|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Welcome to April and the fifth annual Knopf Poem-a-Day mailing. We will be sending you poems through the wires (and wireless) every day this month. Each day you will receive one poem or multiple poems, links to hear poets reading their work, additional commentaries, and much more. We hope you enjoy the selections. Please visit us on the Knopf Poet's Forum to share your responses with other readers, and to pick up some of our ideas about what to do with these e-mails if you are a bookseller, teacher, or a poetry enthusiast who wants to spread the word. You're welcome —and encouraged—to forward these emails on to friends. We begin with a poem from BLACK MARIA: Poems Produced and Directed by Kevin Young, a film noir in verse published in February 2005. Readers of Kevin Young's JELLY ROLL: A Blues (now in paperback) will recognize his approach—a playful poetic riff on a vital American art form. This selection begins with a voiceover that recurs throughout the collection, and then leads into "The Hunch," in which the private eye A.K.A. Jones, whose adventures the book details, encounters his femme fatale, the chanteuse Delilah Redbone. After the poem, you will find a note from the book's designer and related links, including some to audio of Kevin Young reading aloud from BLACK MARIA. ***************************************
|
|
|
Black Maria
{Rhymes with Pariah} slang meaning a police wagon or hearse *************************************** Voice over (reel one) Boy meets girl. Girl meets The City. Nights she sings for her supper under the stage name Delilah Redbone; days she avoids the super, and the casting couch. Boy and girl rendezvous: his place, her place, a no-tell motel, who can tell. Aliases and ambushes. Throughout, a hint of crime, or at least a world in which everyone's a suspect. Is she too good (or bad) to be believed? Can anyone be believed? Stay tuned. *************************************** The Hunch She wore red like a razor — cut quite a figure standing there, her slender danger dividing day from night, there from here. Where I hoped to be is near her & her fragrant, flammable hair — words like always entering my mouth that once only gargled doubt. You see, I been used before like a car… Between us, this sweating, a grandfather clock's steady tick, soundtrack of saxophones sighing. It's been too long — a whole week since love burned me like rye. I had begun to see the glass as never empty & that scared me. She fills me like the lake fills a canoe — no rescue — & to swim I never learned how. |
|
|
*************************************** From BLACK MARIA by Kevin Young. Copyright © 2005 by Kevin Young. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. *************************************** A note from the book designer: "This book is different from others because it essentially has two covers: a jacket and a cover over the cardboard casing underneath, rather than the standard cloth binding of a hardcover. The typographic style of the jacket and interior were inspired by Kevin Young's world of film noir.Through the bullet-hole die cut jacket, the viewer sees Richie Fahey's color illustration, which depicts the femme fatale, Delilah Redbone on the preprinted case. And a black maria police wagon graces the reverse side. —Gabriele Wilson, book designer for BLACK MARIA *************************************** Listen to Kevin Young read poems aloud from BLACK MARIA:
*************************************** Related links:
*************************************** You received this issue because your email address is in Knopf's Poem-a-Day mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to unsub_knopfpoetry@info.randomhouse.com. Or if you received this poem as a forward and wish to subscribe, send a blank email to sub_knopfpoetry@info.randomhouse.com. We welcome your feedback. Please send any thoughts or questions to knopfwebmaster@randomhouse.com |
|
"The Set Up"
About BLACK MARIA:
About Kevin Young:
Read a review of BLACK MARIA:
Discuss "The Hunch" in the Knopf Poetry Forum: