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Major Jackson

Autor(a) de Hoops: Poems

10+ Works 268 Membros 4 Críticas

Obras por Major Jackson

Hoops: Poems (2006) 65 exemplares
The Best American Poetry 2019 (2019) — Contribuidor; Editor — 57 exemplares
Leaving Saturn: Poems (2002) 43 exemplares
Holding Company: Poems (2010) 30 exemplares
Roll Deep: Poems (2015) 28 exemplares
The Absurd Man: Poems (2020) 26 exemplares
Renga for Obama (2017) 3 exemplares

Associated Works

The Best American Poetry 2004 (2004) — Contribuidor — 201 exemplares
African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song (2020) — Contribuidor — 169 exemplares
Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry (2009) — Contribuidor — 113 exemplares
The Best American Poetry 2016 (2016) — Contribuidor — 103 exemplares
The 100 Best African American Poems (2010) — Contribuidor — 96 exemplares
The Best American Poetry 2017 (2017) — Contribuidor — 93 exemplares
Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century (2006) — Contribuidor — 86 exemplares
The Best American Poetry 2011 (2011) — Contribuidor — 86 exemplares
The Spoken Word Revolution Redux (2007) — Contribuidor — 84 exemplares
The Best American Poetry 2013 (2013) — Contribuidor — 81 exemplares
The Best American Poetry 2014 (2014) — Contribuidor — 78 exemplares
Collected Poems (2013) — Editor — 71 exemplares
Alone Together: Love, Grief, and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19 (2020) — Contribuidor — 58 exemplares
Bullets Into Bells: Poets and Citizens Respond to Gun Violence (2017) — Contribuidor — 55 exemplares
Of Poetry and Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin (2016) — Contribuidor — 55 exemplares
The Best American Poetry 2021 (2021) — Contribuidor — 46 exemplares
The Best American Poetry 2022 (The Best American Poetry series) (2022) — Contribuidor — 43 exemplares
Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem's First Decade (2006) — Contribuidor — 30 exemplares
The Kiss: Intimacies from Writers (2018) — Contribuidor — 23 exemplares
The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks (2017) — Contribuidor — 16 exemplares
Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry (2019) — Contribuidor — 14 exemplares
Bearden's Odyssey: Poets Respond to the Art of Romare Bearden (2017) — Contribuidor — 11 exemplares

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Nome legal
Jackson, Major
Data de nascimento
1968
Sexo
male
Nacionalidade
USA
Local de nascimento
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Locais de residência
South Burlington, Vermont, USA
Ocupações
dichter
Prémios e menções honrosas
Whiting Writers' Award (2003)
Academy of American Poets Fellowship (2023)

Membros

Críticas

This annual collection of “the best” American poetry is always a welcome affirmation of the continuing importance of the art of poetry in this forever-changing world. While acknowledging that, and acknowledging that I have been an intermittent reader of these volumes, I confess I bought this volume to "shop" for new-to-me poets. Did I read all of the 75 poems included in this volume? No. Did I read most? Yes. While I am quite capable of analyzing a specific poem, if required; I have my own personal preferences as to how I like poetry (usually relatively short with a fair amount of white space) and as I have gotten older I am prejudiced towards things that are more comfortable, BUT, I do still like to explore some.

All of the poems I read were, of course, excellent in their own ways. It is a mix of approaches, language and form. Some take a light approach to make their points, some are somber and powerful. I noted nine 'favorite' poems/poets via dog-earing pages. The poets are: Margaret Atwood, Joshua Bennett, Carl Dennis, Edward Hirsch, Didi Jackson, Ilya Kaminsky, Sharon Olds, Tracy K Smith and Kevin Young. Four of these— Atwood, Dennis, Hirsch & Olds—have been around a long time and are familiar to me; the other five have been born since 1970 and only Kaminsky and Smith were familiar (I probably recognized about a third of the poets in the collection). That’s a gain of three newbies to investigate! I can’t reproduce all my favorites here, but I’ll list the titles in case one wants to attempt finding them online, and reproduce the two shortest, both of which seem to say so little, but so much about where we are today.

My nine faves:
Atwood: “An Update on Werewolves”
Bennett: “America Will Be”
Dennis: “Armed Neighbor”
Hirsch: “Stranger by Night”
Jackson: “The Burning Bush”
Kaminsky: from “Last Will and Testament”
Olds: “Rasputin Aria”
Smith: “The Greatest Personal Privation”
Young: “Hive”

“Stranger by Night” by Edward Hirsch

After I lost
my peripheral vision
I started getting sideswiped
by pedestrians cutting
in front of me
almost randomly
like memories
I couldn’t see coming
as I left the building
at twilight
or stepped gingerly
off the curb
or even just crossed
the wet pavement
to the stairs descending
precipitously
into the subway station
and I apologized
to every one
of those strangers
jostling me
in a world that had grown
stranger by night.
(originally published in the Threepenny Press)

“Hive” by Kevin Young

The honey bees’ exile
is almost complete.
You can carry

them from hive
to hive, the child thought
& that is what

he tried, walking
with them thronging
between his pressed palms.

Let him be right.
Let the gods look away
as always. Let this boy

who carries the entire
actual, whirring
world in his calm

unwashed hands,
barely walking; bear
us all there

buzzing, unsung.

