery of Rainer Maria Rilke

"For there are moments when something new has entered into us, something unknown; our feelings grow mute in shy perplexity, and everything in us withdraws, a stillness comes, and the new which no one knows, stands in the midst of it and is silent." Rainer Maria Rilke said this to a 'young poet' in his eighth letter of Letters to a Young Poet. The irony and genius behind this statement, is that most young poets feel this way when they read their first translated version of Duino Elegies by Rilke.

In the series of ten elegies that Rilke wrote in Castle Duino, he explored something unknown and extremely perplex: "to sing/ to the secret and wicked river-god of our blood!" To be completely honest, though it may hurt my scholarly pride, I cannot say I completely understand what the elegies are about, what they mean as a cohesive whole. This, however, is the magic of the elegies. The mystery of how they are strung together keeps me coming back over and over to revisit the elegies.

I have yet to find a poem that makes me question the finite abilities within humanity the elegies do, "In the fullest flower we know our withering;/ yet somewhere still the lions walk and in/ their proud prime know themselves invincible." The philosophical journey of the elegies is one that every writer should take; what is the purpose of humanity, why are humans the only animal who can reason and relate all the while being fully aware of death? These ideas are only brought to life through images and musical prosody in Duino Elegies, which makes Rilke's poetry beyond brilliant.

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