Circus, by Dante Micheaux

Description

Dante Micheaux’s superb poetic aptitude is wedded to an equally superb poetic amplitude. Intimate soliloquy, lyric address, and linguistic allegory merge with resonating voices and personae. This poem is masterful, paradoxical and spiritual. The “holiness in all its unholy rejoicing” is variously scored in Dante Micheaux’s commanding Circus. —TERRANCE HAYES

I still stand by words I wrote almost twenty years ago, when I read Dante Micheaux’s poems for the first time: “I am impressed by the serious depth and masterful technique of Micheaux’s poems. He is a true man of the world, mature beyond his years, one whose voracious intelligence and richly diverse background uniquely equip him for the literary vocation. Circus promises to be received as a masterpiece reminiscent of the best of Melvin Tolson’s work, and some of Micheaux’s poems bear an a affinity to the delicate music and wisdom of Robert Hayden. But Micheaux’s influences are not limited to the stars of African American poetry; his experience and reading ranges wide. Dante Micheaux is a code-switcher fluent in many languages. Some of his lines bring this reader close to heartbreak.” —MARILYN NELSON

Dante Micheaux’s Circus  commands the reader’s attention. In this long poem, each line is tuned by breath and image, serious play and heartfelt critique, but also by the modern urban motifs of grief and love. At times, signifying can get us to a desperate truth. The reader or listener has to possess a sense of history in order to be transported to the here and now. In Circus, the borders between the imaginary and the real dissolve as the poem delivers us into verisimilitude. —YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA

Dante Micheaux is the author of Amorous Shepherd (Sheep Meadow Press, 2010). His poems and translations have appeared in Poetry, The American Poetry Review, Callaloo, PN Review, The African American Review, and Tongue, among other journals and anthologies. He has been shortlisted for the Benjamin Zephaniah Poetry Prize and the Bridport Prize. Micheaux’s honors include a prize in poetry from the Vera List Center for Art & Politics, the Oscar Wilde Award, and fellowships from Cave Canem Foundation and The New York Times Foundation.