Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems

by Wanda Coleman, Terrance Hayes (Editor)

ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST― The New York Times and Washington Post

A voice for justice, anti-racism, and equality―here is the greatest and most powerful work of the people’s poet, Wanda Coleman.

Coleman was a beat-up, broke, and Black woman who wrote with anger, humor, and clarity. Wicked Selected Poems is a selection of 130 of her poems, edited and introduced by Terrance Hayes. Rejected by the elites during her lifetime, here’s what people are saying

― One of the year’s best! “These poems are wildly fun and inventive . . . and frequently hilarious; they seem to cover every human experience and emotion.”― New York Times

―Winner, California Independent Bookseller Alliance ‘Golden Poppy’ Book Award 2020

―“Required Reading” Bustle

―“One of the greatest poets ever to come out of L.A.” The New Yorker

―One of the year’s best! “Fantastically entertaining and deeply engaging...potent distillations of creative rage, social critique, and subversive wit.”― Washington Post

―“Her work pushes us to confront injustice with as much candor as she did.”― Poetry

A self-made writer from Black Los Angeles, Wanda Coleman made art while living every day with racism, poverty, violence. Her triumph is in words that endure. It’s time for Coleman’s courageous, impassioned, inspiring, one-of-a-kind voice to reach readers everywhere.

Genres: Poetry, Race, Fiction, African American, 21st Century

224 pages, Hardcover

First published April 7, 2020

About the author

Coleman was born Wanda Evans, and grew up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles during the 1960s. She received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, The NEA, and the California Arts Council (in fiction and in poetry). She was the first C.O.L.A. literary fellow (Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, 2003). Her numerous honors included an Emmy in Daytime Drama writing, The 1999 Lenore Marshall Prize (for "Bathwater Wine"), and a nomination for the 2001 National Book Awards (for "Mercurochrome"). She was a finalist for California poet laureate (2005).

Reviews

[Brown Girl Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this collection from Wanda Coleman! I highly recommend you check out these poems whose themes range from funny to provocative. She wrote her poems with humor and an effortless candor. These poems are perfect for people who say they can't get into or don't understand poetry. Coleman was 'the unofficial poet laureate of Los Angeles'. Although she is no longer with us this collection precedes her and will remain timeless.

[Bri Little · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clutching my now-ragged and dog-eared bundle of magic. I’ve spent most of the summer reading these 130 poems, and I feel like I’ve self-actualized??? It’s such a shame that Coleman is only posthumously getting her roses. Mistress of Language forreal. I was inspired by and connected to her care for the spectrum of her experiences. Her rage is unapologetic and brash. Her words violent and sexy and sardonic. She cherished her madness just as she did her joy, and I loved every moment. It feels like an honor to bear witness to her art.
Favorites included the Letter to my older sister poems, twayblade disintegration, and Women on Sand.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had not heard of Wanda Coleman before picking up this new collection of her selected works but it made me an instant fan. Sadly, she passed in 2013. Most of these poems were written 30-40 years ago but are strikingly relevant to the current racial environment in America today. I hope this collection finds her a whole new audience.

[Kai · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Jazzy Lemon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wanda Coleman is the voice of a suppressed minority crying out for justice, for revenge, and for a place in the world. Reminiscent of Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brookes, and Allen Ginsberg, Wanda Coleman is the voice of many.

[Taylor Franson-Thiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wanda Coleman man. Brilliant.

[Mads P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of poems is strikingly and sadly very relevant today, though written in the 80s and 90s. The poems are brave, bold, gritty, funny, deep, flippant, historic and contemporary all at once. Themes are race and discrimination, Black feminism, poverty, and poetry as a craft. Coleman makes interesting use of traditional forms, with lots of sonnets for example, and she invents her own. I found out about this collection after reading a good review in The New Yorker, by Dan Chiasson.

[bowiesbooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wicked Enchantment by Wanda Coleman is a collection of her poetry over the years.

