Night Without Armor CD [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Jewel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 19, 1998

I've learned that not all poetry lends itself to music -- some thoughts need to be sung only against the silence. There are softer and less tangible part[s] of our selves that are so essential to peace, to openheartedness, to unfolding the vision and the spiritual realm of our lives, to exposing our souls.
- Jewel, From the Preface

Writing poems and keeping journals since childhood, Jewel has been searching for truth and meaning, turning to her words to record, to discover, and to reflect.

In A Night Without Armor, her first collection of poetry, Jewel explores the fire of first love, the fading of passion, the giving of trust, the lessons of betrayal, and the healing of intimacy.

She delves into matters of the home, the comfort of family, the beauty of Alaska, and the dislocation of divorce.

And then there are the images of the road, the people, the bars, the planes, places exotic and mundane, loneliness and friendship.

Frank and honest, serious and suddenly playful, A Night Without Armor is a talented artist's intimate portrait of what makes us uniquely human.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Singer/songwriter Jewel Kilcher has been writing since she was a child. In this 87-poem collection, she reveals herself as an accomplished free-verse poet, alternately witty and serious, writing about true love, second thoughts, and broken relationships. Some of her poems are postcards from her travels, describing scenes and the people she meets in Las Vegas; Seattle; Taipei, Taiwan; and Hawaii. She also writes about Alaska, and it's evident in her voice that she misses the place where she was raised. The most poignant pieces are the ones about personal loneliness in the midst of popular acclaim, as in "Taipei 2": "I am told I am adored by millions--but no one calls." A must for every Jewel fan, this collection is especially rich in what Jewel calls "songs for love lost and love yet to come." Listen to Jewel read "As a Child I Walked." Visit our audio help page for more information. (Running time: 70 minutes, 1 CD) --C.B. Delaney

From Library Journal

For people who don't regularly follow MTV (which unfortunately includes most of those who listen to poetry), Jewel will seem to have sprung up out of nowhere. But the 23-year-old Alaska native has four albums to her credit and several web sites. A veteran of the coffee-house scene around San Diego, she brings to mind those New York spots of the late 1950s, where Dylan Thomas played and where there was an open poetry mike. Moreover, Jewel's poems are reasonably good. Sure, there are too many prepositions and some cliched images; an attempt to be philosophical is laughable; and many "poems" are nothing more than fragments. But a lot of the material is also straightforward and deeply honest, e.g., "I am told I am adored by millions, but no one calls." Certainly, she's as good as Leonard Cohen and deserves serious attention from poetry lovers. Released simultaneously as a book, CD, and cassette.?Rochelle Ratner, formerly with "Soho Weekly News," New York
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: HarperAudio (May 19, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0694520462
• ISBN-13: 978-0694520466
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (420 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,720,063 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm a certified poetry elitist, but I liked this., January 7, 2001

By 

Anthony Boyd (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Night Without Armor : Poems (Paperback)

I am a poet, with work published in places like Amelia and Impetus. And for 6 years, I published a poetry magazine called Whisper. I read tens of thousands of poems, from many of the same people who are here, reviewing Jewel's work harshly. I spend my time talking about Lifshin or Lewis or Cummings with other poets, go to coffee shops for poetry reading now and then, and even hosted a few poetry slams. I tell you that for two reasons: first, to help you decide if I speak with any authority; and second, because I am going to commit a mutiny.

I will not join the chorus of poets in protest here. Saying "this isn't poetry!" over and over again won't make it true. Getting all bent out of shape over how Jewel is making poetry available to (gasp) the masses is ridiculous. I feel like I'm watching the punk scene happen all over again -- every time someone had a success, the fans screamed "sell out!" My, how we love to topple those on top.

My loyalty is not to the poets, but to poetry. My loyalty is not to some exclusionary club of latte-sucking introverts, full of pretense, but to language itself. And that is why I must break ranks and say this book is just what the world of poetry needed. Poetry may be "language molded into magnificent text" and many other things, such as meter and rhyme -- but the single most important trait of poetry is that it is relevant. It affects you in a way that is deep and impactful. And Jewel's poetry does exactly that, with so many memorable poems and vivid images filling my head that I eager to read her book again.

