Dark Blonde: Poems

by Belle Waring

Waring has worked as a neo-natal intensive care nurse and as Writer-in-Residence at Children's National Medical Center in Washington D.C. Her first collection of poetry, Refuge, won the Associated Writing Program's Award for Poetry in 1989, the Washington Prize in 1991, and was cited by Publishers Weekly as one of the best books of 1990. Her second collection Dark Blonde received the San Francisco Poetry Center Poetry Prize and the Larry Levis Reading Prize in 1997. It was published by Louisville's Sarabande Books."Drawing from her work as a neonatal nurse and from some more common experiences (e.g. nervous breakdowns, incest and poverty), Waring exhibits the street-smart ear and unflinching eye that made her first collection, Refuge, one of PW's Best Books of 1990. The images and headlong rhythms of these new poems exert a wide-ranging, often irresistible pull."-Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Waring creates a voice that we feel we can trust to lead us to the center of an experience, maybe because her language never feels artificial but seems to grow naturally out of the situation it presents. The remarkable range of subjects and characters in Waring's poems leads to an equally remarkable variety of tones and vocabularies."-Word House, Baltimore's Literary Calendar

"When Belle Waring reads her poetry, the jazz-inflected words escape her mouth like a Lester Young solo: quietly, melodically, forcefully. . . . she provides weight to each short line, drawing out her words like sensuous kisses. Her work is also punctuated with politics and humor."-D.C. City Paper

"Poetry, Robert Frost once said, is a way of taking life by the throat. It is in this tradition that poet and nurse Belle Waring approaches her craft-seizing difficult subjects and holding them in time. . . . "-Salon

Waring has written a collection that doesn't renege on us the promise of her first book and indeed has honed her craft to include a wider range of tonal shifts and allow for a finer lyricism while not losing the syncopated snap and humor of her earlier voice."-Indiana Review

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1997

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was published in 1997. It was Waring's second book and a search on the internet leads me to believe it was her last. She is not even represented on the Poetry Foundation website or poets.org. This is such a shame. It's a shame to see someone with talent and something worth saying stop writing. "Gripping" is not a word I would normally use to describe poetry but that word came to mind as I read through this book. These poems contain tension and suspense. Waring worked as a nurse and many of these poems are about the fight for life, whether keeping a body alive, or one's emotions or a relationship. The most gripping poem, "The Forgery," actually does have a place on the internet here: http://washingtonart.com/beltway/wari.... It's a book full of tragedy and bravado and outrage. Here's another example:

Shots

Three nurses to hold him, this four-year-old who kicks me
crazy in the belly--six months pregnant but ha!
I've got the needle--the Measles-Mumps-Rubella.
Child, it stings like hell.

Listen to me, my little immunized enemy--
I'll take a bruise from you
before I'll see another kid like the one carried through the clinic doors
at the end of shift in his father's arms, seizing
seizing
The father's shirt is
black with sweat
is praying in Mexican

grand mal, I try to get a line in, Mother of God, intractable
Get him over to St. Luke's

but in the ambulance, he codes, and then, in the ER
with the furious swirl of personnel, crash cart rumbling up, curtains
snatched to shield him from the drive-bys and the drunks,
the boy expired.
Measles encephalitis.
He never got his shots.

So walk out, dark blonde, into the sun that will scald you red
and bleach your hair to tungsten burning, drive the dusty valley smacked with
irrigated fields. Bad counterfeit. Too green.

His young bones green, unripe, gronjo
from the old Teutonic root--
Green. Untrained. Green. Freshly killed.
His young bones green and full of marrow.

Green at work there in the rows, hands stretched out to pick a beefsteak tomato at the end of season when they strip the plants clean whether the fruit is ripe or not.

I recommend anyone buy this book if they find it because it's worthwhile and this poet is in danger of being forgotten.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Waring's poems is like listening to jazz-the words tumble forth, they slide and glide, tension builds.

[Writer's Relief · Rating 5 out of 5]

Waring does not reflect on her emotions and present them in a neat little package. These poems are tumultuous and full of heat and rage. Her poetry is a battering ram to the heart, begging to be felt and understood. Many poets compose careful, precise language to surround an otherwise unexciting topic. There is something to be said for concocting a beautiful, enjoyable-to-read poem around a flower, bowl of fruit, or rainbow trout. But Belle Waring is not that poet, and DARK BLONDE is not that peaceful collection you’ll want to read sipping chamomile tea. Many of the poems in this collection describe cruel, tragic, and even criminal events to which she bears witness in grief; in anger; with a conscience that cannot be silenced. Instead of stepping back and taking the observational standpoint, we are right inside her head with her. I have never read another poet who could write such in-the-moment, raging, undiluted emotion and yet never come across as juvenile or unpolished. I highly recommend this book to any lover of poetry.

[Antonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is powerful writing. Tough and tender. Many of these poems deal with difficult, even shocking, subject matter.

The voice is authentic, the language natural but intense. Amazing vocabulary. Literate. Jazzy. Informed by hard times, Some very gritty tales from the hospital (the narrator — and the author — is a nurse).

Nobody gets off easy — not the damaged, not the irresponsible and sometimes brutal perpetrators, not the observer (often a participant).

Belle Waring — oh, where is she now? I hope she’s writing.

[Sarabande Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Winner of the First Annual Larry Levis Reading Prize and the 1997 Poetry Center Book Award

Recipient of the 1997 Poetry Center Book Award (SFSU) and the First Annual Levis Reading Prize

[Tricia Florence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent poetry

[M Delea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love her poetry. This is a great book that every poet and poetry lover should read.

[Claudia Ult · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterclass in poetry. This is one of the collections that started me on my poetry journey.

[SmarterLilac · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this magical, almost overwhelming book in the summer of 2004, a time when I was more vulnerable than ever before to the topics this book addresses--the misogyny and cruelty of the American healthcare system, poverty, oppression, the mortality of every person. Ah, memories. Kind it isn't, but Dark Blonde opened my eyes like never before to what poetry could do to make readers care about the problems we most want to avoid. How Belle Waring even managed to write these pieces is beyond me, let alone write them in such a way as to keep the reader fully engaged, alive to their message.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down my favorite contemporary poet, Belle Waring tackles all kinds of stuff - teaching, working as a nurse, heartbreak, depression, alcoholic dads and feral children - with a jazzy intelligent coolness. I admit: I've ripped her off unabashedly in my own poetry.

[Cindy Cunningham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moving, powerful, even moreso now in light of all of the healthcare workers suffering through untenable conditions in 2020 and 2021. She writes the ugly with beauty and makes the seemingly beautiful ugly and that is the purpose of poetry.

[Hillbrooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply said, Waring is my favorite female poet.

[Sheri Mcclure baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be my favorite book of poems. Waring's easy voice makes the painful and the beautiful accessible to us all.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of the medical-themed poems were wonderful. It made me wish the collection were more focused as a whole on that subject.

[Julene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book years ago and it is one of my favorite poetry books. She is a nurse and has some poignant professional poems that nurses love to share about their work.