Please (New Issues Poetry & Prose) [Paperback]

Jericho Brown (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Everyone sings in this live-wire, passionate book... --Mark Doty

This is the poetry of blood-ship: the meaning of family, of love, of sexuality; the resonances of pain and the possibilities of redemption. --Terrance Hayes

The silent terror in these poems is the future they seem to inform despite the attempts to integrate the incoherent with the coherent moments of lived experience. PLEASE continually repositions its readers inside the violence of the interruption, the psychic break. --Claudia Rankine

Product Description

Please explores the points in our lives at which love and violence intersect. Drunk on its own rhythms and full of imaginative and often frightening imagery, Please is the album playing in the background of the history and culture that surround African American/male identity and sexuality. Just as radio favorites like Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway, and Pink Floyd characterize loss, loneliness, addiction, and denial with their voices, these poems chorus of speakers transform moments of intimacy and humor into spontaneous music. In PLEASE, Jericho Brown sings the influence soul culture has on American life with the accuracy of the blues.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 69 pages
• Publisher: New Issues Poetry & Prose; First edition (October 20, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930974795
• ISBN-13: 978-1930974791
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #66,282 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite Poetry, October 8, 2009

By	Amos Lassen (Little Rock, Arkansas) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)

This review is from: Please (New Issues Poetry & Prose) (Paperback)

Brown, Jericho. "Please", New Issues Press, 2009.

Exquisite Poetry

Amos Lassen

"Please" is my first meeting with Jericho Brown but I am sure that it is not my last. He is a poet that is totally aware of who his audience is. He begins by telling us who he is and he pulls us into his world. He shows us the redemptive power of art very simply with the line, "Call me bitch and I'll sing the whole night long". He gives us pain redeemed by art. He tells stories through his poetry and his poems are intimate and 100% efficient. He takes on hurt and he loves to reflect and describe. His language is elegant and sublime. Brown is a poet that you will read and reread and find him relevant with each look. He shares his feelings with us and we want to do the same with him.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't sit it down., May 20, 2009

By	Tara Cunningham "fierce mommy" (Baton Rouge, LA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: Please (New Issues Poetry & Prose) (Paperback)

Jericho's poems are literary genius. He takes you into his heart and his mind and leaves you yearning for more.

Can't wait for the next book!

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Seeking to speak the unspoken thoughts of the African American and the male, February 9, 2009

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Please (New Issues Poetry & Prose) (Paperback)

A doctor of Creative Writing, Jericho Brown steps into the world of poetry with "Please". Seeking to speak the unspoken thoughts of the African American and the male, his verse seeks to explain the actions and ideas that men of one or the other belong to. "Please" is poignant and realistic writing, and an excellently entertaining read. "Open": I often lie open as a field. Sharecroppers have no fixed names.