How We Sleep on the Nights We Don't Make Love (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Distinguished poet and man of letters Miller has a light touch yet writes of deep emotions. His streamlined poems are warm and caressing, and he is adept at composing sexy little lyrics. But Miller's point of view is world-embracing, and he writes with similar intimacy about the Middle East and terrorism. He envisions Rosa Parks on a bombed-out bus in Jerusalem in one poem, and enters the mind of a suicide bomber in another. Then he gets to the crux of the cultural conflict we find ourselves enmeshed in, in a series of lithe poems about a young black boy who befriends a young Muslim boy, poems that manage to be at once funny and piercing. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description

In this wide-ranging collection of lyrics, dealing with such themes as family, love, racism, and war, E. Ethelbert Miller sets his scenes against the backdrop of the stark realities of contemporary life, here and abroad. As both his love poems and political poems attest, Miller believes with full faith in the transformative powers of love and understanding. His poems on friendship and love are tender, often whimsical. His political poems are evenhanded and compassionate.

As Anastasios Kozaitis comments in his introduction, "Miller's poems side with hope, love and humanity. Despite his calls for prayer, Miller avoids metaphysics; he is a love poet among natural objects-a wet towel, a tube of toothpaste, a comb, a bathroom faucet, a bridge, a hat, a steering wheel and some lost keys. Like the poet, his muses also do not relent. All nine sisters put in their time. The reader will find epic topics, historical allusions, musical references, love poems, Katharine Dunham and dance, tragic consequences of human behavior, life's comedies, songs of Bird, and even astronomical observations."

"On nights when we don't make love, it might be helpful to have some of E. Ethelbert Miller's alluring and captivating poems nearby. As intimate as they are seductive, come to think of it, they should be just as enticing, even on nights when we do make love."-Edwidge Danticat, author of Breath, Eyes, Memory

E. Ethelbert Miller was born in New York City in 1950. Author of eight collections of poetry, he is the founder and director of the Ascension Poetry Reading Series and the director of the African American Resource Center at Howard University.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 74 pages
• Publisher: Curbstone Press (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931896046
• ISBN-13: 978-1931896047
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #275,984 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #80 in

  Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > United States > African American

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars What It is to be Human, June 25, 2008

By	Gary L Connely (Hercules, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

Ethelbert, (man, I'll bet he got grief in the school yard over that), Miller's poetry reminds me of George Orwell. Not that his poems are "Orwellian" or that Orwell wrote poetry - no it's his "voice." At least for me, there's a simplicity, a directness in Orwell's writing that gives it the ring of truth. When I read Orwell, particularly his reportage and criticism, I feel as though I'm in the presence of an honest man. That's how I feel about Mr Miller. The best of Mr Miller's poetry comes straight at you. There is a solidity, an integrity about his poetry, that says, "This is true." And because his poems are true, they are accessable in a way that the poems of many better known poets are not. Mr Miller does not always hit the mark, particularly when he has a "political point" in mind, but when he writes about his life and family, he is often wonderful. His best poems are almost always about what it is to be human. They will linger and echo in your mind long after you have read them.