#Poetry Jericho Brown
- Author: Jericho Brown (1976)
- Title: The Tradition
- Published: 2019
- Trivia: I liked 29 poems of total 52 = 55 % (good score)
- 2020 winner Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
- 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, finalist
- 2019 National Book Award for Poetry, longlist
- List of Challenges 2021
- Monthly plan
- #PoetryMonth (April 2021)
Conclusion:
- This book is said to be
- …one of the best collection of poems
- by a living poet.
- Jericho Brown’s poems are works of art and
- …they deserve some of my intense reading time.
- It took me 2 days to research and read 52 poems.
- I learned about Brown’s abusive father and the poet’s
- struggle to be a black gay man.
- I hope the notes I provided may
- …help you when reading my favorite poems.
- #MustRead
Quickscan:
- 5 Duplex poems are a creation of Jericho Brown (JB).
- The structure is unique: the last word of a stanza
- ….in the last word on the first next line!
- It feels like a puzzel!
Quickscan:
- Certain poems are inspired by people, books, art.
- I needed to read the ‘backstory’ in wikipedia
- …so I could understand the poems.
- I’ve included links to information regarding these poems.
- Favorite: ” After Another Country” (novel by James Baldwin, 1962)
Quickscan:
- The title poem is “The Tradition“.
- After my first reading I still did not know what it was!
- I needed to do some research.
- Tradition is:
- joy of gardening, police violence, remembering victims of police violence.
Favorites:
Part 1:
- Ganymede – myth about Ganymede
- As a Human Being – trying to stand up to father…..son-father relationship.
- The Tradition – see quickscan
- Hero – trying to impress mother…. son-mother relationship
- After Another Country – Another Country main character Rufus Scott
- The Water Lilies – image water lilies = white people
- Foreday in the Morning – morining glories…mother never sees them, she’s up early to work.
- The Card Tables – love the personification of simpel ‘card tables’, funny!
- Bullet Points – Sandra Bland (wikipedia)
- Duplex – abuse-father
- The Trees – lovely nature poem..the crape myrtle trees
- A Young Man – father watching teen-age son be a playground guardian for little sister
Part 2:
- Duplex – abuse-father
- Riddle – Emmett Till (wikipedia) – powerful
- Correspondence – The Jerome Project by Titus Kaphar
- Night Shift – painful intimacies of domestic abuse
- Shovel – vivd poem, no hidden meaning…just pick up the body and bury it
- Dear Whiteness – letter to “whiteness” …who the speaker is sleeping with
- Entertainment Industry – issues of gun control and mass shootings
- Layover – account of an assault, a pant-like stream-of-consciousness
Part 3:
- Duplex – abuse-father
- Of My Fury – love poem
- The Virus – HIV
- Deliverance – remembering childhood Sundays
- Dark – painfully candid as JB reproaches himself
- Duplex – abuse-father
- Cakewalk – optimism between to old lovers despite HIV
- Stand – love and pain is inseparable, there is joy to be found within black bodies
- Duplex: Cento – abuse-father