Cantata for Jimmy
by Rashidah Ismaili

"There is quietness in this poetry that reflects deepness past its own use! Or it seems that way. Rashidah lines up the words to make statements of memory, exhilaration, passion, with a casual formality, as if she thought about that. Sometimes she is searching for openings so her deeper self can be heard. Sometimes it is that feeling that wandering, wondering attention, which she impresses herself, is an actual Rashidah. But poets rarely understand everything. Those that do are dangerous. They might carry guns and stuff like the Billy the Kid aesthetic, or they might carry memories and puncture the quietness of life passing for too many without a cry and puncture that flatness with poetic reflection.