Sharan Strange's poetry brings to life the lush mysteries and brutalities of growing up in a rural Southern town. At once a portrait of a community and the poet, Ash traces that alchemy by which the life stories of those around us are transmuted into our own. "Ash embodies a voice we can count on, informed by the grace and wit of the South. Sharan Strange has wrested these poignant poems out of experience and imagination, and they sizzle with a deep knowing. Family and neighborhood are unique and universal. We know these people and places through a painful and joyful directness-everything that is noble in its full telling rises from Ash and touches us." -Yusef Komunyakaa, author of Talking Dirty to the Gods and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Neon Vernacular "What I cherish so much in Sharan Strange's poetry is her ability to firmly locate time-tested insight-what our ancestors called common sense-securely and consistently in everyday experience. The results render a depth of articulation so provocative that the poetry becomes a positive and permanently useful part of the reader's psyche." -Clarence Major, editor of The Garden Thrives: Twentieth-Century African-American Poetry Sharan Strange grew up in Orangeburg, South Carolina, was educated at Harvard College, and received the M.F.A. in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College. She is a contributing and advisory editor of Callaloo and cofounder of the Dark Room Collective. Her poetry has appeared in Agni, The American Poetry Review, Callaloo, The Best American Poetry 1994, The Garden Thrives, In Search of Color Everywhere, and in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum in New York and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.
These poems are accessible and moving, telling stories that drive us to discover their endings and meanings. The language is beautiful. These poems are free from the elite idea that poetry should consist only of images, refraining from story-telling.
an excellent first book
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 23 years ago
i love the poems in this book because they remind me of some of my experiences living in the south. the language is poetic, but clear and the voice that speaks through these pieces is one of struggle and pride. the family poems were especially evocative.
Life and living in a rural Southern town
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 23 years ago
The poetry of Sharan Strange is a compelling series of revelations on life and living in a rural Southern town. Dorothy: Being a foster kid gave her second-class/status, but she was still our hero./An outcast like us, she was an ally against/school bullies and neighborhood brats./Though we were all poor, she was rejected/for more simple-minded, human reasons./With smoke-dark skin, hair no longer/than a snap, and legs covered with sores,/any hope she nursed of being found/desirable or cherished was revoked./She retaliated with a physical prowess/that awed us. Endless chores gave her/muscles to rival the older boys'/and she stunned them in short breathless tussles/that often drew blood. We envied her a body/whose strength matched its rage./At fourteen, she could beat a man./In our small world, she seemed invincible,/until we learned her one weakness:/a love for my brother that, unreturned,/provoked the only fight she willingly lost.
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