I was not familiar with her or her work before this so I really liked how there were lots of different poems with different styles and tones. She is clearly incredibly talented and absolutely has a way with words. Some of my favourite lines were; 'My delicious dilemma is language. How I structure it. How the
fiction of history structures me. And as I’ve become more and
more shattered, my tongue has become tangled . . . I am glassed in
by language as well as by the barriers of my dark skin and financial
embarrassment.'

She writes intimately about human nature and the messiness of what it means to be alive. I liked the honesty and unapologetic tone in which a lot of her poems had. Coleman wrote beautifully about inequalities and drew from her own personal experience of racism, sexism and classism. She writes about struggling to make ends meet and losing who you are in the process.
" ignore the actuality of blackness blah blah blah
and it will cease to have factual power over my life.
which doesn’t make sense to me
– especially when the nature of mirrors
is to reflect"

However, although I felt some of the poems deep in my soul and I just loved the way they were, others didn't have too much of an impact on me. I can appreciate the poetry, the meaning, the significance, but ultimately a lot of these poems didn't truly touch me. Overall this is still an incredible piece of literature and deserves to be picked up time and again.

[Craig Werner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been spending my morning poetry time for the last month with Wanda Coleman's fiercely uncompromising, angry descents into the lyrical depths. Coleman knew she was something more than "difficult" as a person and a poet and infused every line with the truth as clear as she could see and tell it. There's something of Allen Ginsberg's sense of a life fully written in this anthology selected by Terrance Hayes; a jazz exploration, often in the form of "American sonnets" (out of Berryman, passed on to Hayes). Worth the demands it makes. There should be a Collected Poems, multi-volume if needed. I'd be willing to bet her long-term reputation will be higher than it ever was during her life.

Many many good/great poems. Here are a few I'd recommend to start with: Heavy Daughter Blues, African Sleeping Sickness, Notes of a Cultural Terrorist 2, American Sonnet 39, Salvation Wax, Jazz Whine, I Ain't You Earthmama.

[Matt Maielli · Rating 5 out of 5]

“There are moments when I’m inclined to believe that trying to define poetry is as fruitless as trying to define love. It simply cannot be gotten right.”

Bursting with emotion and great lines, this is one of the best poetry collections I’ve ever picked up, and from an author that I hadn’t even heard of beforehand — which is a shame on its own. Hard to pick faves in here, but in “Essay on Language 6” Coleman outlines how much she despises boring poetry which lacks any “pashzuhn” — so you know that her own work better have the goods:

“i am always struck by the ‘safe’ poetry
the most bloodless, banal crap i’ve ever had
the misfortune to read assembled out of the
need for foundation money, the fear of risk,
the need to be free of dolor, to create,
these pathetic versifiers have drained all
passion from their worlds—the lustful
or the didactic—lest they be rejected.”

This also a good edited collection because it gives you a real portrait of the subject — complete with a lovely forward (and an actual, hand-drawn portrait) by Terrance Hayes and a section of Coleman quotes, defining her in her own words.

[rayon · Rating 5 out of 5]

i have no notes! wanda is the kind of babe that reaches for every corner of language and shakes whatever word she wants out with fervour and i love her for it. mercilessly her, extremely boldening to read her lines. cannot wait to memorise some of her work. her images glitter as they burn off the page she writes with a blaze that is so twisting that i can see why they chose wicked enchantment for the title. supermarket surfer made me drycry.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A worthwhile read

This isn't a collection to consume all at once. You have to go slow with it and give it time to stew so you can think over her words. Wanda Coleman has a unique rhythm and voice that I loved reading. The words aren't to be taken lightly though. They are hard topics that force you to come to grips with what is inside yourself.

