Frank X. Walker

Some good collections of poetry dazzle the reader with their skill, or the emotional impact; some leave a mark. Walker's collection falls into that second category.

The voices in this collection of persona poems are haunting. From Medgar Evers, his wife Myrlie and brother Charles Evers to his murderer Byron de la Beckwith and his two ex-wives, Willie and Thelma, each poem captures a facet of the assassination and its aftermath.

Each poem also captures a facet of the fear that pervaded show more Mississippi. Walker pulls no punches. In a poem titled "The N-Word" from Charles' pov, "Hearing that word . . . / brings back the smell/of German shepherd breath/ of fresh gasoline/ and sulfur air.

It would be the easy way out to paint Beckwith's evil in a stereotypical way, focus on the hate speech and the hood, but Walker explores his fear. In "Harriet Tubman as Villian: A Ghost Story" Beckwith's persona imagines a narrative where Tubman succeeded in freeing all slaves, referring to the owners as "the poor old farmer and his wife" who after working their own fields were found "frozen to a cotton bush, fingers and hands cut up / and still bleeding after working themselves to death." Walker demonstrates the way a story that would signify hope for some, twists like a knife in the mind a person obsessed with the fear of seeing everything that represents order disappear, who will hold on to it with a white knuckled grip.

But it is the voice of Myrlie that is the conscience behind the story, opening and closing with the importance of not forgetting, "When people talk /about the movement as if it started in '64 . . . /It means he lived and died for nothing. / And that's worse than killing him again."

There are 49 gems in this collection, as important for the technical skill of Walker's lines as for their ability to make certain emotions, fear, hate, grief, resolve, consolation == palpable. show less

Black Box Poems by Frank X. Walker transported me to a place I both recognized and didn't recognize while expanding my understanding of the human condition. Family dynamics combined with life experience create a glimpse into country life and city life as well as juxtaposition of the simplicity of living complex lives and the complexity of living simple lives. Walker writes with a clarity that uses symbolism and bluntness in perfect harmony to drive home a point or to provoke thought. I'm show more always entranced by poetry that reminds me that we all share at least some commonalities in a world that works so hard to convince us all that to allow our differences to divide us rather than complement our efforts at living better lives. Reading Black Box Poems felt like taking a trip home and going into a strange land all at once. show less

Affrilachia by Frank X. Walker feels universal and intimate all at once. Walker weaves humor and serious observation into his poems in a way that keeps the reader engaged and entertained while provoking thought. His poems explore his own life experience and the experiences of those around him. His observations on people's behavior and choices often hit hard against the preconceived notions people tend to assign to one another. He dives headfirst into the societal ills so many people work so show more hard to ignore. Affrilachia is a beautiful, powerful examination of life that deeply resonated with my heart, soul, and mind. show less

Luis Alberto Urrea, in his keynote lecture for The Big Read last fall, recommended in an offhand way Frank X. Walker as an author and Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York as a book that had been influential for him. Never one to turn down a recommendation, I whipped out my phone and used Suggest an Item to place a hold (the WPL didn't own it at the time) right there in the auditorium while Urrea was still talking.

Buffalo Dance is the fictionalized experience of York, William Clark's slave, show more told through Frank X. Walker's poetry of what the journey might have been like for the slave accompanying the Lewis and Clark expedition. York's experience must be fictionalized because he, though present, has been objectified by history as nothing more than a pack mule. Buffalo Dance has the feeling that York is talking to himself more than to us. He seems to be telling himself his own stories because no one else has asked to hear them. But those stories are well worth listening to and have the potential to make traditional understandings of this bit of history a little bit broader. I wish I was teaching a high school history or English class so I could include this in the curriculum. show less