Post by moira on May 16, 2008 21:30:10 GMT 2
Exquisite Heats
Cherryl Floyd-Miller[/b]
Cherryl Floyd-Miller explores the infinite manifestations of heat in the human experience in her third collection of poems, Exquisite Heats. She moves comfortably from issues of public history and personal identity to the musings of revered icons. R&B legend Rick James speaks of impropriety and addiction, Marvin Gaye reveals his aesthetic struggles as a popular artist, Billie Holiday gives voice lessons, Alice Walker’s Celie Johnson boils grits, and Joe Frazier recounts the night he beat Muhammad Ali.
Employing persona poems, ars poetica, the blues, sestinas, ghazals, sonnets and narrative free verse, Floyd-Miller proves her poetic skill through a wide range of form. In the award-winning poem, “Voodoo Chicken,” she lures you to take a sultry plunge into daring language and bewitching subject matter. But as she warns in the opening of this collection: Careful. “Nothing is there to catch you.”
Sample poem:
Voodoo Chicken
Gots me hanker. Gots me squall, peeping tall-Tom
at your lovely, in your throat, and the itch,
hellcat itch, of it rides me like a witch
into the nights, those crafty nights, no calm
will come. You just a mule teeth puppet show.
Stop and go. Chickenhearted to the core.
You say don't cross the line or crack the door.
How sweetmeat, milk. How navy black. How crow.
But love has stayed and love is made, is all
is with, for. We almost did, just about,
said we (nohow) wouldn't (nungh-ungh) fall.
This moot jinx so far in, it's inside out.
We say we won't. But reckon do. Yak. Stall
for if. Wait for good-good. Gut in. Ass out.
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About the author:
Cherryl Floyd-Miller is a poet, playwright and fiber artist
based in the U.S. Her work has appeared in Poetry magazine,
Crab Orchard Review, Poemeleon, Terminus, North Carolina
Literary Review, Copper Nickel, storySouth and Essence magazine.
Winner of the 2006 Poetry Daily-VABC Companion Poems Contest,
she has released three poetry collections. Her first, Utterance:
A Museology of Kin was a semi-finalist for the Kathryn A. Morton
Prize in Poetry and a finalist for the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry
Prize. Her second collection, Chops (Nexus Press, 2004), won a
2005 AIGA Gold SEED Award and is housed in the permanent collection
at the Museum of Modern Art. She has received grants and writing
fellowships from Launchpad Astronomy Workshop, Idyllwild Summer
in Poetry, Poets & Writers, Inc., the Fulton County Arts Council,
Caldera, Cave Canem, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Indiana
Arts Commission. Her third collection, Exquisite Heats, is
published by Salt Publishing.
Blog: cherrylfloyd-miller.blogspot.com
Webpage: www.myspace.com/cherrylfloydmiller
Poetry Daily: www.poems.com/special_features/companion.php
Lulu's Storefront: stores.lulu.com/cfloydmiller
ISBN: 9781844713110, 80 pages, $11.96
Salt Publishing, 15-Aug-2008
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Salt Publishing: tinyurl.com/3sn7lz[/font]