A Night Without Armor : Poems by Jewel
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Book Reviews of A Night Without Armor : Poems
Book Review: An Autobiography Told in Poetry
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm not a fan of poetry, but I have recently fallen in love with Jewel as an artist. I came upon this collection of poems and decided to take a chance on them based exclusively on the poet. I found in Jewel's poetry the same elements that I have come to appreciate in her songs. Some of the poems could be excerpts from a memoirs; others are the kinds of thoughtful, outside-looking-in perspective on the human condition that make her as much a sociologist as an entertainer.
Jewel's poems are largely stripped of the kind of pretentious symbolism that I find alienating in other poets' work. Instead, she employs an accessible (if deliberate) language. Some poems are ephemeral; others are pregnant with imagery, practically begging to be developed into a longer story. Feminimity is not a dominant theme, but it is certainly present. Rather than repeat any kind of nearly militant doctrine, Jewel explores the issues specific to women simply through her own experiences, as she struggles to make sense of her own identity as a woman. There is a quiet, thoughtful dignity to not only the poet, but the poems as well.
I've read some of the Amazon reviews, and it appears that poetry fans condemn this collection as pedestrian and uninspired. I suspect they reject the very qualities that attract me to these works. Then, I consider the chief objective of the arts--and language--to be the act of conveying ideas. Perhaps I'm just confused because the pro-poetry crowd typically cries as loudly as possible about how poetry is an art form that can disregard any and all conventions; blasting Jewel for a prose-centric style seems to me somewhere between ironic and hypocritical.
Rather than compare Jewel's poems to those of others, I suggest taking them simply for what they are: brief excerpts from the thoughts of one of our generation's most empathic artists. In the intervening decade since this collection was published, however, we have become accustomed to profile updates and micro-blogging on Twitter. I see A Night Without Armor in that vain; these are not full-length stories, but rather specific (if sporadic) observations from Jewel. Form notwithstanding, it sounds like poetry to me.
Book Review: Artistry in the Imagery
Summary: 4 Stars
Somewhere among these reviews was a fairly intelligent post that pointed out the fact that Jewel's poems seemed more imagery than art. I think that same reviewer said that young people should just get together and write poems for eachother because the poems would be just as good as her book. That is where I disagree. The artistry in poetry does take time, but usually, so does the imagery. Too often, I see people writing poetry with such vague language, that there is nothing remotely tangible in the poem. They write about floods of tears, broken hearts, and all that other common stuff. What Jewel does in her writing is evoke. It is difficult for many people to understand that putting those concrete details in a poem won't make the reader feel disconnected to the poem.
I'd love to see the kind of writing Jewel does now. If she's matured as a poet, she could have the potential to be poetically explosive.
The best attribute to Jewel's poetry is that it is tangible to the youth. Young people were able to see that there are conemporary poets, and that poetry is an expressive art that requires details rather than hokie rhymes, cliches, and abstract language.
Jewel succeeded in putting a tiny spark into modern poetry. People, at least for a short time, were slightly interested in buying an actual poetry book.
Give her a little credit, and like I said, she was VERY young when she wrote this book of poetry.
Book Review: Uneven first effort. Some great, some very shoddy.
Summary: 4 Stars
Reads in many places like an adolescent's third-period efforts. Much of it is sentimental, obvious, trite, overly narrative, and unschooled. Too many people think that poetry is purely subjective, and Jewel here falls into that trap. (Also, she has gotten the idea that a lot of high schoolers have about weird line breaks being the defining factor of a poem.. sigh.)But there's a lot of genius here, too. With some nuts and bolts techniques under her belt, and some more years behind her, this young lady may become a force to be reckoned with. Her command of imagery is primal (such as one poem's longing for a man "with wild things in his hair") and her choices of analogies and metaphors is, simply, terrific. I can easily put up with the high-school level stuff to get to the good stuff. In her foreward, she admits that she'd never have been published had she not been a megastar singer, which is, sadly, true; she also says that she included the fluff poems deliberately, the wisdom of which I question. I am hoping very much that we see more out of Jewel, and this time, I hope she takes it a bit more seriously and includes only quality works.
Poetry buffs should not avoid this work just because it is written by the famous rock star Jewel.
Book Review: I'm the exception to the rule.
Summary: 4 Stars
I found THAT book brilliant? Eye-opening? Of course I did, once upon a time. I am usually the exception to the rule. I like people who are usually reviled and I am drawn to other things that can be otherwise shunned or whatever else...maybe because I feel like I too am shunned or reviled.
Poetry can take on so many forms, so many incarnations. What one person finds incoherant, another might find powerful. There really are no limits to the styles of verse or subject matter, and not everybody has to understand or approve of it. While I might not get the same momentum that I found when I first began reading this book...the poems here are rather simple and sparse, with not much rhythm at all in the lines if any, I am still proud to have it in my library because it is a very personal body of work which is unique only to Jewel Kilcher's life experiences. She may not be up to par with the writing abilities of Emily Dickinson, Dylan Thomas or Sylvia Plath, but not many writers are.
Poetry, above any other form of writing, is an individual experience. Different people will have different reactions to it. I suggest you read it for yourself first before you decide to form an opinion of it.
Book Review: Jewel can have a way with words..
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this book of poetry from a favorite artist of mine, Jewel Kilcher, never knowing what to expect from her. Most poetry released by singers has been anything but extraodinary. Jewels is much better than dull but this doesnt surpass the level of amazement in her work. Some poems in her book I can never get enough of, but others seem to flutter images across the paper with no flowery launguage or meaning to it. One example is "Junkie"...'My mother says, she knows what im going to be when I grow up.' Short and as dull as pastille apartment walls. Bieng a poet myself I very often use metaphors expressing feelings not capable by the normality of words. In alot of the poems in 'A Night Without Armour" she does an excellent job of usuing beautiful art launguage as a sign of her poetic capabilities which shows the reason I gave this 4 stars. I read this book nearly every night because some poems striked a cord with me and the emotions she wrote down. Thus, I conclude that this book may not be jaw-dropping but I definitly recommend it for some very decent poetry; about calfs, Alaskan beauty, and other such things this so-called normal world can relate to.