Saeed Jones: His Own

For my Contemporary Literature class, we were assigned to read Saeed Jones' Prelude to Bruise, which had an effect on me I did not expect. If you are into poetry, I recommend reading it. It deals with being a black man, struggling with identity, sexuality, manhood, history (slavery) and plenty more. I am not a man, but I can empathize.

There is an abundance I can say about the black man in today's society, but it is far too complex for me to go into this post and not the reasoning for this one.

Reading Jones' work has pushed me to sort of dip my fingers in poetry--more poetry-like pieces. And I am not the biggest fan of it. Not at all. I rebel against a lot of the "techniques." But I believe that is why Jones' work has influenced me--he does not follow convention much. It has some structure to it, but it seems like it is his own.

I admire that.