The Traveling Queen

by Michael Collins

-Michael Collins's poetry rises out of the core of being and seeing--with a touch of Revelations--always searching for the ethereal alongside the earthy low, arriving at the stillpoint of Self. It takes the reader to places of witness where meaning matters; Collins's language of muscular grace made of experience and deep dreaming crosses landscapes to help reimagine our worlds.- --Yusef Komunyakaa
-Mike Collins can and does praise and curse God simultaneously, which makes verbal and intellectual fire, a close relative of wisdom. Of course you hear, in a typical Congressional 'debate, ' Christianity and racism, in various disguises. Collins's poetry, even love poems, are informed by history. His is a major voice. Listen, and change for the better.- --Stanley Moss

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2013

About the author

Note: more than one author shares this name: https://www.goodreads.com/author/simi...

Born in Jamaica, Michael Collins holds a PhD from Columbia University and teaches English at Texas A&M. He is the author of Understanding Etheridge Knight, The Traveling Queen, and has authored literary criticism, creative nonfiction, journalism and fiction in various publications.

Reviews

[B. P. Rinehart · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is by a poet I discovered after reading Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry. Michael Collins is a professor at Texas A&M University and writes poetry. I can't remember what poem I read in Angles of Ascent that made me interested in him, but once I have had this book on my list for awhile. The theme of this book concerns history and/or queenship; the woman on the cover is Harriet Tubman at the end of her life.

To cut to the chase, there are no bad poems in this book, but there ain't no great poems that would blew me away either. These were all good poems, but it kept feeling like something was missing. This is always the risk of academics and the arts (we can't all be Toni Morrison): while the poems are technically sound, they lack a certain heart for me which is a shame since I like history and modernism/post-modernism. I liked this book, but it wasn't pulling me towards it as much I was pushing myself through it. The best poem in the book for me was "Letters for Queen Victoria."

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collins poems are both brutal and precise. He does a wonderful job exploring the violence of history. The language of his poems at first appears simple and straightforward, but the more you read the more their careful construction comes through. I really liked this book and would gladly recommend it.

I'm annoyed that Goodreads lists the wrong author on this book. The Michael Collins who wrote "The Traveling Queen" is a Jamaican born poet, not an Irish novelist.

[Kim Heimbuch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review has been written and will post here after it posts to its original Review destination.