In an effort to expand my reading horizons, I decided to take up the gauntlet laid down by Serena at Savvy Verse and Wit and join the Fearless Poetry Exploration Challenge. After all, all that’s required is to read one book of poetry – and review it.

I’ll tell you upfront – I know nothing about what makes poetry good, and I’ve not done my homework by reading any of Molly Peacock’s books, as Serena suggests. I’m just going by the old “I don’t know art but I know what I like” premise in evaluating this book. Pity the author!

Intrigued by the blurb on LibraryThing Early Reviewers which told me to “imagine a John Coltrane solo, with words instead of tenor sax”, I requested (and won) Soul Clothes by Regina D. Jemison.

The book is divided into three sections. The first, God Gave Me Words, deals with the frustrations of daily life and opens promisingly:

I’ve been busy chasin’
chasin’ children
chasin’ money
chasin’ men

No time to write
my blues away; chasin’

gave me the blues…

When I read those opening lines, I saw immediately the busyness of life, the seemingly endless round of activities, with no “me” time to rejuvenate, to chase away the blues.

In this section, there is a lawyer’s prayer (Jemison has her own law practice in Detroit, Michigan) as well as comment on America’s penal system, white privilege, and being black.

The second part of the book, carrying the book’s title, considers being a woman and includes WOMEN WAITING: breast cancer, a story, and an impassioned Lover, I Can’t Make You, that opens

I can’t make u love me,
Black Man, lover

and in which most women will recognize ay least one of the relationships they’ve had with a man in their lives.

The third section of Soul Clothes is Divine Reflections. Although Jemison’s strong faith runs throughout the book and touches on nearly every topic she considers, it is in this part of the book that she addresses her beliefs more directly, including giving a description of what seems to be her view of heaven.

I have seen it, my legs dangle off the edge.

In the foreword to this slim volume, Stephen Marsh tells us that “Jemison believes her life mission is to empower and prepare people to be their divine self at all times and under any and all circumstances.” It would appear that his metaphoric “one of God’s own trombones” is less metaphysical than I had assumed when I requested this book.

It would not be fair if I did not acknowledge that the implied and direct language of Jemison’s faith made me uncomfortable. Nonetheless, there are strong expressions about life here, many of which caused me to meditate on the world, its pains, and its joys.

Jemison makes it clear she is interested in “the divine possibilities of Black people in general, and the Black church in particular.“ I think Soul Clothes will especially appeal to women, to those interested in a Black perspective, and to those who share Jemison’s belief system.

Kindle edition:

Soul Clothes