Singing the Bones Together.by Angela Shannon Tia Chucha Press, April 2003 $13.95, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 1-882-68828-7 Through "Root Women," "Conjure Woman," "Shadow Man," and other projections of memory and pure imagination, the poet practices "disremembering" a history plagued by violent oppression, girding gird 1 v. gird·ed or girt , gird·ing, girds v.tr. 1. a. To encircle with a belt or band. b. To fasten or secure (clothing, for example) with a belt or band. the spirit against the painful past. These poems have enduring images and language. In "First Day," two sisters walk home from school and one recalls, "we disremembered/ the National Guard pointing and ordering/ the principal to open the school doors/ ... the teacher re-naming us pickaninnies." She adds, we "wrapped our arms around each other's spirits." Despite tragedy, Shannon's characters respond in sophisticated, insightful ways. She reclaims the past from the distorting lens of conventional history. Inspired by family histories and slave narratives slave narrative Account of the life, or a major portion of the life, of a fugitive or former slave, either written or orally related by the slave himself or herself. , she writes in first person to dramatize dram·a·tize v. dram·a·tized, dram·a·tiz·ing, dram·a·tiz·es v.tr. 1. To adapt (a literary work) for dramatic presentation, as in a theater or on television or radio. 2. the inner lives of African Americans African American Multiculture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. See Race. , reaching back to and across the Middle Passage. Her characterization collapses great distances of time, rendering history less abstract. The challenge Shannon set for herself to integrate the haunting past with the present and to "dance our remembrance until we become/one river of blood, spirit, bones" is accomplished with these poetic images of healing.--G. P. |
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