Synopses & Reviews
In this wide-ranging collection of lyrics, dealing with such themes as family, love, racism, and war, E. Ethelbert Miller sets his scenes against the backdrop of the stark realities of contemporary life, here and abroad. As both his love poems and political poems attest, Miller believes with full faith in the transformative powers of love and understanding. His poems on friendship and love are tender, often whimsical. His political poems are evenhanded and compassionate.
As Anastasios Kozaitis comments in his introduction, "Miller's poems side with hope, love and humanity. Despite his calls for prayer, Miller avoids metaphysics; he is a love poet among natural objects-a wet towel, a tube of toothpaste, a comb, a bathroom faucet, a bridge, a hat, a steering wheel and some lost keys. Like the poet, his muses also do not relent. All nine sisters put in their time. The reader will find epic topics, historical allusions, musical references, love poems, Katharine Dunham and dance, tragic consequences of human behavior, life's comedies, songs of Bird, and even astronomical observations."
"On nights when we don't make love, it might be helpful to have some of E. Ethelbert Miller's alluring and captivating poems nearby. As intimate as they are seductive, come to think of it, they should be just as enticing, even on nights when we do make love."-Edwidge Danticat, author of Breath, Eyes, Memory
E. Ethelbert Miller was born in New York City in 1950. Author of eight collections of poetry, he is the founder and director of the Ascension Poetry Reading Series and the director of the African American Resource Center at Howard University.
Review
"On nights when we don't make love, it might be helpful to have some of E. Ethelbert Miller's alluring and captivating poems nearby. As intimate as they are seductive, come to think of it, they should be just as enticing, even on nights when we do make love."-Edwidge Danticat, author of Breath, Eyes, Memory
Review
"E. Ethelbert Miller has always been a Gandhi in our national literary world, and here his poetry matures at that bloody and bluesy crossroads where all his earlier poems spent their youth, their lives: love and poltiics. These poems move like the movies and are moving, in their exacting emotional turns. They are also a great retrieval for the poetry of voice."
—Liam Rector, author of American Prodigal
Synopsis
In this wide-ranging collection of lyrics, dealing with such themes as family, love, racism, and war, E. Ethelbert Miller sets his scenes against the backdrop of the stark realities of contemporary life, here and abroad. As both his love poems and political poems attest, Miller believes with full faith in the transformative powers of love and understanding. His poems on friendship and love are tender, often whimsical. His political poems are evenhanded and compassionate.
About the Author
E. Ethelbert Miller was born in New York City in 1950. Author of eight collections of poetry, he is the founder and director of the Ascension Poetry Reading Series and the director of the African American Resource Center at Howard University.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Salat
Untitled
Morning Raga
Hi J
May 26, 2002
A Portrait in Nine Lives
A Portrait of Yes in Fourteen Lines
Kiss
Bridge
What Does the E Stand for?
Car Problems
Toothpaste
Waves
Honey
Bloom
Waco, Texas
The Seduction of Light
Diva
XandO
Four Lines
Victoria Sitting in the Usdan Gallery
Las Cruces
Memory Loss
Drummers?
Space Is the Place
See
Rosa Parks dreams
Honey & Watermelons
Speechless in September
Nails
A Middle Class Algerian Woman in Paris Talks about Fashion
Throwing Stones at the Porno Star
Song for an Angel
Malik
Freedom Candy
Sister Sheba, Omar & Me
Omar and the Baby Yona
The Equator
Looking for Omar
The Cathedral of Saint Matthew
Rebecca lets down her hair
Rebecca hides her scar
Dreaming about Katherine Dunham
Bud
In A Silent Way
New York: St. Vincent's Hospital
14th Street Station
Barnes & Noble
La La La
It Must Be Lester Young
All that could go wrong
Geography
Midnight Caller
Fishing
Liberia Fever, 1877
Anna Murray Douglass
Nothing But A Man
Crosetti
A Poem For Richard
Alexander Calder (1898-1976)