Victims of the Latest Dance Craze

by Cornelius Eady

Victims of the Latest Dance Craze was the 1985 Lamont Poetry Selection of the Academy of American Poets, an award given for an American poet’s second book.

Genres: Poetry

56 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 1997

About the author

Like Joyce and Tolstoy, Cornelius Eady is an American writer focusing largely on matters of race and society, His poetry often centers on jazz and blues, family life, violence, and societal problems stemming from questions of race and class. His poetry is often praised for its simple and approachable language.

Reviews

[Casey Kiser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cornelius, known for his simple or 'approachable' poems is so talented and fun to read. His words do flow like watching a dance so this concept is quite fitting. Sometimes, poetry that is easily absorbed is exactly what we need. Our lives are complicated enough.

'My father
Stops at the portal
And, though totally mistaken,
Takes a hard look at his house.
Everything the words +so long+ were ever
Meant to imply
Is in this look.
A look that, when shown to me later,
Second-hand,
As part of a story with a
Happy ending. '

From 'The Good Look' .
Also, my favorites in this book include his lovely poem contemplating and weaving the butterfly effect 'My Mother , If She Had Won Free Dance Lessons ' and ' Ariel Ballet '. This is wonderful collection.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eady's style, voice, and rhythmic choices me vividly of Carl Sandburg. Now, I like Sandburg, and I liked this book of Eady's, too, but I don't love it the way I love, say, Baudelaire, Rilke, or Eliot.

[Admittedly I'm not the most well-read in contemporary poets. It's a deficiency I'm going to try very hard to remedy ASAP because I'm sure I'm missing a lot of greats. But as it stands, I don't have much to compare Eady to in that regard.]

I wasn't fond of the titular poem (although what a great fucking title amirite?). The ones I liked best: Miss Johnson Dances For the First Time, April, Radio, the Lost Poem, Crows in a Strong Wind, and the last one in the book, Dance at the Amherst County Public Library.

"My friend, I bequeath to you what I know:
Not the image of a high, glistening city
But the potential in tall grass, flattened
by a summer's storm.
Not the dance
But the good intentions of a dance.

This was the world I belonged to,
With its symphony of near-misses"
-Dance at the Amherst County Public Library

[Tess Majors · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all-time favorite poetry books. The beautiful word choice and phrases draw you into the worlds of dance and poetry. I would recommend to anyone who loves dance, poetry, and all things that make you feel something. This book certainly did that for me, and its honesty shocked me to the bone.

[Laura Hartmark · Rating 5 out of 5]

"When the world ends, I will be wearing a red dress." Enough said. Poems to make you want to dance. That's some deep synesthesic alchemy.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whew! So good. “Not the dance / but the good intentions of a dance.”

[Gerry LaFemina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just taught this book with my advanced poetry students...I hadn't read it in years and forgot just how much backbeat the poems had, how much humor and how much heart.

[Mills College Library]

811.54 E115v 1997

[Jeff Crompton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would like to give this book of excellent poems a more detailed review, but I have misplaced it after reading about three quarters of it. I hope to find or replace it at some point.

[Sherry Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciate how the title gets your attention and the poems in the book truly relate to the title.