Poetry

Jam

As the title implies, Jam features a wealth of poems driven by a distinct music resulting from Joe-Anne McLaughlin’s studies in both jazz and blues. Propelled by strong rhythms and line breaks, McLaughlin’s poems such as “Percussion,” “Half-Note for Hayden” and “Aubade” present a variety of colorful characters trying to get by on the strength of “Waller’s boogies/ or Morton’s rolls, / Hot Lips’ riffs / or Bessie’s groans, / move in tune / and yet alone.” An exciting and original voice, McLaughlin’s poems are introduced by award-winning poet and essayist Stephen Dunn.

Percussion

For Jeff Barr

Or when birds fly smack into a window
by a feeder, mistaking the sky
it mirrors for actual sky... That's what

it's like to mistake every polite
man for one's father. And the sound
their bodies make when they hit—

if one listens, really attends—not a thud,
not a twack, but the percussion
that follows a blow to the belly, that ungh

when the wind gets knocked out
and the loud silence after.
Listen. Harder. Harder.

© BOA Editions, Ltd 2001

Available editions:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Price: $12.50

FormatPaperback

Publication DateJuly 1, 2001

ISBN1-929918-04-6

$12.50

About the Author

Joe-Anne McLaughlin is the author of three collections of poetry including, Jam, published by BOA in 2001. , Along with conducting poetry workshops in The States and Ireland, she has taught writing courses at numerous colleges, most recently at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. She also directs the summer program at The Hayden Carruth Museum Library in upstate N.Y. McLaughlin holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Syracuse University and her poetry has been published widely in literary journals and magazines such as Poetry, Ploughshares, The Georgia Review and Southern Poetry Review.