Scattered Clouds: New & Selected Poems is a volume of lyrical, emotionally forthright meditations on love, loss, and longing. The poems are often sobering, but they are not, to quote Langston Hughes, “without laughter.” Scattered Clouds contains the complete text of the author’s award-winning first collection, fingering the keys; his nationally lauded poem, “For Trayvon Martin”; and his wry, … Trayvon Martin”; and his wry, unabashedly romantic suite of ruminations on a long-time and deeply missed friend, the late barbershop owner Amir Yasin, and his widow Khadijah Rollins. These poems, exploring Amir’s late-life romance with Kadijah, became a national internet sensation. An introduction by poet Abdul Ali (Cave Canem alumni and author of Trouble Sleeping) places Jackson in his rightful context as a Black American poetry elder, who has influenced generations of younger poets with his musical wisdom as well as his poetry.
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(X-post from my goodreads review) Reuben Jackson is a poet who is always clear as day in his meaning and, yet, without needing to lean on the abstruse, creates worlds as rich and clever as any of the professorial types who predate him. He is as economical as a minimalist, as full-bodied as a fine red, as fluid as a composition. Fond of Haiku and other short forms of poesy, Reuben discusses the black experience in Washington, DC, Jazz music, his family (in-depth), and, most remarkably, peoples a town with unforgettable characters. What does that mean? Well, many of his poems are titled as names like “Frank” and “Little Man” and the arc of Scattered Clouds is formed around this cast of reoccurring characters and places, creating an intimate view of small town urban life. And of course there are the Amir and Kadijah poems which involve only the two lovers. Love songs so heartfelt you can feel the tragedy singing from its terminus and smile at it. Wow. Wow. Wow. Thank God for Reuben Jackson
A few nights ago I flew across the country having had the good fortune of appearing at a book launch with the great D.C. jazz scholar, radio host and poet, Reuben Jackson. On that flight I had the chance to read his entire new volume of poetry, Scattered Clouds. It was a deep pleasure and such a profound experience that, despite heavy turbulence, I felt his scattered clouds held me up. In the days since, the images ave continued to buoy me by day and float through my dreams at night.
Much has been said about his award-winning poetry, about his spare, compelling style, the motifs of jazz that run through his veins and his verse, and his unique voice as a black man in America. In addition to many new poems, this book reprints his first volume of poetry, Fingering the Keys, which was selected by the late Nobel-Prize-winning poet, Joseph Brodsky, to win the Columbia Book Award. It also includes the much anthologized poem “Trayvon Martin,” and the entire, excellent love poems between the fictional barber from Detroit, Amir, and his beloved younger wife, Khadijah.
Within the range of this volume, poetry lovers will find wit:
“Sunday Brunch
and where
do your parents
summer?
she asked
him.
the front porch
he replied. ”
They will also find sorrow, the blues, remembrance, loss, tenderness, and over-riding love.
“I thanked the moon
For the light on her pillow
That whispered her name.”
(Untitled, from Amir & Khadijah)
Those who are not poetry lovers. but read these poems, will be converted before the last page.