Angry Days

by Sesshu Foster

Book by Foster, Sesshu

Paperback

Published August 1, 1987

About the author

Sesshu Foster is an American poet. He has taught composition and literature in East LA since 1985, and has also taught at the University of Iowa, the California Institute of the Arts, the University of California, Santa Cruz and the Jack Kerouac School's Summer Writing Program. He was in residence at California State University, Los Angeles.

Awards:
2010 American Book Award for World Ball Notebook
2009 Asian American Literary Award for Poetry for World Ball Notebook
2005 Believer Book Award for Atomik Aztex
1990 American Book Award for Invocation LA: Urban Multicultural Poetry
Finalist for a PEN Center West Poetry Prize, for City Terrace Field Manual
Finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize for City Terrace Field Manual

Reviews

[Oscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Foster always finds a way to highlight the everyday in his poetics. True to the title, Foster's poems seethe from daily and historical injustices his speaker witnesses. What sets this book apart from the insipid-rant-and-moan model is the speaker's unrelenting desire to document and preserve these vignettes so these histories are not be repeated. Or, as Chuck D would say, "When I get mad, I put it down on the pad / Give you something that you never had"

The afterword where Foster recounts how his poetics are formed from the vernacular of the working class is a must-read text for poets interested in the mechanics behind 'plain language.'