Toi Derricotte

Thank you, Darry (kidzdoc) for tipping me off to Natural Birth. It's a moving set of narrative poems about Toi Derricotte getting pregnant at 19, the process of giving birth to her son, and the aftermath. It brings home better than anything else I've read the challenges of giving birth, and I'd think it would resonate with any parent.

Derricotte, is now a Professor of English at Pittsburgh and award-winning poet. As a girl in 1962 she had strong feelings as to the behavior required of her. As show more she explains in the introduction, "It was a terrible thing, especially, for a black middle-class girl to come up pregnant. Part of the lifelong work of our class and gender was to prove beyond doubt that black people were civilized, not beasts." She married the father of her son, a struggling artist unable to provide much, when she was five months pregnant, and went away to a home for unwed mothers to have the baby. A subsequent exchange with an author she admired led to a large part of this manuscript "pouring down the page, and I began to move my lips, as if the wind was coming out of me, playing my teeth and tongue like an instrument."

This recounting of her girls-view experiences is powerful. This one, for example, is called "Maternity":

when they checked me in, i was thinking: this is going to be
a snap! but at the same time, everything looked so different!
this was another world, ordered and white. the night moved
by on wheels.

suddenly the newness of the bed, the room, the quiet,
the hospital gown they put me in, the sheets rolled up
hard and starched and white and everything white except the
clock on the wall in red and black and the nurse's back as
she moved out of the room without speaking, everything
conspired to make me feel afraid.

how long, how much will i suffer?

the night looked in from bottomless windows.

***

Toni Morrison was an editor at Random House and wanted to publish this book, but she finally wrote Derricotte that, "It doesn't fit in our categories; we don't know where to put it." Thank goodness Crossing Press published it, and Firebrand Books re-published it. It doesn't matter what category the book goes in, although Poetry will do. It's just plain an excellent book, with a lot to tell us about her life and our lives. show less

This is a powerful collection of poems on tough topics, the slave trade, abuse, racism and skin color. I can’t say that I enjoyed this book, but I am glad that I read it. She also makes you think about what poetry means. Here is an excerpt:

“I went back to my room realizing I am afraid` to let go of “poetry.” My writing has been a safe space. I have a boundary around me like that iron belt I feel around my heart when I meditate. When I write a poem I am not just worthless me speaking. show more I am worthless me speaking as a poet. I am afraid to give up that protection.” show less

This collection is an anthology of Derricote's self-selected writings--with some new poems as well. And though these poems are all very personal, there are some sections that just didn't feel like they "fit"--the styles are different, the formats are different, obviously her age and life experiences were different at the time of writing. That said, they are very good.

The themes here vary: her childhood with her abusive father, mother, and favorite aunt; knowing her father as an adult; losing show more her parents; her husband and their relationship; life after her husband's death; poetry; life as a black woman who can "pass" (accidentally or on purpose), and what that has meant for her, her mother, and other relatives who have either chosen to or chosen not to.

This book was a finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry in 2019. Derricotte was the only poet of the finalists that I had heard of--though I could not tell you what I had read by her. Possibly selection in an anthology or other collection. I do want to read one of her books that has a more cohesive theme or style, based on the strength of these poems. show less

As an incredibly varied anthology of poems, this work serves up poems from familiar names alongside poets who most poetry readers won't be familiar with, and the result is a fresh collection of voices that pops with style, meaning, and memorable lines. The variations in style and voice mean that, more than likely, any one reader won't be blown away by each poem in the book, but at the same time, it's hard to imagine the reader that won't be struck by multiple pieces here, to the point of show more wanting to read them over and share them, again and again.

Among the many poets represented here, some of my all-time favorite voices are represented--including Yusef Komunyakaa, A. Van Jordan, Patricia Smith, Regie O'Hare Gibson, Aracelis Girmay, Kevin Young, and Lucille Clifton. But even as someone who reads poetry constantly, in both collections and journals, there are names here that I've never heard, and that I've discovered as new favorites who I'll be seeking out more work from. Each reader is sure to find their own favorites, and line upon line that resonates with them.

Absolutely recommended. show less