Black Crow Dress - by Roxane Beth Johnson (Paperback)

About the Book

Ghosts of American slaves have much to teach us. Johnson, in her second collection, summons all ghosts, even our own.

Book Synopsis

"These poems move forward like a novel in verse with a real understanding of the differences between the past and history. Or, as Johnson herself says in the opening poem, 'Each one is hungry for a voice & music to re-bloom.' This is a poet the best readers will be reading for the rest of their lives."--Jericho Brown

A haunting collection of lyrically intense persona poems, Black Crow Dress is at once about the emancipation of slaves in their myriad voices as well as a meditation on the self. The collection's lush imagery takes us from churchyard to church, chanting the old spirituals, as Roxane Beth Johnson seeks to embody the spirits of the dead: Clea, Caroline, and Zebedee.

From "Slave Ancestors Found Unburied in a Dream"

Each one is hungry for a voice & music to re-bloom

them alive in this room like water softens beans.

Leaning near, close to me they see my tooth & tongue

that test doneness, licks stamps & hums.

Their ear listens to what a hand might fiddle

if it had fingers.

Stare this way with eyes like smudges . . .

Roxane Beth Johnson's first book of poetry, Jublilee (Anhinga Press, 2006), won the 2005 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. She won an AWP Donald Hill Prize in Poetry and a Pushcart Prize in 2007 and has received scholarships and fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Cave Canem, The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, San Francisco Arts Commission, and Vermont Studio Center. She lives in San Francisco, California.

Review Quotes

". . .a stunning collection that evokes a tragic, unjust world; Johnson has a gift for metaphor and narrative that builds throughout." --Library Journal, starred review

"These poems move forward like a novel in verse with a real understanding of the differences between the past and history. Or, as Johnson herself says in the opening poem, 'Each one is hungry for a voice & music to re-bloom.' This is a poet the best readers will be reading for the rest of their lives." --Jericho Brown

". . .Black Crow Dress is a vital addition to any contemporary poetry assortment."
--Midwest Book Review

"Roxane Beth Johnson reminds us the poet's inscrutable work is to listen. Her abiding presence creates a lamplit space to commune with the ghosts of her ensalved ancestors and to breathe them onto the contemporary page. The result is startling: narratives tender and haunting, of an unforgettable intimacy. These voices were in the room with me; I felt them in my body." --Jennifer K. Sweeney

About the Author

Roxane Beth Johnson's first book of poetry, Jublilee (Anhinga 2006), won the 2005 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. She won an AWP Prize in Poetry and a Pushcart Prize in 2007 and has received scholarships/fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Cave Canem, The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, San Francisco Arts Commission, and Vermont Studio Center. Her work has appeared in: The Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner, Image, Callaloo, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, Beloit Poetry Journal, Chelsea, ZYZZYVA, The Bitter Oleander, Sentence, and elsewhere. She lives in San Francisco.