Blue in Green
by Chiyuma Elliott
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Pub Date 27 Aug 2021 | Archive Date 16 Jul 2021
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Description
Collaboration runs through the heart of this collection. Human relationships—particularly in families—shape the poems in Blue in Green, as they consider how the question of what we expect from one another evolves into a question of what we owe. When cancer overshadows the ordinary—engrossing the labor of love, work, and friendship—disease becomes a collaborator and proposes new rules of exchange.
The forms of Elliott’s works highlight reciprocity. Here you’ll find ekphrastic poems that describe modern jazz songs, letters and letter fragments, and free verse poems in wildly variable line lengths. “When I was a wave,” the speaker repeats, each time telling a different story about intimacy and risk. Blue in Green moves through the struggle of processing the damaging interpersonal reverberations of racism, sexism, and environmental damage, while navigating intertwined personal and political incarnations of care. While a slow-growing disease burns its way through the speaker’s body, these poems reveal the feeling of perpetually existing in the shadow of catastrophe and document the slow and strange process of coming to terms with that way of living.
Advance Praise
C .S. Giscombe, author of Ohio Railroads
:
“Elliott’s quite amazing Blue in Green is an intricate series of forays and restatements, an ongoing investigation of the language of the world and a search less for ‘meaning’ than among versions of possibility, a search not unlike the sketches in the song that lends its title to the book, the song that takes the good listener beyond the song itself. And here, the good reader’s escorted past and beneath the terms of common capture and into reference as points of ecstatic departure, as openings. There’s startling power in Blue in Green, there’s news here that stays news.”
Kimberly Grey, author of Systems for the Future of Feeling:
“The material of Elliott’s Blue in Green— time, music, pleasure, dream, water, memory—all share one commonality: the reverberation of the past tense, which ebbs and flows like a wave into a perpetual present. This bleeding into serves as a language-game not unlike Wittgenstein’s theory of colour concepts. Each poem establishes a visual and sonic logic through linguistic image, a depiction of the way the past becomes a composite that is understood only as it transforms, like Elliott explains, 'As glitter is to lake,/ Like sunlight is to ache, like ache is to mountains.' Elliott’s work is polyphonic; the past and present each have their own voice, an eventual harmony, like the sky falling into grass, like two seas mixing. The poems of Blue in Green are exquisite collages of time stopped and continuing.”
Geffrey Davis, author of Night Angler:
“Blue in Green is full of strange truths and a weaved, wonderful singing. Elliott’s poems perch and pry at the radiant seams of reality, her voice igniting the numinous verves between imagination and understanding.”
F. Douglas Brown, author of ICON:
“Elliott’s latest collection is a continuous love letter to all that we’ve lost. Yet instead of wailing or teeth-gnashing or rebuking the thing that has stolen that love, Blue in Green, brings us close, reminding us to cling to that which makes love worth loving in the first place, ‘Let summer wash its face/and stand in the pasture/and gather up its green buttons.’ Let Blue in Green be the book that rewards its readers with the seamless confluence of dream-life and real-life, awaking us to the fact that recovery takes time, but also takes unwavering examination.”
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780226783888 |
| PRICE | US$18.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 80 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Reviewer 832068
"I die by the fistful. I look through the glass. I die by the acre, one unit of measure."
An astounding read, Chiyuma covers a wide breadth of topics in a beautifully written, stylistic approach. Unfortunately, a lot of the vocabulary and deeper meaning was lost on me, but I have hopes of reading with fresh perspective. I believe this isn't a poetry book you finish and put away, but a book you return to with new understandings.
I'm still reflecting on the poems now, but truly, I don't believe my review could do justice to the messages being delivered - instead I recommend picking up a copy.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.
4/5.
Reviewer 410985
Blue in Green is a touching book of poetry that reminds us all of our own unique "humanness." I loved the emphasis on connection and togetherness and how human relationships can help us all through tough times.
Pelden W, Reviewer
Collaboration runs through the heart of this collection. Human relationships—particularly in families—shape the poems in Blue in Green, as they consider how the question of what we expect from one another evolves into a question of what we owe. When cancer overshadows the ordinary—engrossing the labor of love, work, and friendship—disease becomes a collaborator and proposes new rules of exchange.
Meghan K, Reviewer
Deeply resonant for anyone who enjoys poetry pondering the art of human existence. Thought provoking, emotional, and intimate — the poems within all seem to be seeking an answer to one question: what do we owe each other? (Chidi Anagonye would have loved and also hated this collection.)
Luna C, Reviewer
"Blue in Green" by Chiyuma Elliot offers a profound exploration of human connection, care, and reciprocity in the face of adversity. Elliot skillfully navigates the intricate dynamics of expectation and obligation, weaving a tapestry of emotions that resonate long after the final page is turned.
One of the most striking aspects of Elliot's work is the variety of forms employed throughout the collection. From ekphrastic poems inspired by modern jazz songs to letters and free verse pieces with variable line lengths, each form serves to underscore the multifaceted nature of the human experience. The way this collection is written was so deeply touching and moving.
This is a book that lingers in the mind, inviting reflection on the intricacies of human relationships and the beauty found within the shadows of uncertainty. I could relate to many of the lines in the collection, whilst not all the poems were for me, the ones that I connected with me, have stayed in my mind for a very long time.
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