Show and Tell: New and Selected Poems

by Jim Daniels

"Jim Daniels is a poet of unique commitment and ability. He makes poetry an act of deep caring and recognition."—Robert Creeley

Genres: Poetry

208 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2003

About the author

James Raymond Daniels (born 1956 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American poet and writer. Like his father and many of his friends, Daniels worked for the Ford Motor Company before college. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Alma College in 1978 and a master’s degree from Bowling Green State University in 1980. In his writing, he addresses the issues of blue collar work, adolescence, and determining the role of a poet. The factories proved a setting for many of his poems, which describe the hardships factory workers face.

Since 1981, Daniels has been on the faculty of the creative writing program at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he is the Thomas Stockham Baker Professor of English. The majority of Daniels' papers can be found within the Special Collections department of Michigan State University's main library.

Daniels' literary works have been recognized and highlighted at Michigan State University in their Michigan Writers Series. He won the inaugural Brittingham Prize in Poetry in 1985 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Reviews

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jim Daniels is a straightforward poet. His language is simple, his writing accessible, and a lot of his poems are little narratives. It's not normally my favorite type of poetry to read, but this collection is effective and engaging because of Daniel's strong, wise, narrative and poetic voice. Whether it's blue collar life or universal milestones of adolescence, Daniels paints his landscapes well enough for any reader to feel as though they're sitting in the middle of them.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good. A bit inconsistent. I've found some of his individual pieces extremely powerful and well-presented. But I found myself getting a bit bored with the sentimentality at times. Overall, I'd recommend him, or at least a poetry compilation that has him in it.

[Mary Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading several mediocre to bad novels lately, I picked this up last night and devoured it like a great novel. Love these gritty, tender poems!

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading a collection of poems by the first poetry teacher on my path -- and in some ways the most influential -- is like sitting down in an office built from nostalgia and listening to him talk and laugh. I still admire the tension in his lines, the voices in his stark rooms, the lives and places he's captured so succinctly.

[Tom Romig · Rating 5 out of 5]

An especially poignant collection of poems for me since I'm a contemporary of Jim Daniels and my wife and I lived in Detroit and raised children there during the period he writes about. He's marvelous at capturing the moods of the city, particularly the convoluted race relations and changing work conditions.

[timv · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jim Daniels best work.