a night without armor

Jewel Kilcher. Harper Collins, 1998.

Took me awhile to pick up this book, I figured some folky singer who had one megahit in the early nineties, writin' poetry? c'mon . . .

and when I did start to read it I found them to be a bit jeuvenile, sorrry to say, and they somewhat reminded me of old hippie poetry, sorta like Gary Snyder's Turtle Island-type stuff - the autobiographical stuff is completely there: raised in Alaska by DIY-hippie musician parents, etc.

But the latter half of the poems start to get better. Basically when her focus is off of herself and is put on the characters she sees - then her work starts to come alive, to become more poignant, more pertinent.

"Sara Said"
"Grimshaw"
"Underage"

Those are my favourite from the collection.

Also, the best songs are the ones where you can actually hear Jewel singing them, if she ever made them into songs. I suppose that indicates that she does have a distinctive "voice" (both literally and metaphorically/poetically.

VG