Necessary Roughness (The Eclection Collection) - Softcover

Safi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 147821113X ISBN 13: 9781478211136

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013

Synopsis

Pure poetry...with an edge!Dabs & Company re-releases poems by Safi! And for you insatiable types...she's supplied even more to nibble & ruminate upon...

About this title

About the Author

My friend, Safi, is a poet who enjoys delving into others' minds and hitting rewind!
She's quirky and to the point in a meandering kinda way! 

Enjoy!

~ Karen

Her words: Hey, I write, all right?
I hope you enjoy reading my thoughts over & over again!
Thank you for your mulling, appreciation, & support.
~ Safi
Citizen of the Universe, Creative, Detroiter, All Nighter, Daughter, Sister, Mama, Cousin, Auntie, Star, Thinker, Doer, Marathoner, Empath, Mentor, & Enabler
(in a good way).
Overwhelming, Self-Entertaining, Enigmatic, Paradoxical
&
Loved                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

#LiteracyLiterally

#ColorOfChange

From the Back Cover

FROM THE 3RD EDITION.

You may read the BACK COVER by using "LOOK INSIDE"

I don't really like explaining poetry because the reader is usually expected to apply their own thoughts to what they feel the poet is mostly trying to convey. I use 'mostly' because many times we want to let it "do what it do!"


In Necessary Roughness the poem"At Tempting to Hide" is about a woman who is not happy with her natural beauty. She feels she needs to present herself by temporarily obliterating things she - and unfortunately others - believe are undesirable. Her ultimate idea of beauty is of a European bent. She wants desperately to lighten her skin! She is meant to remind those who know of the "lady in red" who wanted to be unforgettable in the choreopoem "For Colored Girls ... " by Ntozake Shange and the classic poem "No Images" by William Waring Cuney. But many new readers may no be familiar with their work.


Seemingly, the reaction of some readers of At Tempting to Hide may think Safi is judging the woman's choices when what she means to convey is how the woman and her many 'lovers' (?) feel she MUST present herself artificially in order to be desirable. Not so. We realize many women do so because it is only "a look" they have chosen because THEY like it and that is enough for them. However, we are also aware many women do feel 'less than' without those type of alterations. The reader is left to decide whether the woman is a sex worker or lonely predator or however they wish to see her.
I am planning to update Necessary Roughness and I will ask Safi to tweak the poem a bit because we don't want it to be misunderstood as something it is not meant to be: hurtful.
We are sensitive toward the possibility it will be to some or even most. And ...
Safi wants everything upfront!

From the Inside Flap

A taste from the complete poem:

Love Letter from a Rattler

Hey Juicy,
You once told your best friend
you wouldn't have anythin' to do with me
for the world!
Don't knock it til you try it, Baby.
'Sides, your friend is one of my ladies now
& the only knockin' she does is with her knees
jerkin' in uncontrolled rhythms produced by
the excitement generated by the
mere thought of me enterin' her again!
Girl, did you know I can blow your mind,
make you lose all sense of time?
Just try me, it'll only take ...

Edition details

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 147821113X
• ISBN 13: 9781478211136
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Karen E. Dabney
• Number of pages: 84