I Was the Jukebox: Poems [Hardcover]

Sandra Beasley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 5, 2010

The winner of the 2009 Barnard Women Poets Prize—“fresh, crisp, and muscular.”

“These poems are fresh, crisp, and muscular. They are decisive and fearless. Every object, icon, or historical moment has a soul with a voice. In these poems these soulful ones elbow their way to the surface of the page, smartly into the contemporary now.”—Joy Harjo, prize citation

from “The Piano Speaks”
     For an hour I forgot my fat self,
     my neurotic innards, my addiction to alignment.
     For an hour I forgot my fear of rain.
     For an hour I was a salamander
     shimmying through the kelp in search of shore,
     and under his fingers the notes slid loose
     from my belly in a long jellyrope of eggs
     that took root in the mud.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

More fun than most recent books, Beasley's second collection can also get quite serious: in the best parts, the poet pretends she is any number of nonhuman things—a jukebox, an orchid, the Egyptian god Osiris, an eggplant (in a sestina), grains of sand. She also writes love poems to big ideas: Love Poem for College begins You hit on me. You hit on everyone. Beasley portrays the sometimes chaotic landscape between sex and love, youth and adulthood, the young men and women who hope for everything and the grownups who settle for less. For an hour I forgot my fat self./ My neurotic innards, my addiction to alignment, says the piano, remembering when she was played. In Another Failed Poem About Music, even the name of a percussion instrument, triangle... is a perfect betrayal. Beasley can sound regretful, but also flirtatious: You are the loneliest of the three bears, she says in Love Poem for Wednesday, hoping/ to come home and find someone in your bed. If Beasley's conceits owe something to Kenneth Koch, her tone and her subjects might place her with chick lit, too: this is a book that could go a long way. (Apr.)
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Review

An excerpt: "More fun than most recent books.... If Beasley's conceits owe something to Kenneth Koch, her tone and her subjects might place her with chick lit, too: this is a book that could go a long way."

--Publisher's Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 90 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (April 5, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393076512
• ISBN-13: 978-0393076516
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 0.6 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,250,681 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sandra Beasley is the author of Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life, a memoir and cultural history of food allergies. Her previous books are both collections of poetry: I Was the Jukebox, which won the 2009 Barnard Women Poetry Prize, selected by Joy Harjo, and Theories of Falling, which won the New Issues Poetry Prize judged by Marie Howe. Her work has appeared in Poetry, Slate, The Believer, Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and The Best American Poetry 2010.

Beasley lives in Washington, D.C., where her nonfiction has been featured in the Washington Post Magazine. For more information, please visit www.SandraBeasley.com, follow her on Twitter @SandraBeasley, or check out her Author page on Facebook.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars LOVE POEM FOR LOS ANGELES June 20, 2010

By Armand Aisselle

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

LOVE POEM FOR LOS ANGELES may be the best poem very written about this place.

Overall this book is absolutely a must. Make no mistake: Sandra Beasley's world is what Sir Paul McCartney once called "the world in which we live in." You will not find an escape route from reality in "I was the Jukebox." These poems are not consciousness replacement therapy. Instead they have that intriguing quality of great art: They sharpen the mind.

Sandra Beasley's writing reminds me of François Hemsterhuis' definition of The Beautiful (which also happens to be my definition): "that which gives us the greatest number of ideas in the shortest space of time." These poems have an abundance of perceptive and original irony, and what is most unusual in our era: real wit, without meanness, sloppy comedy or scatology. The concern they exhibit for language per se -- both for its follies and for its hidden implications -- almost reminds me of Wittgenstein. Every statement she makes contains the DNA of a question. Sandra Beasley has her own way of pushing the envelope, of making the reader uncomfortable in his or her complacency of thought. So much the better. The experience is invigorating.

Spend a short space of time with "I was the Jukebox," and I assure you, you will want to spend a longer one.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Imaginative with Skillful Use of Language April 9, 2010

By Jon S. Wesick

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I heard Sandra Beasley read at Iota in Arlington and was so impressed that I bought her new book. Her poems have a playful, surreal quality. I enjoyed her riffs on mythology such as in "Another Failed Poem About the Greeks." The last section of the book is darker and more poignant. "Exits" is powerful.

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetry that is worth reading May 7, 2013

By S. Girard

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I love this writer. Her poems are intimate cameras, held at odd angles, and pointed in odd places. Her language is masterful. I am certainly no expert in poetry, but I know what I like, and Beasley makes me say to myself, "yes, that is exactly how to say that".

I hope she continues to evolve and write. I already can't wait to buy her next book.