Customer Reviews

An Unmistakable Shade of Red, and the Obama Chronicles: Poems

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Mary Weems, An Unmistakable Shade of Red and the Obama Chronicles (Bottom Dog Press, 2008)

I'm not a big fan of Barack Obama's. Never was, though not for the silly partisan reasons a lot of other people spout; I'm of the opinion that almost no one who actually wants to get elected should be. (I can't remember who it was that said that any politician who aspires to elected office should automatically be disqualified from running for it, but I subscribe to that hypothesis, in general; I wrote in Mike Gravel in the 2008 election.) But I am a big fan of Mary Weems, and given that the poems in the second half of this book were written during the campaign trail, I'm willing to overlook a lot of optimism that we've all found to be kind of unfounded in the last two years. But all that deals with the last twenty-odd pages of an eighty page book, so we'll dispense with talking about that (any review I'd have penned of "The Obama Chronicles" would probably have said all that and little else anyway) and turn to the first half. If you've read Mary Weems before, you know what's in store--short, punchy pieces, heavy on the image, heavy on the unexpected juxtapositions, and with messages, but messages that are in general shown rather than told. In other words, damn good poetry:

"Seeing my skeleton head
in the dentist's office
reminds me of how we turn
to ash and dust
how we sweep it from our floors."
("X-Ray")

Yes, that's the whole piece, and when you think about it, why should it be any longer? Everything that needs said gets said, without a whole lot of extra verbiage hanging around like the sprigs of parsley bad restaurants trying to be swank stuck in the middle of your chicken salad back in the mid-eighties. Mary Weems knows how to write a poem, and every time she release a book, she proves that over and over again. If you haven't found her yet, this is a fine place to introduce yourself. ****

An enjoyable read! Mary Weems is able to concisely present the raw experiences of life off on a tangent. Drunk Ugly kicks your teeth out while the lucid flow of Moon Story afford many contemplative moments and a reflectively provocative evening!

Dr. Weems' work is a rare example of quality work on the page that can easily be performed on stage as well. The language is active and fiery, with skillful cadence. This collection is necessary and poignant especially in our current political and economic state. It exceeded my expectations and I look forward to others.

Ebani Edwards, MA
Performance Poet