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Felon : poems / Reginald Dwayne Betts.

By: Betts, Reginald Dwayne, 1980- [author.]Edition: First editionDescription: x, 96 pages ; 22 cmISBN: 9780393652147; 0393652149Subject(s): 2000-2099 | Imprisonment -- Social aspects -- Poetry | American poetry -- 21st century | American poetry | Imprisonment -- Social aspectsGenre/Form: Poetry. | Poetry.DDC classification: 811/.6 LOC classification: PS3602.E826 | A6 2019PS3602.E826 | F45 2019
Contents:
Ghazal -- Blood history -- The Lord might have given him wings -- Behind yellow tape -- Losing her -- Whisky for breakfast -- For a bail denied -- Triptych -- When I think of Tamir Rice while driving -- In Alabama -- A man drops a coat on the sidewalk and almost falls into the arms of another -- City of the moon -- Diesel therapy -- if absence was the source of silence -- Essay on reentry -- In Houston -- Night -- Essay on reentry -- Essay on reentry -- On voting for Barack Obama in Nat Turner t-shirt -- Exile -- Parking lot -- Parking lot, too -- Gong back -- In California -- Temptation of the rope -- Ballad of the groundhog -- November 5, 1980 -- & even when there is something to complain about -- Mural for the heart -- Essay on reentry -- Confession -- In Missouri -- House of unending.
Summary: "A searing volume by a poet whose work conveys "the visceral effect that prison has on identity" (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times). Felon tells the story of the effects of incarceration in fierce, dazzling poems-canvassing a wide range of emotions and experiences through homelessness, underemployment, love, drug abuse, domestic violence, fatherhood, and grace-and, in doing so, creates a travelogue for an imagined life. Reginald Dwayne Betts confronts the funk of postincarceration existence and examines prison not as a static space, but as a force that enacts pressure throughout a person's life. The poems move between traditional and newfound forms with power and agility-from revolutionary found poems created by redacting court documents to the astonishing crown of sonnets that serves as the volume's radiant conclusion. Drawing inspiration from lawsuits filed on behalf of the incarcerated, the redaction poems focus on the ways we exploit and erase the poor and imprisoned from public consciousness. Traditionally, redaction erases what is top secret; in Felon, Betts redacts what is superfluous, bringing into focus the profound failures of the criminal justice system and the inadequacy of the labels it generates. Challenging the complexities of language, Betts animates what it means to be a "felon.""--
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Holdings
Item type Current library Class number Status Notes Date due Barcode Item reservations
Textbook Textbook Fischer Hall Library
Main shelves 		MT (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available clean copy T011051
Textbook Textbook Fischer Hall Library
Main shelves 		MT (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available clean copy T011052
Textbook Textbook Fischer Hall Library
Main shelves 		MT (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available clean copy T011053
Textbook Textbook Fischer Hall Library
Main shelves 		MT (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available clean copy T011054
Textbook Textbook Fischer Hall Library
Main shelves 		MT (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available clean copy T011055
Book-Reference Book-Reference Fischer Hall Library
Reference 		PS3602. E826A6 2019 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Not for loan B014943
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Ghazal -- Blood history -- The Lord might have given him wings -- Behind yellow tape -- Losing her -- Whisky for breakfast -- For a bail denied -- Triptych -- When I think of Tamir Rice while driving -- In Alabama -- A man drops a coat on the sidewalk and almost falls into the arms of another -- City of the moon -- Diesel therapy -- if absence was the source of silence -- Essay on reentry -- In Houston -- Night -- Essay on reentry -- Essay on reentry -- On voting for Barack Obama in Nat Turner t-shirt -- Exile -- Parking lot -- Parking lot, too -- Gong back -- In California -- Temptation of the rope -- Ballad of the groundhog -- November 5, 1980 -- & even when there is something to complain about -- Mural for the heart -- Essay on reentry -- Confession -- In Missouri -- House of unending.

"A searing volume by a poet whose work conveys "the visceral effect that prison has on identity" (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times). Felon tells the story of the effects of incarceration in fierce, dazzling poems-canvassing a wide range of emotions and experiences through homelessness, underemployment, love, drug abuse, domestic violence, fatherhood, and grace-and, in doing so, creates a travelogue for an imagined life. Reginald Dwayne Betts confronts the funk of postincarceration existence and examines prison not as a static space, but as a force that enacts pressure throughout a person's life. The poems move between traditional and newfound forms with power and agility-from revolutionary found poems created by redacting court documents to the astonishing crown of sonnets that serves as the volume's radiant conclusion. Drawing inspiration from lawsuits filed on behalf of the incarcerated, the redaction poems focus on the ways we exploit and erase the poor and imprisoned from public consciousness. Traditionally, redaction erases what is top secret; in Felon, Betts redacts what is superfluous, bringing into focus the profound failures of the criminal justice system and the inadequacy of the labels it generates. Challenging the complexities of language, Betts animates what it means to be a "felon.""--