Blue

This incandescent book subscribes to the adage that "Good poems should rage like a fire, burning all things." Blue is black, profane, surly, damning - and unrelenting in its brilliance. Clarke writes: "I craved to draft lyrics that would pour out like Pentecostal fire - pell mell, scorching, bright, loud: a poetics of arson." Blue is divided into five parts that skillfully turn rage into a violet bruise of love and mourning. From the "Nasty Nofaskoshan Negro" of the Black section to the shocking satires of the red section, from the fierce tenderness of Gold Sapphics to the haunting lament of Blue Elegies, Clarke has written urgent and necessary poems - poems that burn and illuminate with their fury, truth, and beauty.