Rhapsody for Lessons Learned or Remembered- needs a reviewer or two . . .

[Georgia Ann Banks-Martin]

 My collection of poems Rhapsody for Lessons Learned or Remembered will be released in mid Nov. and I will would love to have some reviews to post etc.  I'm willing to send the book to any reviewer who is interest as a pdf. today!(or on anyday you read this post).  If you like the book and want a copy let me next month and I'll get a hard copy to you ASP! Below is a sampe poem and blurb from the back cover.

 

 

Railroad Station
Those leaving the towns where father and mother
labored in fields without being offered a yard of thread spun
from the cotton they pulled, have assembled.
Packed: Hopes of work, three bedroom homes,
water heated in water tanks, classrooms.
In the far corner a wife whispers to her husband
What if here is better than there?
A girl pulled along by her mother like a stubborn puppy,
There are nice people where we are going. You will make new friends.
Brother holds his stomach hoping Mama brought some cornbread and greens.
A man sits atop his luggage like a bird hatching an egg.
Father stands silently holding cases in each hand like dumbbells.

 

 

Georgia Banks-Martin walks us through an art gallery. We view art, which she has processed and questioned, through her lens: Lawrence, Monet, Van Gogh, Beardon, Sargent, Degas, to name a few of the artists. She challenges the reader to face slavery, grief, and joy, to feel the weight the South bears, to examine art across centuries for lessons. These poems revive what has been omitted in our history books—individual life stories. She uses sound, music and voice to make imagery pulse in these ekphrastic poems. In her poem “Railroad Stations,” after a Jacob Lawrence: “Those leaving the towns where father and mother/labored in fields without being offered a yard of thread spun/from the cotton they pulled, have assembled./Packed: Hopes of work, three bedroom homes/water heated in water tanks, classrooms.” As memories populate her poems, so does the theme of hope permeate her book; in Death Dancing, after a Max Slevogt: “I wish memories could be buried as easily as bodies.” Rhapsody for Lessons Learned or Remembered is a book you will read again and remember as you stand face to face with art.

 

Julene Tripp Weaver, author of No Father Can Save Her

 

Thanks,

GA