by Kevin Young
"Husbandry" presents in twenty-two pages stirring poems that give the accounts of gardeners, growers and caretakers within a family. This series of poems Chronicles the lives of a family as they harvest their land, struggle against and ultimately lose their land.
"but there's one thing we can never forget: how the land we were promised is gone now home for us is wherever we're not"
This last line from the poem "Visiting Home" encompasses the hopelessness of a family. The verse along with other verses and poems pinpoints the life and plight of a family at a time in history.
"Spectacle", brings to verse the sights and experiences of a traveling carnival or sideshow, which inhabit fond timeless memories of children as well as adults. Young stretches the spectacle that is a sideshow moving it beyond mere amusement and reshaping it through poetry derived from experiential lessons.
"Getting Religion", shifts narrators in a sermonized sequence of poems in a humorous and at times haunting voice of a poor, black, southern child, utilizing typical religious icons and practices along side less traditional examples of spirituality, all heavily laden with symbolism.
"Beyond the Pale" is a contemporary history lesson from eye level. There is no doubt that the most interesting history learned comes from those who have lived the history of which they speak and not merely performed an intellectual exercise. In a series of Poems ranging from a Reptile park in Allenwood, PA. to a local barbershop, Young gives a view of history at its lowest level in a bold and original voice
"we felt we was dying like a late; we prayed those homemade spirits would warm most way home."
"Most Way Home" leaves warmth and comfort in the knowledge that an internal history is alive in its pages.
Kevin Young recognized as one of only a few "Writers on the Verge" by Village Voice magazine in the year 2001. Young describes his poetry as an outpouring from a family of preachers and musicians. Lucille Clifton has hailed Young for his storytelling ability; this storytelling element in his work is where my attraction to "Most Way Home" is rooted. The stories and personal histories that come out of the poems Young has put into this poetry collection like those in "Thomas and Beulah" by Rita Dove bringing to light the richness that inhabits family histories and poetized them in verse.
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