Date of Review:

08/20/2009

Published Work:

a half-red sea

Reviewer:

Barbara Jane Reyes

Source:

Harriet: a Blog from the Poetry Foundation

Review Excerpt:

"There is much to be admired in this collection of poems. In addition to the sonnet-ballad form, she employs the pantoum and the acrostic in very smooth and revealing ways. As well, Shockley’s Harryette Mullen-esque word play on cliché — “good as guile,” “what’s in a shame,” “the freak shall inherit the mirth” — as if in mimicry of standard American English, is both playful and critical, in uncovering the darker implications of such conventionally throwaway phrases. It goes without saying that Shockley’s work is political, in language and in content. And this is quite satisfying to me as a reader constantly seeking intelligent, well-crafted, historically relevant poetry which is located in the world, tempered and telling urgently of real human lives."

Link to Full Review:

Barbara Jane Reyes reviews "a half-red sea" for Harriet