The Red Line

by Betsy Sholl

Winner of the 1991 Associated Writing Programs' Award Series in Poetry

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Betsy Sholl has published seven collections of poetry, most recently Rough Cradle (Alice James Books, 2009). Don't Explain won the 1997 Felix Pollak Prize from the University of Wisconsin, and her book The Red Line won the 1991 AWP Prize for Poetry. Her chapbooks include Pick A Card, winner of the Maine Chapbook Competition in 1991, and Betsy Sholl: Greatest Hits, 1974-2004, Pudding House Publications. She was a founding member of Alice James Books and published three collections with them: Changing Faces, Appalachian Winter and Rooms Overhead. Among her awards are a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts, and two Maine Writer's Fellowships. Her work has been included in several anthologies, including Letters to America, Contemporary American Poetry on Race, and a range of magazines, including Field, Triquarterly, Brilliant Corners, The Kenyon Review, The Massachusetts Review, Beloit Poetry Journal. She has been a visiting poet at the University of Pittsburgh and Bucknell University. She lives in Portland, Maine, and teaches at the University of Southern Maine and in the MFA Program of Vermont College.

As of March 1, 2006, Betsy Sholl was chosen to be the Poet Laureate of Maine, a five-year position named by the governor.

Reviews

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sholl’s poems are lyrical narratives, snippets of aspects of life many would prefer not to acknowledge. She captures scenarios and moments, then explodes them with her masterful use of metaphor.
Most of the poems in this collection are long, filling the page, often going into two pages. The lines are also long, which slows the reader, making the experience more contemplative. Sholl’s descriptions are rich and tight. People are prominent throughout the book.
I stare at the blue linoleum
while my mother grieves for her lost sister,
not dead, just more trashed than usual-
(The Coat)

Water is recurrent in this collection. Several poems mention going to the docks, needing to be near the water. “The Y” describes 2 people watching somebody working out, and children in a swim class.
My mother used to ask why I collected
such people. Why I had to think so much,
couldn’t stick to my job, why I had to ride my bike
down to the piers to watch the water hypnotizing itself.


And now, most any city, I find

myself down at the docks watching water
break up whatever light happens to fall.
(You Figure It Out)

In the title poem, Sholl talks about getting off work late at night and taking “the red line straight to its end.” The poem is full of references to sexual desire, riffing off the connotations of the word red.
Now I sometimes think any jerk on the street who can walk
two blocks without talking to himself is better than climbing
five flights alone, opening the door to a congress of roaches.
(The Red Line)

Sholl is observant of the people and mundane settings that surround her. She takes these seemingly ordinary snapshots of the inner city and makes them dance on the page. Her writing is full of movement, which enhances the images and stereotypes of city life. Her easy voice propels the reader.
Right now it’s an old jughead in the laundromat
pulling levers on a candy machine like it’s the slots,
wanting it to be moved by his buttonless coat’s history
of eviction, how slandered even his breath is.
(24 Hours)

"With the sad, sweet urgency of a blues harp player, Betsy Sholl illuminates the dark undercurrents of American life. In a world of 'hunger and trembling,' where 'truth's not supposed to be pretty anymore,' her poems are inimitable and indispensable, luminous parables of love and grace."
--Ronald Wallace from the back cover

[Karen Douglass · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! What a delight to reacquaint myself with Sholl's poetry. Her work is hard, honest, movingly detailed about the more confusing and often seamy side of our relationships. What really impressed me is her ability to make me want to write more honestly and openly. Good, good work.