Blue Front: Poems

by Martha Collins

A stunning account of racism, mob violence, and cultural responsibility as rendered by the poet Martha Collins

the victim hanged, though not on a tree, this
was not the country, they used a steel arch
with electric lights, and later a lamppost, this
was a modern event, the trees were not involved.
—from "Blue Front"

Martha Collins's father, as a five-year-old, sold fruit outside the Blue Front Restaurant in Cairo, Illinois, in 1909. What he witnessed there, with 10,000 participants, is shocking.

In Blue Front, Collins describes the brutal lynching of a black man and, as an afterthought, a white man, both of them left to the mercilessness of the spectators. The poems patch together an arresting array of evidence—newspaper articles, census data, legal history, postcards, photographs, and Collins's speculations
about her father's own experience. The resulting work, part lyric and part narrative, is a bold investigation into hate, mob mentality, culpability, and what it means to be white in a country still haunted by its violently racist history.

Genres: Poetry, African American, Nonfiction, Grad School

84 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2006

About the author

Born in Nebraska and raised in Iowa, Martha Collins was educated at Stanford University and the University of Iowa. She founded the creative writing program at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, and for ten years served as Pauline Delaney Professor of creative writing at Oberlin College. She served as Distinguished Visiting Writer at Cornell University in 2010, and currently teaches (and is available for) short-term workshops. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Jake Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was slow to open on the most necessary work, to teach you its method before using it most seriously. The last third of the book is amazing, incredibly strong and searching. Be patient with this book: it will reward.

[Cecilia Shearon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another read for my Midwest poets class. This content was really challenging, and there were a couple times where I needed to set it aside before revisiting later. Collins does a great job here, but I recommend coming into it knowing its wider context.

[Kin · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book is difficult for me to follow as her writing is quite unsual for a non-native like me. however it strucked me really hard on how brutal human can be on one another.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up as I had just read Richard Peck's "The River Between Us" -- also set in Cairo -- and I thought there might be some interesting resonances.

I didn't enjoy the choppy, fragmentary, unpunctuated blur of many of these poems -- apparently I enjoy her structured poetry more, although I wouldn't say that is necessarily the case -- and I thought there were times when trying to parse out this psuedo stream of consciousness really robbed the poems of their power.

There were some I enjoyed however -- some of the "list" poems (pg 17 "two weeks before it happened", "1913-1964".

My other favorites were "Montgomery" "There were trees on those streets" and "Selma".

[Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collins has opened her own family history as a means of exploring racism. Even Cairo, IL seems to be the bigger statement here. And if Cairo, where else. And how else has it affected us. Perhaps this is where Collins wants to lead us. History is a narrative, and everyone seems to understand the inherent incompleteness of its argument (and even that it always seems to have some argument), but how is it that history actually influences people's lives. How does history make lynchings possible? Because it does.

[Katlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw Martha Collins read at a local bookshop and was intrigued, so I picked up the book. I didn't find that the pauses and inflection she used in her reading were clearly marked by the printed work, which I consider a weakness. The "definition" poems (bury, shoot), scattered throughout, I find very interesting. However, her tendency to play with absences of language didn't always work and made the text feel too opaque in some places. I like the concept, and some of the execution.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a non-fiction-based, book length poem about the author's father witnessing a double lynching when he was 5 in Springfield, IL in 1909. I appreciated Collins using poetry to explore the history of racism in her family as well as culturally. I found the narrative's fragmentation a bit confusing, but it was well-written. Yay for anti-racist poetry!

[Zoé · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a rather difficult book to read, both for its subject and form. It is also a very satisfaying one if you take time and don't hurry through it. Definitely one of those books you go back to after a while and read many times.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, in part, tells the story of Collins' father and a lynching he witnessed as a little boy. And, of course, her attempt to understand what her father saw and what happened in his town.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm writing a literary review of this book. It is unlike anything I've read, and quite excellent.

[Lisa P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somebody please read this! It's indescribable. I guess you have to at least appreciate poetry. If you do, this is such a unique and beautiful and haunting piece of work.

[Ann-marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing and deft story, poem and social commentary

[Rebecca Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first book of poetry and it was quite nice.

[Danielle Mebert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection was different from anything I've ever read. If you like structure in poems, this is not the book for you.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

as a whole, one of my absolute favourite poetry books. the poems are cohesive and tell of a bigger picture, unlike many poetry collections which are only collections of various poems.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely exquisite book of poetry.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collins gives words to the unspeakable and creates beauty from ugliness.

[Susan Sonnen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terse perfection.

[Hope L. Justice · Rating 1 out of 5]

This collection is unmoving despite being unusual. Perhaps it is so unmoving, because it is not her experience to connect to. In terms of form and delicacy, lacking. The concept is something I really liked: to tell a story all about a collection of moments culminating in something really violent. I did not find this collection paced well either.

[Robin Schaer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Close to the end of the book, a section closes with "may / I help you please / make change" -- which is both a question and a directive. This difficult and moving book reckons with the brutal history of racism through one family's memories and erasures, and in doing so helps make change.

[Maughn Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, Martha Collins leads her fellow citizen readers of poetry to confront the ugliest, most hurtful truths about who we are as a people. I can't understand the reviews here who are put off by her "style". Grow up, this is the work poetry is meant to do.

[William Roethlisberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it. Very good book.

[Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

ahhhhh this hurt

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short collect of poems about racism and its affect within the United States. Beautiful and haunting imagery. Recommend for more mature readers.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just now discovered "draft reviews" on goodreads. I know i had some cockamamie grand review planned for this book that would've required tons of research. I now know myself well enough to know i'll never do that so this is all i'll ever "publish".

3.5 stars for me. My favorite poems were the definitionals and the ones that offer evidence of our country's systemic racism, especially

1967—1975

in 1967 when black citizens took to the streets to protest after
Robert L. Hunt was hanged or otherwise died in the city jail

they called the National Guard and formed the White Hats

in 1968 just after the schools were fully integrated

they opened a school for whites called Camelot

in 1969 when the United Front of Cairo began a boycott of stores
that wouldn't hire blacks and weekly marches

the White Hats allegedly fired into black housing

in 1969 when reports disbanded the White Hats and courts defended
the marchers

firings violence gun battles clubbings increased

in 1975 when after years of boycotts marches hearings the courts at
last ordered hirings

the white businesses rather than change closed down

[Karlo Mikhail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anti-racist tract in bricolage form.

[Allyson · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Lies"