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A review by lydiature_
Jimmy's Blues and Other Poems by James Baldwin
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
2.0
i think i just have to come to terms with me not liking poetry. because no matter who it is or the subject, i just can’t get into it. out of the hundred or so poems that i have read, i only liked 2 of them: “daddy” by sylvia plath and “gasoline” by margaret atwood. i’ve tried all kinds of styles, poems from different eras and cultures and i just don’t like them.
this collection by baldwin was lackluster. the content was okay—he mostly talked about race and sexuality. which is obviously fine but the writing wasn’t very good. i was expecting more from this collection. all of his poems were like the instagram quote style thing that is apparently plaguing social media—like rupi kaur and warsan shire. they’re basically “impactful” sentences split up into random breaks. i understand that art is subject but a poem is not a quote. punctuation, break lines, stanzas, and word choices matter. but looking at each of his poems (and the instagram quote poetry style) lacks reason. he could’ve picked any word, any punctuation, any line break.
i know that some people like that style but i don’t—it doesn’t matter who it is. i just feel like these writers hide their incompetence in the subject matter of “sensational” topics like sexuality, race, gender, and immigration. the concepts are good don’t get me wrong, but that’s a very lazy way of writing. quotes are not poems. it just feels very manipulative to me.
i still love baldwin but i personally will be avoiding his poems from now on. the style he uses to approach his fiction/essays is completely different from his poetry. it’s not very consistent. i honestly didn’t even recognize him in this work.
this collection by baldwin was lackluster. the content was okay—he mostly talked about race and sexuality. which is obviously fine but the writing wasn’t very good. i was expecting more from this collection. all of his poems were like the instagram quote style thing that is apparently plaguing social media—like rupi kaur and warsan shire. they’re basically “impactful” sentences split up into random breaks. i understand that art is subject but a poem is not a quote. punctuation, break lines, stanzas, and word choices matter. but looking at each of his poems (and the instagram quote poetry style) lacks reason. he could’ve picked any word, any punctuation, any line break.
i know that some people like that style but i don’t—it doesn’t matter who it is. i just feel like these writers hide their incompetence in the subject matter of “sensational” topics like sexuality, race, gender, and immigration. the concepts are good don’t get me wrong, but that’s a very lazy way of writing. quotes are not poems. it just feels very manipulative to me.
i still love baldwin but i personally will be avoiding his poems from now on. the style he uses to approach his fiction/essays is completely different from his poetry. it’s not very consistent. i honestly didn’t even recognize him in this work.