MUSE POETRY REVIEWS: ISHMAEL REED NEW AND COLLECTED POEMS 1964-2007

NEW AND COLLECTED POEMS 1964-2007

AUTHOR: ISHMAEL REED

PRAISE:

THE BOOK IS THE NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK GOLD MEDAL WINNER

CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARD: POETRY

"Reed's best poems conjure up a vertiginous, multiplicious, irresolvable and thrilling world. It looks a lot like ours." -New York Times Book Review.

"Multitalented' indeed! The adventurer here puts together what he considers the best of his verse, and it is a lively contribution to contemporary experimentation....it is notable for impudent specifics." -GWENDOLYN BROOKS

MY REVIEW AND THOUGHTS:

WELL I WANT TO SAY THIS IS A MASTER AT THE WORLD OF WRITING. HE NOT ONLY WRITES AMAZING POETRY BUT HE WRITES AMAZING BOOKS AND SO ON. THIS IS MUSE POETRY REVIEWS SO I WILL REVIEW THE POETRY BOOK OF HIS COLLECTED POEMS THAT CAME OUT. HE IS A MASTER AT THE WORLD OF POETRY. HE REMINDS ME OF LANGSTON HUGHES AND SO MANY OTHERS YET HE IS SO ORIGINAL AND FRESH INSIDE THE POETRY WORLD. HIS TALENT IS FAR BEYOND WHAT I CAN EXPLAIN. HE HAS A RICH TALENT OF WORDS THAT MIX TOGETHER TO TELL MASSIVE STORIES IN POETRY, LACED WITH AMAZING IMAGES THAT PUT THE READER THERE, TO FEEL IT, TO KNOW IT, TO UNDERSTAND IT.

HE IS A ONE OF A KIND ARTIST THAT IS STILL ALIVE. SO MANY AMAZING ARTIST END UP DYING BEFORE THEY ARE GIVEN THE BEAUTY THEY DESERVE, BUT MR. REED IS ALIVE AND I AM SO HAPPY TO BE ABLE TO WRITE THIS REVIEW.

THIS MUSE POETRY REVIEW IS MORE OR LESS THE EASIEST I HAVE EVER DONE BECAUSE THERE IS NOT ONE BAD THING I CAN SAY ABOUT MR. REED. HE IS A POWERHOUSE OF IMAGINATION AND POETRY WONDER THAT BLEEDS UPON THE PAPER FOR ALL TO READ. HIS WRITTEN WORDS ARE AN ADVENTURE THEMSELVES. FROM THE UPS AND ALSO THE DOWNS. EACH POEM REPRESENTS SOMETHING THAT THE READER CAN RELATE TO, LOVE TO OR HATE TO.

POEM SPOTLIGHT:

FOR DANCER

When lovers die they blossom
grapes
That's why there's so much
wine in love
That's why I'm still drunk
on you

I REALLY LOVE MR. REED FOR THE FACT HE STEPS OUTSIDE THE NORM AND CREATES SOMETHING THOUGHT PROVOKING AND NEW AND ALSO IN YOUR FACE TYPE OF WRITING. HE IS ONE OF THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL WRITERS AROUND. HE MIXES AMERICAN POLITICAL CULTURE, MAINLY DOMESTIC, POLITICAL AND OPPRESSION INTO SATIRE TYPE OF WRITING THAT CAUSES MANY EMOTIONS WHEN ONE READS. MR. REED IS A MASTER AT THAT, CAUSING FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS TO BOIL OVER OR TO REACH THE MARK OF WHAT YOU HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO SAY OR WRITE ABOUT OR DIDN'T HAVE THE BALLS TO SAY.

THIS BOOK IS A MUST OWN PIECE OF HISTORY. IT IS THE COLLECTION OF POETRY FROM HIS WORKS THAT HE FEELS ARE HIS BEST, ALTHOUGH I REALLY AS A LOVER OF HIS WORK HAVE NEVER REALLY HAD A BAD EXPERIENCE READING ANY OF HIS POETRY.

