Blues: The Story Always Untold

Recipient of the Carl Sandburg Award for The Mojo Hands Call, I Must Go , Plumpp here addresses victims of racism, economic oppression and spiritual decimation: the battered woman, neglected child, alienated teenager, ``Nine / teen years old: / the dream / died, resurrected / in shouts never / heard . . . . Nine / teen years old and / trouble, troubles / seem / to always follow / her around. All those / years / the dream moving / in her like a baby and / never able to be held. / Still birth. / Bruised dreams / aging.'' Strongly influenced by the blues, both contextually and structurally, the poems do not convey fully realized images or concepts. Halting, staccato lines and discursive, interrupted narratives apparently intend to imitate the rhythm and form of the musical style, as well as to indicate the difficulties inherent in articulating complex realities. However, the result of these efforts is a series of peripherally related ideas, strung together to create a fractured, tangential whole. (June)