The Weave Room (Phoenix Poets) [Hardcover]

Michael Chitwood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0226103978 | ISBN-13: 978-0226103976 | Edition: 1

The poems in The Weave Room reveal the life of a textile mill as it weathers a decisive social and human moment. Whether speaking in the voice of a weaver trying to quell a crowd about to turn violent over unionization or in his own voice as one of the mill's employees, Chitwood brings together many social and historical threads to show the pattern of a people and a place that has received little treatment in American poetry.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

paper 0-226-10398-6 A journalist by trade, Chitwood relies on a documentarians sense of the sociological in these poems about life at a southern textile mill. His third collection blends autobiography as well, since, like Phillip Levine, he spent his own college summers working among the locals he profiles in numerous pieces: the fellow who mouths song under the looms, deafening noise (The Singing); another who worked with his eyes closed in prayer (The Preaching); the woman who made collectible quilts in her spare time (Mrs.P....); and one who had to quit because of carpal tunnel syndrome (In the Break Room.) Chitwood captures the sights and sounds of work, from bathing gears in grease to the machines endless slamming. Like Levine, though, he indulges in sentimental agitprop in poems such as The Weaving, which recalls the proletarian poetry of the 30s. Chitwoods just-folks simplicity suffers from his heavy-handed ironies, especially in poems about unionization. At best, his plaintive verse bears witness to a lost way of life. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

All Before Break Time
American Manhood Versus American Bandstand
The Choir
The Day Ending And Beginning In The Afternoon
A Dress And Some Sheets
The Early Show, Late
Entering The Weave Room
First Job
A Fixer Quits
Gear Bath
The Gift
How No Lies Were Told
In The Break Room
The Informant
Lifting
The Living
Looms
Meeting
The Men
Message Lights
Mrs. P., Who Worked In The Cloth Room, Became Famous For Her Quilts
Notes, Angle Plant, July 1978
On The Day The Oldest Textile Mill In The South Closed
On The Roof Of The Angle Plant, Rocky Mount, Virginia
The Preaching
Safety Meeting: What Counts
The Silk Mill
The Singing
Singing The 'union Song' For The Company Man
The Story
Threads, End Of Another Day
The Thunderbolts Of Zeus
Ties
Trading Out The Drapers
Union
A Union
Union Summer
Weave Room: Baptism
Weave Room: What They Say
A Weaver
The Weaving
Windows
The Women
The Words
Workers Of The World Unite
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Product Details

• Hardcover: 92 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (March 14, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226103978
• ISBN-13: 978-0226103976
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,441,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars People and Places, December 9, 2000

By 

John Boddie - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Weave Room (Phoenix Poets) (Paperback)

The review by Kirkus (above) misses an essential point about Michael Chitwood's "The Weave Room." While readers of Philip Levine will recognize the presence of an American voice, they will also note that while Levine speaks of the influence of place on the people he writes about, Chitwood takes on the more difficult task of showing the influence of the people on the place.

It is the people who make the weave room and the other parts of the plant what they are. They are the blood, the nerves, the sense organs. This is, in part, because cloth is such a tactile thing, even when made by giant, ever-running looms. Michael Chitwood's people are in that cloth in contrast to Levine's characters, shut out from the transmissions and body panels.

The marvel of this writing is that it can convey a world the reader doesn't know through characters that the reader knows instinctively.

This is well-written, powerful poetry, and it does what good poetry should do - it gives the reader new eyes, new thoughts and new hope for what words can do.

I really like the poetry of Philip Levine and I'd unrervedly recommend this book to any readers who share my enthusiasm.