[thewoollygeek (tea, cake, crochet & books) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was not familiar with Wanda Coleman or her work before picking this up, so I really am grateful for the introduction to such a beautiful, powerful and skilled poet, I am only annoyed (but sadly not surprised) that it’s taken so long for these to be published in the UK, but thank you to penguin for finally giving Wanda the spotlight she deserved, albeit sadly so long after her passing. Wanda was so talented and had a such an incredible and powerful use of language, she writes intimately and beautifully about inequalities, racism, sexism and human nature, all drawn from her own experiences. These poems will touch you so deeply, you won’t necessarily connect with them all, but you don’t have to feel connected to appreciate the skill and craft in the poems. You won’t always connect as deeply because you haven’t lived these experiences, you can only empathise but not fully understand, but it makes these no less power or beautiful. I am thankful for the introduction to Wanda Coleman,I highly recommend that you pick this up and experience her work yourself, you will only be the better for it

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of poems was gritty and sharp. Coleman's works are honest, witty, and written with real clarity. She deals with Black feminism, racism, sex, poverty, creating poetry, and more. Her poems are (sadly) still relevant today and reflect the current state of America and its views toward people of color. A wonderful collection!

My favorites:
-"Wanda in Worryland"
-"Doctor's Report"
-"Giving Birth"
-"'Tis Morning Makes Mother a Killer"
-"Essay on Language"
-"Wanda Why Aren't You Dead"
-"Ms. Pac Man"
-"Emmett Till"
-"The First Day of Spring 1985"
-"Hand Dance"
-"Aptitude Test"
-"Dream 1218"
-"Gone But Not Forgotten"
-"Dream 1319"
-"American Sonnet 15"
-"American Sonnet 16"
-"American Sonnet 70"
-"American Sonnet 71"
-"American Sonnet 82"
-"I Imagine the Angels of Rage"
-"Late Broadcast News"
-"Life as a Cartoon 2"
-"I Ain't Yo Earthmama 2"
-"Letter to My Older Sister 4"
-"American Sonnet 94"
-"American Sonnet 95"
-"Consciousness Raising Exercise"
-"Black-Handed Curse"

[Lisa Kekaula · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am flabbergasted by how moved I am after reading this collection. I am from LA originally and had friends that had Coleman as an instructor at Parsons back in the ‘90’s so I knew about her but never “knew” her. Her work is so relatable at the most basic level for me. Such a revealing selection of poems. She was so much a spokesperson for pathos in a way I can completely identify with. She is amazing and breath taking and heart breaking while being enraged and demure all at once.

[Timbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wanda Coleman's poems were untouched by the careless cutting of the workshop table. She included everything from seminar-level critical theory to street language, all with panache, tenderness, pathos, and raucous humor.

[Siobhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wicked Enchantment is a collection of selected poems by Wanda Coleman, a Black American poet born in Los Angeles in 1946. The poems are gritty and sharp, reflecting on her daily life and wider problems like racism, poverty, and law enforcement, and they feel immediate, at times in a stream of consciousness style. As she's not been widely published in the UK before, the collection also introduces her and her life, and provides a great way to discover her writing.

I hadn't read any of her poetry before and these ones were powerful and cutting, the kind you need to return to and read again and fully take in. The minute details of her life are combined with wit and wider commentary, and even some comments on poetry itself. A note at the end states that she carefully ordered the poems in her books, and it would be interesting to see these poems in context, as is often the case when you read a selection of poems that span a poet's life.

[Lisa]

A beautiful early early early pandemic gift from Katie Freeman.

[Catherine T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wanda Coleman wrote poems that should be read always, but especially in this moment and from now on. As my first introduction to her writing, this collection provided a comprehensive overview of her work, and left me desiring to read the anthologies these selections were pulled from. I am still grappling with understanding poetry, but her American Sonnets and Letter to My Older Sister series were particularly heart wrenching to read, for their raw honesty. Terrance Hayes did a terrific job in picking out which poems were included.

[Jamie Coughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

First time reading Wanda Coleman and I was completely blown away. Each line lifts right up off the page and floors you. I don't know that I've ever read such a long string of incredible poems in a row, each completely different but equally vital. Sad, angry, heavy and humorous-- like Mary Karr said these poems break you and heal you.

[Ulyses Razo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wanda Coleman needs to be a household name. Some of the best poems I've ever read are hers. They're in this collection and include: "Wanda, Why Aren't You Dead," "The Saturday Afternoon Blues," "Black-Handed Curse," and "Wanda in Worryland." Simply one of the best. Certainly the most raw. Up there with Berryman.

[Jacia · Rating 4 out of 5]

These poems are hard to read in one fell swoop. They have to be given plenty of attention, and scream to be savored. Screaming. Coleman is screaming. Mental illness, race and class problems, so many life problems that are universal except not.

[Cailean McBride · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book and like many great books it has at its heart a mystery.
And that mystery is why in 30-odd years of reading (I had thought) pretty extensively in poetry I had never heard of Wanda Coleman, although the answer is depressingly obvious when you give it more than a second’s thought. Because this is one of the most accomplished, most powerful collections you’re ever likely to find.
In his introduction to the volume, Terrance Hayes identifies Bukowski as a central influence on Coleman, one which she acknowledges. But I would argue that it’s a limited comparison. It’s there, to be sure, but I’d say that Coleman for the most part is the better poet and has certainly transcended the egomania and empty(ish) hedonism of much of Bukowski’s work.
Because the keynote of much of Coleman’s work — as most commentators have pointed out is — rage. Not anger, but rage. It’s a word you’ll see time and again in these poems. But it’s important to contextualise just what we’re talking about here. We’re not talking about petulance, or self-pity, or self-justification. We’re talking about an entirely (often brutally) honest and entirely justified sense of rage. At everything from social injustice to the psycho-sexual dynamics of modern relationships. Hers is a world of almost perpetual economic instability and the constant threat of police harassment.
But while commentators are correct to highlight the aspect of righteous anger in Coleman’s work, there’s far more to delve into. For one thing, she is clearly engaged with the general corpus of recent (and not so recent) poetry and with the act of writing itself. She directly engages with the work and style of numerous poets from Rilke to Ginsberg to even Lewis Carroll. Her sequence of Essays on Language too take a no-bullshit scalpel to questions of the tyrannies and contradictions of the written and spoken word.
Coleman is also what I’d call a musical poet. All poets are to some extent, of course but it’s a more direct influence here than in many others and much of her work is deeply absorbed in the rhythms of jazz, soul and blues. It’s most obvious in pieces like Nocturne and The Saturday Afternoon Blues but it permeates a great many of her poems. It probably at least contributes to the sense of Coleman being a kind of spiritual descendant of some of the better Beats.
She is a very playful poet and it’s easy to overlook the great amount of wicked humour evident in her work. Again, this can be literal but it also manifests in her clever experimentation with form and structure. Many of the poems in Wicked Enchantment are in free verse, although Coleman more than once shows an easy command of more traditional form when she is so inclined. The centrepiece of the book (for me) is the sequence of American Sonnets and these range in both subject and form from the relatively traditional to the stretching of the form to its extremes.
I find myself very grateful to have finally discovered Wanda Coleman and this collection is the perfect introduction to those new to her work. It’s not just a recommended read, I’d say, but an essential one.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

American poet Wanda Coleman lived life on the socio-economic fringes—perpetually impoverished (“I have / been three months behind in my rent for thirty years”) and constrained by a culture that rejected her on the basis of skin color, gender, and lack of college education, Coleman fights back for dignity and beauty in life in poems ranging from brash self-assertion to exhausted, emotional pleas about an existence heavily and perpetually constrained by lack of food and economic security. This life, in spite of having won the Lenore Marshall Prize from the American Academy of Poets in 1998 and, in 2001, being nominated for a National Book Award in Poetry.

