Jonathan Jackson Jr.

It often is happenstance that leads me to stumble across wonderful yet lesser-known poems and poets. I unearth these little gems—sometimes from a Facebook post and, at other times, from articles or online literary magazines that guide me into deeper reading—and then I consume them from start to finish until I feel that I’ve gained a sense of the poet and his or her focus on that particular book or chapbook.

That’s what happened when I “discovered” Jonathan Jackson, Jr.’s terrific chapbook In Not So Many Words: A Literary Album.

Although I am struck by the ways that Jackson’s poetry is prayerful…celebratory…socially insightful…and vivid, it is the music of his work that draws me closer.

The overt as well as veiled references to blues music legend Billie Holiday and the more contemporary American singer-songwriter Eryka Badu certainly contribute to the musicality of In Not So Many Words. But I also felt as though I could literally hear a musical background in these poems…as if beating drums and unfettered rhythms were weaving into and throughout the book. I felt as though many of these poems could be set to music, which is a tribute the (now) New Orleans-based Jackson’s background as a musician and songwriter. When he writes There is a crimson river/Pooling on the concrete./The fruit of the poplar tree I feel the music and Billie Holiday’s powerful, tragic, and beautiful “Strange Fruit.”

Jackson concludes this 14-poem collection with a tribute to his mother in “Woman.” In this poem, he hits the nail on the head when it comes to the never-ending grind—and the joys—of single motherhood. His epistolary-like ending—To my dearest mother,/I’ll owe you my life forever./Loving,/Your Son.—is simultaneously personal and an homage to all mothers.

https://www.innotsomanywords.com/