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Greed
Greed for money, power, sex, and love is the theme of this volume of dramatic monologues by the poet the New York Times Book Review has called "one of the most singular voices of her generation." Beginning with "Riot Act," a monologue about the Los Angeles uprising in April 1992, Ai explored racial and sexual politics through the voices of diverse characters.
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First published November 1, 1993
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About the author
Ai
5,250 books92 followersAi Ogawa (born Florence Anthony) was an American poet who who described herself as 1/2 Japanese, 1/8 Choctaw-Chickasaw, 1/4 Black, 1/16 Irish and as well as Southern Cheyenne and Comanche. She is known for her mastery of the dramatic monologue as a poetic form, as well as for taking on dark, controversial topics in her work. While her poems often contain sex, violence, and other subjects for which she received criticism, she stated during a 1978 interview that she did not view her use of them as gratuitous. About the poems in her first collection, Cruelty, she said: "I wanted people to see how they treated each other and themselves." In 1999 she won the National Book Award for Poetry for Vice: New and Selected Poems.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 18, 2008
These poems are intense, David Ignatow says she is, "The hardest-hitting poet of her generation." The book starts with a poem after the 92 riots, and includes persona poems after the likes of Marion Berry, Jack Rudy, Edger J. Hoover... reading made me wonder about my own knowledge of history. Times I got lost in her words. But the bluntness of her work carries through to today. "men do not have the luxury of mercy." And, "obey the first rule of self-preservation/which is to find a fool to take the blame."
In her poem Endangered Species, "I'm being taught/that injustice is merely another way/of looking at the truth./At some point, we will meet/at the tip of the bullet,/the blade, or the whip/as it draws blood,/but only one of us will change,/only one of us will slip/past the captain and the crew of this ship/and the other submit to the chains/of a nation/that delivered rhetoric/in exchange for its promises."
Her sex poems are harsh and telling of the ways many still live.
In her poem Endangered Species, "I'm being taught/that injustice is merely another way/of looking at the truth./At some point, we will meet/at the tip of the bullet,/the blade, or the whip/as it draws blood,/but only one of us will change,/only one of us will slip/past the captain and the crew of this ship/and the other submit to the chains/of a nation/that delivered rhetoric/in exchange for its promises."
Her sex poems are harsh and telling of the ways many still live.
August 19, 2025
He offers me the chance to dance
on the graves of the slaves to the official story,
but why bother?
I bow my head over the edge of the precipice,
where the life I lead
lies dead in its own arms,
while the other victims of the resurrection
are stumbling toward an open car.
They are doomed to repeat the past,
but who can prove the truth
really isn't what you make it,
when it's so easy to fake?
Yet, his argument is so convincing that I waver.
I'll cooperate for one small favor, I tell him,
so we negotiate a detour on the road
to reopened files.
Now, on a city street,
paved with fool's gold,
I testify about the abuse of firearms
and the absolute power of lies,
then I take the few glistening coins from my hat
and throw them in the air.
They rise and rise, then fall back
on the eyes of America,
D-O-A inside a cardboard box.
-- "Jack Ruby on Ice"
How much farther must I go?
Why is my destination so uncertain?
What is the difference between nothing and zero?
Cackling, you fade to black
and I'm staring through the bars
at LA County, where I am incarcerated
for another sex-related incident
that escalated into violence.
He participated willingly I told them,
as the boy was hustled off
to join the war against the saints,
who aren't just the good ones, no,
but also the ones who struggle again and again
against the flow of raw sewage,
only to drown in its undertow.
-- "Life Story," one of the only poems that has genuinely triggered me. (Fuck you, Father Bob)
on the graves of the slaves to the official story,
but why bother?
I bow my head over the edge of the precipice,
where the life I lead
lies dead in its own arms,
while the other victims of the resurrection
are stumbling toward an open car.
They are doomed to repeat the past,
but who can prove the truth
really isn't what you make it,
when it's so easy to fake?
Yet, his argument is so convincing that I waver.
I'll cooperate for one small favor, I tell him,
so we negotiate a detour on the road
to reopened files.
Now, on a city street,
paved with fool's gold,
I testify about the abuse of firearms
and the absolute power of lies,
then I take the few glistening coins from my hat
and throw them in the air.
They rise and rise, then fall back
on the eyes of America,
D-O-A inside a cardboard box.
-- "Jack Ruby on Ice"
How much farther must I go?
Why is my destination so uncertain?
What is the difference between nothing and zero?
Cackling, you fade to black
and I'm staring through the bars
at LA County, where I am incarcerated
for another sex-related incident
that escalated into violence.
He participated willingly I told them,
as the boy was hustled off
to join the war against the saints,
who aren't just the good ones, no,
but also the ones who struggle again and again
against the flow of raw sewage,
only to drown in its undertow.
-- "Life Story," one of the only poems that has genuinely triggered me. (Fuck you, Father Bob)
November 9, 2024
I've been thinking a lot about Ai & Ai's poems lately, about Ai's inhabitation of monsters, the poems' relentless drive into trauma. &, in this collection, the monsters are self-consciously American: capitalist sharks, rapists, spooks, right-wing assassins. She possesses them and hurls them into the simmering void of their own death drives. Maybe it's because one of my first mentors, Jeff Coleman, fed me some Ai poems. Maybe it's because we're in our own age of monsters, as two-faced fascist- compatible, g*n*c*d*-sponsoring imperialist dem elite, meekly give way to the mask-off fascists whose only real promise is violence and impunity. The fascination may not actually be what I need but it's where I went for a few days. Back to searching for a poetics of solidarity. It's out there.
November 29, 2019
Wow. I was not ready for the darkness that these poems possess. I do not hate it. I definitely do not love it, but I think the rawness and terror of them is beautiful in a twisted way. I’m sure I will reread these at some point, and get even more out of them, but for now I need a dose of pure optimism.
June 4, 2024
Cruelty and Sin, the first two poetry collections in Ai's trio, raked me through evil and terror quite effectively--bruised mind from those books. Greed keeps the voice of evil alive in these brutal poems. I cannot really say it was "good" or "bad" or "1, 2, 3, 4, 5" stars...the poetry just WAS...& it was all about evil.
July 25, 2019
Two stars mostly out of affect rather than a judgment on the style. I felt extremely uncomfortable-traumatized reading 70% of this book. And I get that's the point of the work, pointing out the absolute filth in everyday america as well as historical america, but hoof.
June 21, 2025
Important themes, but despite rhymes and line breaks, I had trouble with the overall rhythm of the poems. There are sections where it’s dominated by prose, but that happens in narrative poetry sometimes.
I appreciate the intensity of the language and images, but I think craft is important too.
I appreciate the intensity of the language and images, but I think craft is important too.
November 1, 2010
When reading this book, I wondered about a poet's trajectory, how some poets thematically and formally will shift and change, and I thought of how the books of Ai's I've been reading recently, how very similar they are. This one was without the phenomenal images that other collections have had, particularly The Killing Floor.
August 13, 2012
{{{{{{{{{!!!!!!!}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
June 29, 2021
If you are into history presented in poetic form then this is a read for you. Every page breathes fresh breath into American History's dark past.
July 2, 2012
Damn.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews