Today's Recommended Poet
"Poet Honoree Fanonne Jeffers writes in a vivid blues style. Her character-based poetry delves deep into life in the rural south. Reading her poetry is like stepping into another world. One of her poems, Tuscaloosa: Riversong appears here."

I like how he says, "Reading her poetry is like stepping into another world." I think that is quite a feat in some ways, and completely to be expected in others. We tend not to go to poetry and find something ordinary. Through poetry even the ordinary things become extraordinary and you are brought into their world in way you never would have been.

“Honorée Jeffers leads with her ear and follows with her rigorous intellect, then adds an emotional depth and fearlessness that make her poems uniquely powerful." --Elizabeth Alexander.

Poems available online:

• Giving Thanks for Water
• Let Blood Go
• Cotton Field Sestina
• Eatonton (Two)
• Muse, a Lady Cautioning
• For Halle Berry on Oscar Night
• Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
• An Old Lady Told Me
• Unidentified Female Student, Former Slave
  (Talladega College, circa 1885)

I really wanted to read through all these poems and maybe learn something from one of them, a technique to apply, but I just ran out of time for today. I was going to post my favorite poem, but I didn't get through them as I had hoped. If you like one of these poems please let me know in the comments.