(From Poem-A-Day)
… (mais)
½
 
Assinalado
avaland | 1 outra crítica | Sep 5, 2020 |
The 2019 edition of The Best American Poetry begins with an impassioned introduction by David Lehman on political correctness in today's society. Major Jackson is the guest editor this year and poses the theme of artistic dignity vs street cred. With both of the introductions, I was expecting the poetry to follow suit. The poetry, however, doesn't seem to have the punch I was expecting from the introductions. Although very modern in form and seemingly less conservative, although not less controversial, then past editions, this does not seem to be a "best of" collection. Rather than the more themed collections of past years, this year's edition seems to cover a wide spectrum, like a survey. It could be the "street cred" of this edition that has left me, for the first time, feeling slightly disappointed. Maybe like music readers develop an ear for only certain types of poetry. Perhaps, it is just me getting old and clinging to the more traditional type of poetry rather than embracing the new. A few poems did stand out from the many; most notably Deborah Landau's "Soft Targets."… (mais)
 
Assinalado
evil_cyclist | 1 outra crítica | Mar 16, 2020 |
In 2004, I attended the Furious Flower Poetry Conference at James Madison University. The conference was held as a celebration of African-American Poetry and today's most notable poets were in attendance. Poets Yusef Komunayakaa, Rita Dove, Lucille Clifton, Kevin Young, E. Ethelbert Miller, Nikki Giovanni, and Amiri Baraka (amongst others) highlighted this celebration of not just African-American Poetry, but of the poetical influence of Gwendolyn Brooks. Major Jackson also attended and read at this conference.

A majority of Major Jackson's poetry collection, "Hoops," is an homage, no, check that, a poetic letter to the late Gwendolyn Brooks. While this has the recipe for success, the constant allusion to specific, personal experiences and acquaintances without any universality to it, will ultimately alienate most readers. Two sections of his letter to Brooks seem to allude, if not directly approach, the experience at the Furious Flower Conference. But, navigating those waters, at times, proves to be quite difficult.

This is not to say that this collection is bad as there are gems that present themselves throughout the work. Lines such as, "...if the slum's our dungeon,/school's our Bethlehem." and the final section of the Brooks letter, "Spring Garden" reflect the powerful language that does exist in Jackson's work.
… (mais)
½
1 vote
Assinalado
CardiffGiant | 1 outra crítica | Aug 12, 2008 |
There were some nice moments in this collection, and perhaps a few poems that I'll go back to, but I was somewhat disappointed on the whole. There were quite a few poems that felt too personal here, not in the way of that they shouldn't have been published, but simply that I'm not sure a reader unfamiliar with Jackson himself or the area he's coming from could really get a feel for them. It seemed like there was a distance between myself and the material, and as a result, much of it fell somewhat flat. Jackson didn't seem to be trying to translate the material for a strange reader, and I never felt like I was being brought into the scene, or even considered. I've read poems by Jackson before which I've enjoyed, so I'm hoping I just picked up the wrong collection this time, and will try again in the future. Still, this wasn't one I'd recommend unless you've got a particular reason to search him out.… (mais)
½
 
Assinalado
whitewavedarling | 1 outra crítica | Feb 18, 2008 |

Prémios

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Associated Authors

David Lehman Contributor
Toi Derricotte Contributor
Gail Mazur Contributor
Thomas Devaney Contributor
Ruth Ellen Kocher Contributor
Jane Shore Contributor
James Hoch Contributor
Lloyd Schwartz Contributor
Philip Schultz Contributor
Camille Guthrie Contributor
Tracy K. Smith Contributor
Gabriela Garcia Contributor
Deborah Landau Contributor
Natalie Diaz Contributor
Didi Jackson Contributor
Sumita Chakraborty Contributor
Nicole Santalucia Contributor
Joshua Bennett Contributor
Rosa Alcalá Contributor
Morgan Parker Contributor
Rebecca Lindenberg Contributor
Yona Harvey Contributor
Kamilah Aisha Moon Contributor
Shane McCrae Contributor
Ada Limón Contributor
Laura Cronk Contributor
Ocean Vuong Contributor
Ishion Hutchinson Contributor
Vievee Francis Contributor
John Murillo Contributor
Chen Chen Contributor
Nausheen Eusuf Contributor
Jane Hirshfield Contributor
Carl Dennis Contributor
Kevin Young Contributor
Campbell McGrath Contributor
Carl Phillips Contributor
Sonia Sanchez Contributor
Andrew Motion Contributor
Paul Muldoon Contributor
Edward Hirsch Contributor
Amy Gerstler Contributor
Li-Young Lee Contributor
Naomi Shihab Nye Contributor
Robert Hass Contributor
Ishmael Reed Contributor
Sharon Olds Contributor
Michael Palmer Contributor
Leonard Cohen Contributor
Alan Shapiro Contributor
Jeffrey McDaniel Contributor
Martín Espada Contributor
Ilya Kaminsky Contributor
Margaret Atwood Contributor
Victoria Chang Contributor
Fleda Brown Contributor
Catherine Barnett Contributor
Dilruba Ahmed Contributor
Ange Mlinko Contributor
Kate Daniels Contributor
Bob Holman Contributor
Clarence Major Contributor
Paisley Rekdal Contributor
A. E. Stallings Contributor
Willie Perdomo Contributor
Natasha Trethewey Contributor
Garrett Hongo Contributor
Terrance Hayes Contributor
David Wojahn Contributor
Arthur Sze Contributor
Nabila Lovelace Contributor

Estatísticas

Obras
10
Also by
23
Membros
268
Popularidade
#86,166
Avaliação
3.9
Críticas
4
ISBN
21

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