People still sing goddamn it. Praise be to erica lewis. Sampson Starkweather, author of
PAIN: The Board Game Being of black, Native American, and white descent, erica lewis’ poems recount her friends and family’sespecially the women''scomplex history with race, gender, and class in America, what it means to live with your own history, and how to move on. Each poem is framed by phrases from the lyrics of Stevie Wonder’s Motown records, but the poems themselves are homages to her women kin, friends, and other contemporary women poets. And the dominant motif is brokenness. It is lewis' take on revising the confessional while taking inspiration from her family's own oral history. Each poem is also framed by phrases from the lyrics of Stevie Wonder's Motown records, but the poems are not about the actual songs, but what is triggered when listening to or thinking about the music. What happens when you take something like a pop song and turn it in on itself, give it a different frame of reference, juxtapose the work against itself, against other pop music, and bring it into the present. mary wants to be a superwoman is the second book of the box-set trilogy; daryl hall is my boyfriend (Barrelhouse, 2015) is the first.
By intertwining the public and the personal, Lewis''s poems become a membrane through which pop culture permeates the most intimate experiences of selfhood. Publisher’s Weekly
contents the wind screams mary clap your hands just a little bit louder 2 baby, everything is alright 4 it’s an awful hurting feeling 6 my baby loves me my baby needs me 8 i sit and wait in vain 11 your sweetie pie your precious one 13 i’m gonna patch up every single little dream 15 i ain’t playin hard for nobody 17 warm like you 19 pretty little one 21 when we were dreaming 23 in my every dream i am 25 then that time i went and said goodbye 28 help the roses 31 the risk of knowing 34 i see the light of your smile 37 i thought the cold would leave by summer 40 voodoo child vintage church bird house/wood when i needed you last winter 44 the world's put on me 46 ladders bout' to fall 48 i feel like this is the beginning 50 well, in my mind, we can conquer the world 52 but i ain’t touched the sky 54 i lived to see the milk and honey land 56 in hard time mississippi 58 closing both my eyes 62 when all is put away 64 don't you worry 'bout a thing 66 so let it be 68 you can feel it all over 70 why did those days 72 i love you, i love you, i love you 74 living in a pastime 76 jammin’ through love we’d be 79 if it’s magic 80 and i am you 81 there might be another star 82 all i do 83 took me riding in your rocket, gave me a star 84 tonight there will be a party 85 lately i’ve been staring in the mirror 86 i’ve been hurting for a long time 87 this is not a coincidence 88 my whole body 89 make me feel like paradise 90 i just called to say i love you 91 i’ve got to throw my castle away 92 up against the sun 93 all the gold in the world 94 a certain weakness 95 and so by the way i thank you 96 jelks/lawton/lewis 98
