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Red Summer
Johnson's Red Summer startles and impresses with its sheer range of vision, at one moment giving us a hushed, confessional poem, at another a poem of public, political consciousness. Red Summer gives us the stirring debut of a restorative new American voice.""-- Carl Phillips This haunting debut collection explores a rash of race riots that swept the United States during the summer of 1919. With a tender lyrical quality, reminiscent of the blues, Johnson moves through trauma and personal catastrophe to champion the endurance of the human spirit. These poems are underscored by music so unsettling they leave the voices of the dead lingering in the ear.
54 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 11, 2008
This a grity book. Sometimes a little too grity. Yet that may be what makes it worth reading. It is not often a poetry book can be described as grity and or raw.
June 17, 2024
Red Summer
Author: Amaud Jamaul Johnson
Pages: 54
My Review and Thoughts:
Eye opening.
What a pure imaginative exploration of the emotional senses of life. Beautifully weaved together with tight descriptive words and equally thrilling imagery through Johnson's wordplay. The descriptive nature of each poem is described in amazing detail. Johnson takes his poetry serious and that seriousness bleeds off the page into the mind of the reader. I did not want to stop reading this poetry book, and when it came to an end I was thoroughly satisfied, but was also saddened by its end. I loved the imagery displayed in tight weaved words that created different time periods, that seemed so out there, and so unique and so truthful in nature.
The best way to describe this poetry book. It's as if you go through a bunch of poetry books, and read them, but you always have Red Summer and Johnson’s style on your mind. That's how, I can best describe Johnson's ability in capturing words. He is one of those poets that you will return to and wait for the other publications that they decide to bring out. Johnson is truly a gifted, imaginative creator of situations, ideas, imagery, and most of all, a poetry book of excellence.
This book of poetry builds and builds in small moments, exploding to capture intense moments.
This book bleeds drama induced reality, yet tense, yet edging slowly into am emotional back drop of surprises. There’s a sense of life, with all the mixtures of fear and violence and joy. A broken soul at times. The poetry displays a story like telling of characters and situations that flow with gravity of history and racial hatred of the past and racial reality of the present. A must read book of poetry.
It has a meaningful belief, hushed around it’s poetry, on page after page, which basically become's mini stories.
Would I Recommend: I think this is one of those poetry books that should be experienced. It’s a moving journey that brings all the emotions of human nature to the forefront.
Would I return to it: Yes easily? I have already read several of the pieces over again many
times. This is a book that demands one to read over and over. It left a truly lasting impression on me.
Four Final Words: Brilliant, brutal, Raw, Sublime
My Rating: 4.5 out of 5
My Favorite Lines:
Page 36: Titled to trouble water
flat stones skipping dark
water ring. Your nipples sail
like monet’s lilies.
Page 18 Titled: Burlesque
as candlelight on a dark negligee.
Come, look at him, at all his goods,
how his whole body becomes song,
an aria of light, a psalm’s kaleidoscope.
Author: Amaud Jamaul Johnson
Pages: 54
My Review and Thoughts:
Eye opening.
What a pure imaginative exploration of the emotional senses of life. Beautifully weaved together with tight descriptive words and equally thrilling imagery through Johnson's wordplay. The descriptive nature of each poem is described in amazing detail. Johnson takes his poetry serious and that seriousness bleeds off the page into the mind of the reader. I did not want to stop reading this poetry book, and when it came to an end I was thoroughly satisfied, but was also saddened by its end. I loved the imagery displayed in tight weaved words that created different time periods, that seemed so out there, and so unique and so truthful in nature.
The best way to describe this poetry book. It's as if you go through a bunch of poetry books, and read them, but you always have Red Summer and Johnson’s style on your mind. That's how, I can best describe Johnson's ability in capturing words. He is one of those poets that you will return to and wait for the other publications that they decide to bring out. Johnson is truly a gifted, imaginative creator of situations, ideas, imagery, and most of all, a poetry book of excellence.
This book of poetry builds and builds in small moments, exploding to capture intense moments.
This book bleeds drama induced reality, yet tense, yet edging slowly into am emotional back drop of surprises. There’s a sense of life, with all the mixtures of fear and violence and joy. A broken soul at times. The poetry displays a story like telling of characters and situations that flow with gravity of history and racial hatred of the past and racial reality of the present. A must read book of poetry.
It has a meaningful belief, hushed around it’s poetry, on page after page, which basically become's mini stories.
Would I Recommend: I think this is one of those poetry books that should be experienced. It’s a moving journey that brings all the emotions of human nature to the forefront.
Would I return to it: Yes easily? I have already read several of the pieces over again many
times. This is a book that demands one to read over and over. It left a truly lasting impression on me.
Four Final Words: Brilliant, brutal, Raw, Sublime
My Rating: 4.5 out of 5
My Favorite Lines:
Page 36: Titled to trouble water
flat stones skipping dark
water ring. Your nipples sail
like monet’s lilies.
Page 18 Titled: Burlesque
as candlelight on a dark negligee.
Come, look at him, at all his goods,
how his whole body becomes song,
an aria of light, a psalm’s kaleidoscope.
September 22, 2014
I am fascinated by the 100 years between the pre-(US) Civil War to the end of World War II. While not quite in the middle of this, the story shows the nation in change in the summer of 1919, in the middle of the Great Migration and with some of the Civil Way prejudices not fully having dialed out. Very enlightening and interesting about a very tragic chapter in post-World War One America.
August 9, 2014
I love poetry that doesn't pull punches. Because let's be honest here, most poetry is boring as hell. This stuff? This is anything but.
September 6, 2012
ends stronger than it begins. Honest poetry about race, raw and haunting and somehow very personal.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews