The Weather That Kills

by Patricia Spears Jones

Evocative imagery that leaps from the page with the force of gunfire. "Poems like stars in a each glowing point connects in a pattern charting lives full of love and disappointment, injustice and defeat, joy and resilience."-- Library Journal "Vibrant with the intensity of blues singers."-- Feminist Bookstore News

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I once bought a few mystery poetry bundles from Coffee House and promptly didn't read them, and decided that for this year's National Poetry Month, maybe I could at least read the poetry already on my shelves.

The work of poet Patricia Spears Jones spans several decades, and this is her debut collection. Many of the poems speak to the Black and Southern experience (also San Francisco and New Orleans experience) from the 1960s to the 1980s, a key time of course for civil rights of multiple varieties (AIDS comes up, which is why I say it that way.) She often connects her work to musicians, sometimes artists. Several poems are from the "Billie Holiday Collection."

"Officially Lent" could have been written last month but is about the death of black boys in her community.

[Kw · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. I liked the writing style well: insightful yet approachable. Some poems seemed dated; I couldn't always get on the right wavelength.