Book Review: Femme Du Monde: Poems
by Patricia Spears Jones
Publication Date: Jun 07, 2006
List Price: $13.95
Format: Paperback, 120 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9781882688319
Imprint: Tia Chucha
Publisher: Tia Chucha Press
Parent Company: Tia Chucha Press
Read a Description of Femme Du Monde: Poems
Book Reviewed by Tara Betts
Spears Jones’ second collection Femme du Monde does not simply unfold the
artful experiences of a woman who has traveled and soaked up the
international monuments of canvas, celluloid and literature. These are the
careful insights of a woman who has experienced and noticed more tragic
scenes.
When she begins with the descriptive speculation of her girlfriends watching
a scene between a girl and a man in the opening poem “Hope, Arkansas, 1970.”
In this poem, Spears Jones clearly sets the tone for possibilities of travel
as a broadening life experience. The terse ballad of lost love "Emergency
Eye Wash" and the reality of "Shack With Vines" prefacing "Why I Left the
Country: A Suite" only reinforce this idea of internal travels as the poet
traverses through Europe, the East Coast and otherwise.
These poems do more than take us through mentioning Japan, Italy or Russia.
In "Sapphire," the character from "Amos’n’Andy" finds a tribute veiled in
the experiences of a cosmopolitan black person who has "a working knowledge
of Celtic mythology and hoodoo, shouts and blues." Even as she pokes fun at
this perception of the cultured African American, she still closes with such
finesse on many of these poems, as if she has clicked a perfect lid shut on
a souvenir when she describes the chocolatier’s children who "lick the
brutalized ears The end of "My Matthew Shepard Poem" is another brilliant
proverb-like example: "If the dress shoe fits, may it pinch like hell."
The subtle entrances of black characters are evidence of Spears Jones’
crafted grace, especially in poems like " Cat On a Hot Tin Roof or Liz in
Lingerie" where the typically unnoticed black servants make appearances.
Although the book itself is a journey, the poems, Femme du Monde spools
themselves out like a series of escapades. You have to wonder where you will
end up next in the sojourns of Patricia Spears Jones. (originally published in Black Issues Book Review)