HIS VOICE CAN BE HEARD LOUD AND CLEAR IN THESE WORKS. FROM THE IDEA OF SPIRITUAL AND POLITICAL POETRY ALL MIXED IN WITH A SENSE OF SMOOTH JAZZ LIKE STRUCTURE TO HELP THE POETRY FLOW. HE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY AND THE WAY HE WRITES YOU CAN NOT, NOT LISTEN AND READ THE POWER BEHIND THE BEAUTY OF WHO HE IS AND WHAT HIS POETRY IS ABOUT.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

ISHMAEL REED HAS WRITTEN 6 BOOKS OF POETRY. HE HAS ALSO WRITTEN SIX PLAYS AND FOUR BOOKS OF ESSAYS AND AN AMAZING NINE NOVELS. HE IS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE GREAT AFRICAN-AMERICAN WRITERS THIS DAY AND AGE AND MOST OF ALL HE IS AN ICON TO THE LOVE OF WORDS. HE WAS BORN IN CHATTANOOGA TENNESSEE LOVE THAT PLACE, SO BEAUTIFUL AND AMAZING. HE GREW UP IN NEW YORK AND PUBLISHED HIS FIRST BOOK IN 1967.

POEM SPOTLIGHT:

KALI'S GALAXY

My 200 inch eyes are trained
on you, my love spectroscope
Breaking down your wavelengths
With my oscillating ear
I have painted your

Portrait: ermine curled about
Yonder's glistening neck

They say you are light-years
Away, but they understand so
Little

You are so near to me
We collide
Our stars erupt into supernovae
An ecstatic cataclysm that
Amazes astronomers

I enter your Milky Way
Seeking out your suns
Absorbing your heat
Circumventing your orbs
Radiating your nights

Once inside your heavens
I hop from world to world
Until I can go no longer
And Z out in your dust
Your new constellation
Known for my shining process
And fish-tailed chariot.

I ENJOY POETS THAT LOVE TO MAKE LOVE TO THE POEM WHEN THEY ARE WRITING IT. I ENJOY POETS WHO ENJOY BITCHING AND FIGHTING AT THE POEM THEY ARE WRITING. I ENJOY A POET WHO SAYS HIS MIND AND DOES NOT CARE WHAT HE SAYS WHILE WRITING THE POEM. I WANT TO OPEN A POETRY BOOK AND SCAN THE WORDS AND GET LOST INSIDE THE MIND OR MASSIVE IMAGES OR A MYSTERY SURROUNDING THE POEM AND THAT IS WHAT I DO WHEN I READ ISHMAEL REED. HE IS A GREAT TOUR DE FORCE IN THE WORD WORLD OF HISTORY. HE WILL ALWAYS BE REMEMBERED BECAUSE OF THE POWERFUL IMPACT HE HAS HAD UPON THE WORLD OF WRITTEN WORDS.

POEM SPOTLIGHT:

A SECRETARY OF SPIRITS

The following minutes were
logged by this Secretary to

the Spirits during the last five
years which have occasionally been
like a devil woman on a heart

Sometimes I felt
only a beetle could inch up
from this situation
Y'awl know what I mean

I am no bettle
not even a bishop
got 90% wrong on the priest's
exam
Scared of snakes

Just a red baboon with the
hurricane's eye
got up sometimes in a Business
man's three-piece
Mostly an errand boy for the spirits
It's honest Work
You can even come by promotions
I'll rise or

maybe grow up evenI hail from a long line of
risers
like Grand ma ma, old oak
off on a new path
she sculpts from the clay

I THINK WHAT IS INTERESTING TO NOTE IS THAT ONE OF REED'S POEM WRITTEN IN 1969 CALLED BEWARE: DO NOT READ THIS POEM IS ONE OF NO MORE THEN 20 POEMS THAT TEACHERS AND LIBRARIANS USE MOST IN STUDIED SETTINGS. THAT POEM IS ALSO IN THIS BOOK. IT JUST SHOWS YOU THE POWER THAT MR. REED HAS IN HIS POEMS, THEY ARE FILLED WITH TRUTH, REALITY AND MOST OF ALL THE READER CAN RELATE TO EACH WORD BEING SAID. MR. REED'S HEART FLOWS ON PAPER AND YOU CAN HEAR THE BEAT AS YOU READ.

POEM SPOTLIGHT:

UNTITLED

Alaska's rape
dismemberment
disassembled piece by piece
and shipped to the lowerforty-eight so that people
in Dallas may own whale-sized Cadillacs and lear
jets which cost Alaska an

arm and a leg just like
ravished Jamaica whose
stolen sugar built Mansfield
Park where idle gang rapers
discuss flower beds and
old furniture
Jamaica, Alaska, sisters
dragged into an alley
used and abandoned

THIS IS A MUST OWN, MUST READ BOOK. ALL OF ISHMAEL REED'S BOOKS ARE MUST OWNS. HE IS THE POWERFUL WRITER OF OUR DAY. HE IS A GENIUS WHEN IT COMES TO TELLING A STORY OR PUTTING IDEAS AND THOUGHTS INSIDE POETRY FOR ALL TO READ.

MY RATING:

5 OUT OF 5