The Genuine Negro Hero

Thomas Sayers Ellis

I've seen Thomas Sayers Ellis read a few times, but I've never actually picked up one of his books until now. As I am so often finding these days, it's in Kent's Wick Chapbook series, therefore it's tremendous.

The Genuine Negro Hero, though, stands out even in this ocean of high-quality releases. Perhaps it's because Ellis has simply been doing it longer (longer, at least, than those in the series whose bios I've been able to find on the web), but the poems in this book come off as being more accomplished, more relaxed, as if the others in the series were trying too hard (albeit succeeding quite well). Ellis has a fine eye not only for what makes a poem work, but for what makes an effective poem in the first place:

"A naked bulb on the dresser next to where
they made me made them celebrities, giants, myth.
I watched their black shadows on the wall,
half-expecting fade-out and something romantic
as the final scene of Love Crazy, my father
a suave William Powell, my mother's slender body
a backwards C in the tight focus of his arms..."
(--"A Kiss in the Dark")

Thomas Sayers Ellis is the real deal. This one's a great introduction to his work, and also to the Wick Chapbook series; that makes it doubly worth your time.