The Moments, the Minutes, the Hours: The Poetry of Jill Scott [Paperback]

Jill Scott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2008

Jill Scott's first-ever poetry collection delivers the same earthy, personal, and tell-it-like-it-is voice that fans have grown to know and love. Writing poems and keeping journals since 1991, she shares her personal poetry collection in The Moments, The Minutes, The Hours. Praised for her honestly erotic, soulful and very real lyrics, Jill Scott uncovers the beauty in healing, the comfort of family, and the stunning vitality of life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With a couple of platinum-selling "neo-soul" records to her name, Scott doesn't have much to prove, but offers this cull from a parallel life—the poetry she's written on and off, with varying degrees of public exposure, since middle school—in the hopes that poets everywhere will "continue to insight, ignite, and recite this blessed, raunchy, wild ride of a craft." The book reads like an ecstatic but disciplined panoply of influence and inspiration. Love poems, break-up poems, short-of-money poems, weariness poems, Christian poems, celebratory poems: all have an immediacy and short-lined honesty that reflects a deep appreciation of everyone from Nikki Giovanni to Emily Dickinson (just two of the poets mentioned in Scott's introduction). Better than the average coffeehouse fare, the poems probably would not have seen print without the records. That won't bother fans, and it shouldn't bother readers who come upon them not knowing who Scott is, and enjoy the poems anyway. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"Jill Scott's fans will enjoy...her defiant and vulnerable poems."---Essence

"Love that's tough and hard and has to be earned and paid for every step of the way is the stuff of Scott's soulful poetry. We look forward to her next book. She knows how to write." ---Rocky Mountain News

"Like her music--soulful, erotic, and honest--Scott's collection of previously unpublished poetry delivers the goods." ---Uptown Magazine

"Jill Scott can now add the title 'author' to her list of accomplishments." ---Philadelphia Daily News

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312329628
• ISBN-13: 978-0312329624
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #98,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A discovery, April 7, 2005

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Moments, the Minutes, the Hours: The Poetry of Jill Scott (Hardcover)

Jill Scott is a singer and performer, though I have only rarely heard her music. Sonia Sanchez wrote a wonderful encomium for Scott, saying, "I know Jill Scott. She is pot liquor and cornbread. She is caviar and champagne. She is a blues song and a spirtual. She is Nina, Leontyne, Sarah, Aretha." Sanchez' poetry is one of the wonders of the 20th century so I decided to give her protégé a try. It wound up with me liking the book and I imagine many will too. Unlike Sanchez, her subject matter is not very variegated. It's all about love, love, and more love, and then there's some about feminism and black pride. She can compose infinite variations on these three topics, but after awhile you're like, "Oh, not another haiku about crazy love." However in a later section of the book Scott experiments with taking on different personae and these are much stronger. One poem takes the point of view of the adult looking back to days of childhood and realizing her mother loved her.

"She cries when she sees me/ holds me close when she knows I need me/ "Mommy" I say/ "Mommy" I say/ Smells so good/ Reminds me to go out and play/ makes me strawberry lemonade."

The sights and sounds of ordinary life are wistfully accounted for, almost as though she wasn't a star and just Jill from the block you might say. There's another poem that alludes to the pain of having lost a child, rather like Joni Mitchell's poignant "Little Green." And the best of all she speaks from the perspective of a roughened, overworked street prostitute with a broken soul whose age becomes the turning point of the poem's final, shocking lines. In her preface, Scott gives credit to her forebears, including Langston Hughes and Emily Dickinson. This poem "One of the Reasons" will remind readers of some of the soliloquy poems of Sapphire.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's good poetry for where I am in my life, July 5, 2005

By 

merlot (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Moments, the Minutes, the Hours: The Poetry of Jill Scott (Hardcover)

Let me start by saying I've not studied poetry in depth. I have read Maya Angelou and other things that are required in school and when I took my African American literature and philosophy classes in college. I've gone to spoken word events and I've watched Def Poetry. That said I'm not a true "student" of poetry and I only think about writing my own poetry (it never comes out on paper). I do however keep a journal and one of the main reasons I bought this book is because I'm going through a period in my life where I wanted to read something to uplift me and let me know that love and relationships and all that will all turn out okay (although there are times of sadness). I enjoyed this book and it actually helped me in the sense that it gave me some thoughts of things to explore as I wrote in my journal. I read in another poetry book that I bought at the same time that you shouldn't read the poems all at once because it is to be savored like fine chocolates and that poetry/words are the same so I didn't even attempt to read it all at once but what I've read so far is good (for me) and if you like Jill, are a black woman or appreciate poetry then I think this is a nice book to have. It probably makes a nice gift too.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional Read.., April 19, 2005

By 

Honey (Heaven) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Moments, the Minutes, the Hours: The Poetry of Jill Scott (Hardcover)

I purchased this book of heartfelt poems at a recent Jill Scott concert. I started reading it the next day and found I was taking a ride on an express train to expressionisms! She's not only a talented singer and performer, but also a very gifted and talented writer ...and I am so very happy, she allowed me to step (albeit briefly) into her world of words and glimpse her poetic soul as she lays down layer upon layer of the (3) L's: Love, Life and Loss. She covers the long and short of them all! There is no fluff here...all emotions are accounted for and I promise, you will enjoy the journey just as I have!

Great job Ms. Scott...thanks for sharing a very big part of you, with a very small part of me! Your talent is remarkable!