I’ll Take You There: Intersection of Poetry and Plain Talk
by Verdelle Lambert

I’ll Take You There is a book of 50 poems about familiar things imagined in new ways and unspeakable things given voice. The poems are pithy and layered, infused with plain talk, and deal with a myriad of personal and topical issues, not least among them, racism, which is covered in each of the four sections of the book (Discovery; Snapshots; Choices; Memories). Feelings predominate in Discovery, where the author rummages through heart and mind to discover self. Snapshots include whimsical, reflective poems of brief, indelible connections with both man and nature. Misinformation, disinformation, greed, sin, and social pathology are dealt with unflinchingly in Choices. Growing up in the 1940s and ’50s is the theme of Memories, with each poem beginning with, “I remember.” Mostly they are an accounting of losses and gains in retrospect.

What is probably unique to I’ll Take You There are the text references (to the back of the book), where foreign, colloquial, and made-up words are defined, some verses expounded on, and some poems given historical and cultural context.

Here’s one of the shorter poems:

BLACK PEARL

You forced me into your house
and I became an irritant.
You tried to smother me
and I became blacker,
more beautiful, more precious.
When you were shucked
I was free to be me,
my value on display
for the whole world to see.

© 2018 Verdelle Lambert