In his wide-ranging search for answers and redemption, James Cherry
leads us through jazz clubs, abandoned lots, churches, and the halls of
his own home. Along the way he provides poignant commentary and vivid,
touching details
delivered in a rich voice filled with grace and wit. Even as
he confronts the raw and hurtful elements of life, he exhorts us to keep
the faith. And we do.
-Nancy Breen, Poet/Editor
James Cherry's poems don't satisfy themselves with anything but the
most serious subjects, understanding how "the world detonates / releasing
the anxious night" while still "thanking God for mercy and the blessedness
of another sunrise." Charlie Parker, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Martin Luther
King Jr.--these easily share the stage with
trapped mice and a niece's diary in Cherry's respectful memory.
-Philip Memmer, Editor, Two Rivers Review
Music from the saxophone, the trumpet, the drummer’s cymbal permeates
Bending
the Blues. James E. Cherry weaves legend, performance and history
into polyphonic poems that resonate with vivid details. Cherry makes
us willing to travel wherever his poems take us, whether it’s washing chicken
sandwiches down with orange soda at Brother’s Bar-B-Q or listening to Charlie
Parker shout 4 o’clock in the morning blues down at Minton’s on the Square.
In a poetry of shifting vision, Cherry moves from past to present and back
with language that is a precise and accurate as it is musical. Memory
is gnawed like a bone as poem after poem surveys with amazement life that
is lost or passing away. Love darts in and out, slippery as a fish,
as Cherry reveals a willingness to love even those who cannot be redeemed
by love’s power, knowing that what endures is the force within the human
heart.
-Vivian Shipley, Editor, Connecticut Review |
