Customer Reviews

Blood & Tears: Poems for Matthew Shepard

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Wow! Such mixed reviews on this one! It's true we cash in on the crimes that haunt us, but why look at it that way? Why not see the written word as a way to preserve that which we don't want to forget and that which we wish to use to teach others of our mistakes? MTV recently showed "Anatomy of A Hate Crime," the first movie-type documentation of this tragedy, but I didn't once think the station used it as a ploy to boost ratings. Have a heart! Who said true life is better than fiction? Yet, the tragedy of that "true life" is what has sparked the fire in so many writers throughout the past. Expression, imagination...freedom, let's not forget what we learned from this hate crime. So, I applaud the prose and am sure the poets meant it well. As for you readers who didn't get it, go take out your anger by hitting someone in the head 18 times with the handle of a gun and then let's see what you choose to write about.

I am constantly amazed when someone puts a group of writings together with such a sense of focus. If the "names" who wrote these poems are able to reach but a few then this book will be a huge success. It will be the start of something really good. I hope more people will read and enjoy this marvelous collection of poems by poets like greyson, kavanaugh, campo, ashbery, etal. Make sure you don't miss this one.

This is a great collection of poems about Matthew Shepard. One of the poems that really made me think simply has a "," (comma) on the page, many of the others pages long.

All of the poems are excellent. Great job Scott!

A beautiful collection of hearts and minds. This is an example of passion and rage painting a beautiful collaboration of talent.

A real heart/eye/soul opener!

Many of these poets are very talented and should have known better than to get involved with a project which is ultimately a selection of the musings of urban sophisticates. Rather than a true tribute to Shepherd, this book is for the most part a showcase of pretentious work that should never have been published. Although there are a few gems (Campo, Hacker), these poems are mostly along the lines of that unfortunate narrative which features a New Yorker walking up the avenue thinking about the planets and a jug of milk: self-indulgent, sloppy, and (if you're lucky) forgettable.

This book is a cynical attempt by some modestly talented poets in the main - excepting people like Campo - to jump on the bandwagon of the savage murder of Matthew Shepard. One gets the sense that poor Shepard's body was barely cold before someone decided that there was a buck to be made. Hopefully, word about the poor quality of most of the poems - many of which barely referred to Shepard - has got out so people don't waste their money. I would suggest that more good could be done by writing a check to anti-violence projects than supporting the self-indulgent and cynical exploitation of a tragedy...