Hardscrabble life described by the right hands produced the type of poetry and fiction attractive to John Martin, publisher and editor of Black Sparrow Books, perhaps best known for publishing works by Charles Bukowski and John Fante, and adding Coleman in the 1970s. Not surprisingly, Coleman felt some kinship with the poverty and low-wage jobs described in Bukowski’s poems—and some of her early poems here reflect that inspiration—but she soon developed her own style and voice, and expanded her vocabulary, forms, and rhetorical expression beyond the more limited constraints of Bukowski’s works. Except for the poems of lust (lust on a zero $ budget—not romantic), the following two stanzas from “Things No One Knows” are representative of Coleman’s themes and frustrations:

overcome by the stink of mildewed wash, i have
been three months behind in my rent for thirty years. my
countrymen do not love me. even my lines have
lines. we are getting old in a city where the old are
invisible. i have nothing new to eat and barely five minutes
to use the jane. and less time than that to revisit my
father’s grave. i’ve worn the same underwear for fifteen
of those thirty years and some pieces longer than that

writing friends is a luxury, enemies a necessity. my car
was stripped and stolen months ago and I have no
money with which to repair or replace it. my mentors have
exiled me to the outskirts of nappy literacy. my wallet is
dying of militant brain cancer. my lust for my country
is frigid. the light excludes me and there is
no degree for what is learned in the dark

[Paws with a Book · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of poems from the late Wanda Coleman despite the majority being written around 30-40 years old are still resonant with many of the issues that are unfortunately all too familiar, particularly around racial prejudice and discrimination.

Coleman’s poems are full of hurt, fear and anger...and are so powerful, raw and emotionally charged. In 2004 she wrote that effectively she had found her own style which was ‘frenetic, sometimes lyrical free verse, dotted with literary, musical, and cinematic allusions...’ and I wouldn’t disagree with her.

I will include trigger warnings for: graphic sexual content and language, suicidal thoughts, alcohol and drug use and addiction.

She was clearly brave, and ground-breaking, and I would’ve loved to read a little more about her in Terry Haynes’ introduction, or if some context could have been inserted between poems in the collection. Although I understand that the collection was sequenced as Coleman herself had done, personally, I would’ve enjoyed the collection more if they had been catalogued, themed or grouped and contextualised in sections.

There were poems that I thought were phenomenal, and these were generally the lyrical, more easily accessible poetry. My favourites being ‘The Saturday Afternoon Blues’, ‘How Does It Hurt’ and ‘Thiefheart’. They were sad, but honest real, with Coleman sharing her heart-breaking truth .

However I really did struggle with about two thirds of the poems in the collection. Coleman’s writing is very free, and abstract, and sometimes I felt they went a little too wayward and their meaning and power was lost on me. I would love to explore these some more because I know there is more to them.

I can see that Coleman is an amazing poet but I honestly just felt like the majority of poems in the collection were not easily accessible, and as a result that I didn’t appreciate them sufficiently.

Thank you to Penguin Random House for an advanced copy of this collection, to introduce me to this powerful poet.

[Mina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I find it quite hard to decide whether I liked the poems or not. Quite thorn between obsessing over them and at the same time running away from them. I decide to attribute this to the rawness of the language Wanda Coleman.

Wicked Enchantment is a collection of the poetry written by Wanda Coleman, precisely 130 of them. Coleman was colloquially known as ‘the unofficial poet laureate of L’os Angeles’. Her poetic expression Is raw, very direct, metaphorically playful and brutally honest. Common themes are brutalities of African-American women’s lifestyle in the 80’s and 90’s, racism, family life, poverty, hustle culture, self-identity and relationships.

I started reading this collection without any prior knowledge of Wanda’s work. This turned out to be a blessing and a curse. I was so amazed by her literary expression, at times it left me in awe.

“how I committed suicide: i revealed myself to you.
i trusted you. I forgot the color of my birth.” (American Sonnet 94)

“those who have sunk complain in their fleshlessness
rankled, they rile against the chill of fathoms
where is Poseidon when you need him? off somewheres
and leaving you to Hades.” (I ain’t yo Earthmama)

Most of the poems are very explicit, which was too much for me at times and made my reading experience not particularly enjoyable. That’s a downside of me diving into this work without any prior knowledge. To avoid that the best thing would be check out the content warnings before reading.
Wanda’s poems are indeed timeless and unfortunately very relevant even today and it is only nowadays that she is praised for her work. Her rage and rebellion is expressed through poems that can be enjoyed by mature audience and readers.

CONTENT WARNINGS: explicit language, suicidal thoughts, graphic medical descriptions of bodily fluids.

[Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, I'd like to say thank you to NetGalley for the advanced digital copy of this book!

I have to admit that this is the first time I’ve heard about Wanda Coleman, but after reading this collection of selected poems I will definitely read more of her work in the future!

This is a very personal selection, she captures moments of her life and talks about issues such as racism, sexism, and poverty. I love the way the poems are written. All of them are powerful, heartbreaking and honest. My original plan was to read this collection in a couple of days, but I found myself keep going back to them and re-reading them to process everything that she packs into these works. It is so well written, full of emotions and feels passionate.
There’s so much to unpack on these poems, so if you pick up this book, my advice is to take your time with it.

This will be the first book published by Wanda Coleman in the UK, so I would definitely recommend to read it if you are interested in poetry.


TW: racism, suicidal thoughts, sexism, sexual content

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like to think of myself as well-read, and even if I don’t read a lot of poetry, I like to think that at least I’ve heard of the major contemporary poets – but I’d never heard of Wanda Coleman (1946-2013) so this collection was a real revelation. Why has her work never been published in the UK before now? Such a vibrant, powerful voice – and yet this is her first collection to be issued here; and kudos to Penguin for now doing so. 130 poems are included from her 40 year writing career, and there’s a useful introduction to put them into context. She writes of the Black experience, especially in her native Los Angeles. She writes about being a woman, being a Black woman, being poor and disenfranchised, about life on the margins. But also about love and joy, about family and loss, just about everything that touches all our lives, not just Black ones in the US. It’s a bit overwhelming to read through the collection in one go – a more measured and slower pace is needed, and I’m sure I will go back to the book many times. I’m so pleased to have discovered her.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, I'd like to say thank you to Netgalley for giving me the chance to read this book.

I have to admit that this is the first time I’ve heard about Wanda Coleman, but after reading this collection of selected poems I will definitely read more of her work in the future!
This collection of poems is strikingly and sadly very relevant today, though written in the 80s and 90s. The poems are brave, bold, gritty, funny, deep, flippant, historic and contemporary all at once.

There’s so much to unpack on these poems, so if you pick up this book, my advice is to take your time with it.

This will be the first book published by Wanda Coleman in the UK, so I would definitely recommend to read it if you are interested in poetry.

Several trigger points in this book; racism, suicidal thoughts, sexism and sexual content.
Thank you to Penguin Press UK and Netgalley for an eARC of this book in return for an honest review.

[Bonita · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used this book for the Wanda Coleman workshop I taught in the spring. I find it amazing that she was not as celebrated as other poems during these times. She thought her living in south central LA people were only paying attention to poets in the mid-west or east coast. If you want to know more about Wanda this is the book. Her literary intellect as a young girl, the books she read from the canon to the Edgar Allen Poe, books like Alice in Wonderland and how they influence some of her own poetry. The men she married, she even hung out with Charles Mason (before the murders). She shares the challenge she had in not completing an academic writing program, but how the study she did at the community workshops were a deeper influence. I didn't know she was almost blacklisted twice, once for her review of a fundraiser for Angela Davis' defense fund and her not so glowing review of a book of poetry by Maya Angelou. This was a great book to start your study of Wanda Coleman.