When reviewers complain that Jewel ought to read some poets before she publishes her own work, they betray their own failure to read her work. For in her book, she DOES talk about her love of poets and mentions them by name. Bukowski comes to mind. In fact, her work resembles Bukowski's. And I realize half the poetry community would gasp to hear me make that comparison, but so what? Both poets write in plain English, without even so much as an attempt to embellish or prop it up with words so full of pompous exaggeration. They both write about everyday events in an almost prosaic way.

Does this mean that Jewel's work is a pinnacle of success? No, she lacks the experience of a man like Bukowski, or Cummings, or dozens of others. But she has the talent. In fact, after reading more poems by more poets than nearly any poetry lover could stand, I feel it is reasonable to say that Jewel outshines 90% of the poetry out there. It may take another 2 or 3 books before Jewel has honed her craft, and if she's any good, she'll spend the rest of her life reinventing her words. But what you have here is the poetry of a young woman on the verge of a breakthrough -- the words are raw, but often brilliant.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Terrible, June 21, 2001

By 

Notre Dame Freak (Monongahela, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Night Without Armor: Poems (Hardcover)

Okay, I bought this book because I really enjoyed Jewel's songwriting. But after reading just a few of the poems, I wondered why I had bought the book at all. These poems are absolutely terrible. Yes, they are from the heart, but that doesn't mean that it's going to be good poetry. I kept reading the book, hoping to find a good poem, but I really couldn't. She wrote poems about goldfish swimming in her stomach, a father and son ogling her breasts, and an old gypsy lady that stole her luggage at an airport as sausages fell out of her pocket. That is not poetry. Honest words that came from her heart, but it is not good poetry, let alone poetry at all, if you ask me. I am an avid poetry reader and write poems myself, so seeing that these kinds of poems could get published made me sick. As she said herself, they were only published because of her music selling millions. If she wasn't a name, there is no way that she could have gotten her poems published. It just makes me want to try all the harder to get my poems published, since horrible poems like these can get published so easily. And to compare her poems to Shakespeare, Frost and Dickenson, is just absolutely unreal. They were great poets and will forever be cherished over time. But Jewel is just an amateur writer who never deserved to have this book come out. Let the thoughts that she has stay to herself. If you want to read a good book, read Lord Byron, a brilliant poet, or Poems That Come From The Heart.

24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Astonishingly Awful, June 1, 2000

By 

"hannah1350n" - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Night Without Armor : Poems (Paperback)

I think it should be required that celeb-poets read a FEW renowned works of poetry before striking out on their own. While this book proves that all it takes to make a bestseller is a little cash-in-hand...it's certainly a woeful addition to the world of poetry.

Of course, to compare Jewel-the-poet to any other modern poet being published in the same forum would be outright cruel. So we must do our best to acknowledge this book's merits.

Certainly, its adolescent simplicity is drawing and the plain-language narrative probably finds a home in the hearts of an audience for whom loftier poetry is simply no fun at all. It is gawky poetry, and in that sense, is endearing. She tries, and we smile and acknowlege that much.

But poetry is about language molded, images laid out in magnificent text, and this series nowhere approaches that destination. Were this another chapbook put out by a mysterious press, or a poem on that last page of our favorite literary journal, we'd be more tolerant. As it is, having a hardcover book adorned with the author's winsome face thrust onto our beloved bookstore shelves will make us more critical...and indeed we should be. If there was every any doubt, this book proves that all the money in the world can't buy you the poet's gift.

It's hard enough for good poets to be published without pop-music celebrities stalking the coveted publishers and so I can hope Jewel feels a twinge of guilt each time she sees her book's spine resting none-too-comfortably next to the likes of Dylan Thomas, Audre Lorde, or Emily Dickinson.