Stain My Days Blue. (Reviews).

Patricia A.Johnson, Stain My Days Blue. Philadelphia: Ausdoh Press, 1999. $12.95 2/OO

I have always thought of the color blue in relation to sky, sea, anger or depression. After reading Stain My Days Blue, I knew why the Northwest Arkansas Times sees Patricia A. Johnson as a poet with the power of the word, why F.E. De Lancey, editor of the BMA: The Sonia Sanchez Literary Review described her work as compelling and why Sonia Sanchez sees her as a talented poet. I will remember her for the color of remembrance, blue.

Stain My Days Blue is a collection of soul-searching poems on the periphery of the melancholic and the sublime. It is about self-realization: the poet becoming aware of her existence as self and world. This duality is expressed on different levels throughout the collection as she interprets the realities of her mental and physical worlds. Her will to control these states is fueled by the lessons learned from racial and social discrimination. Unique elements of Patricia Johnson's style are the use of figurative language and narratology. Each poem tells a story, not only of a moment in time and the poet's awakening, but also the story of a woman. The first half of the collection deals with the awareness of social space and its influence on her maturation. The second half deals with the question of the matured woman, her emotions and desires. From Johnson's language we feel the strength of the woman's convictions and dependence on the male presence for her own happiness.

The poet explores various aspects of freedom in the poems through her personnas. This search leads to constant self-reneawal.are aware of their freedom and explore in constant search for freedom which will ultimately lead to self-renewal. However, the male presence acts as a countervailing force which denies her complete self-actualization. With each step he becomes her world and the revelation of her desperation to belong:

Your arms tattooed around
From my shoulders to my ankles

Your lips left third degree burns
On the back of my neck

Down to the balls of my feet
Your breath the only healing balm

Oh, tell me
What's a woman to do?

Once she's loved a man
like you

Epiphanies and allusions form the core of the narrative. Indirect allusions, subtle irony and symbolic gestures are other devices Johnson uses to illustrate her meanings as we see in such poems as "Cornmeal Mush" and "Snow Cream," which are portraits of a father and a mother in the act of expressing love. These images of love and bliss must be viewed within a wider social context and maturity. As a child, her parents expression of love and their preparation of family meals obfuscated their impoverished condition. In the poets mature years she now comes to realize that these were bittersweet images of life.

Stain My Days Blue is filled with many gems which are inspired by a racial consciousness that asserts itself beyond ridicule or disdain. "Somebody's Child," "Black Patent Leather," "Crystal," "Chairman of the Bar." all bring to mind images of the African American experience from slavery to apartheid, "Jim crow," and the eras of affirmative action.

The collection adds to directions in African American thought which emanate from the racial anxieties and social tension of the early and late twentieth century. Stain My Days Blue is a proclamation of freedom.

Patricia A. Johnson has published in several known literary journals including Aura, Obsidian 11, Black Literature In Review, Borderlands and the BMA: Sonia Sanchez Review. She has earned the respect of her peers as one of the voices of the times. Johnson has read and performed her poetry at numerous literary festivals. She is also a playwright and a member of the Carolina American Writers' Collective.

Anthony Joyette is a graduate of Concordia University's Faculty of Fine Arts. He is a talented painter and poet. Many of his reviews and critical writing have appeared in Kola over the years. As the former editor of the magazine he maintains a deep interest in promoting Black Canadian writing.