Everybody's Jonesin' for Something

by Indigo Moor

Overview

Turning an unflinching spotlight on the American Dream, Indigo Moor plunges headfirst into national—and personal—laments and desires. From Emmett Till to the fall of the Twin Towers and through the wildfires of Paradise, California, Moor weaves a thread through the hopes, sacrifices, and Sisyphean yearnings that make this country the beautiful trap that it is. Everybody’s Jonesin’ for Something takes an imagistic leap through the darker side of our search for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, perusing what we lose, what we leave behind, and what strange beauty we uncover.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496222701
Publisher:	The Backwaters Press
Publication date:	03/01/2021
Series:	The Backwaters Prize in Poetry Honorable Mention
Pages:	114
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Indigo Moor is poet laureate emeritus of Sacramento and an author, scriptwriter, and integrated circuit layout engineer. His other works include Tap-Root, Through the Stonecutter’s Window (winner of the Northwestern University’s Cave Canem Prize), and In the Room of Thirsts and Hungers: The Mirrored Tragedies of Paul Robeson and Othello.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
This American Groove
Love Letter to Dr. Ford from the Patriarchy
Trayvon Martin Disappears on Stage
The New Math
Extinction Event
All Night Jazz from the Sisyphus Club
All Night . . .
. . . Jazz . . .
. . . from the Sisyphus Club Creole Rumspringa
The Fortress of First and Last Thoughts
Christ Is Summoned to the House of the Broken Ladder
Mamie Till & the Minotaur
What Was True and Not So. And Yet, Again . . .
Unforgettable
Birds in Flight
A Dream Deferred/Detained Dismissed
Genealogy
Guardians
Fermi Paradox for Black Nerds
Happiness
The Wandering Jew Drunk Dials God
The Party Crashers of Paradise
Exiled to America
Oppenheimer’s Badass Cat
Joshua in the New World
Frac/Tured
Finder of Lost Sheep
Woods to Grow Out Of
Red and Yellow Quartet
We the (Chameleon) People
Unjumping the Broom
Easter Morning Prayer
Hunter’s Moon
The Saint of McClatchy Park
Veterans of Foreign Wars
How We Got Here from There
Blackberries
Maisey Gets a Washing Machine
Pretty Boy Sanchez
American Bataan
Lost in the World Machine
Catching a Cotton Ball
Anywhere but Here

Editorial Reviews

"Indigo Moor’s new book challenges us to look back to gain a wider understanding of what has been, look around to derive a deeper understanding of one another, and look inside to find our true home."—Entropy


“Indigo Moor’s new collection shuttles between searing rebuke and hopeful anguish with accents of hard-edged humor. What I love most is the clarity of thought—the no-holds-barred, no-punches-pulled sharpness of the language that carries the reader through each poem, jonesin’ for the next. Everybody’s Jonesin’ for Something invites you out of your complacency and fuels a restlessness that reminds you that you’re alive, that this is no time for sleeping.”—Tim Seibles, author of One Turn around the Sun


“An extraordinary and penetrating look at the world through the eyes of an electrifying writer who is indeed jonesin’ for something; perhaps the answer to who we are as Americans, or even who we are as human beings. There’s joy in experiencing a work like this one. Each page enthralls as Indigo Moor explores a myriad of topics in a keenly aware, yet compassionate voice filled with stirring language, powerful observations, and intense wonder.”—Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas, author of Epitaph for the Beloved


“Narratives don’t always belong to history’s victors,’’ writes Indigo Moor. If this line gives you pause, I strongly suggest you carry Moor’s brilliant book, Everybody’s Jonesin’ for Something, home with you. In this dazzling book, you will read just how closely this poet has been paying attention, to us, to his histories, foreign and domestic, to our mighty (and sometimes mighty confusing) nation. Jonesin’ is a verse flashlight to all the corners you thought no one was supposed to pay attention to, line by beautifully crafted line, truth by earned truth. You’ll reach the last line of the last poem, and trust me, that’s when the hunger for more will begin.”—Cornelius Eady, author of The War Against the Obvious

From the Publisher

Narratives don’t always belong to history’s victors,’’ writes Indigo Moor. If this line gives you pause, I strongly suggest you carry Moor’s brilliant book, Everybody’s Jonesin’ for Something, home with you. In this dazzling book, you will read just how closely this poet has been paying attention, to us, to his histories, foreign and domestic, to our mighty (and sometimes mighty confusing) nation. Jonesin’ is a verse flashlight to all the corners you thought no one was supposed to pay attention to, line by beautifully crafted line, truth by earned truth. You’ll reach the last line of the last poem, and trust me, that’s when the hunger for more will begin.”—Cornelius Eady, author of The War Against the Obvious

Cornelius Eady

Indigo Moor’s new collection shuttles between searing rebuke and hopeful anguish with accents of hard-edged humor. What I love most is the clarity of thought—the no-holds-barred, no-punches-pulled sharpness of the language that carries the reader through each poem, jonesin’ for the next. Everybody’s Jonesin’ for Something invites you out of your complacency and fuels a restlessness that reminds you that you’re alive, that this is no time for sleeping.”—Tim Seibles, author of One Turn around the Sun

Tim Seibles

An extraordinary and penetrating look at the world through the eyes of an electrifying writer who is indeed jonesin’ for something; perhaps the answer to who we are as Americans, or even who we are as human beings. There’s joy in experiencing a work like this one. Each page enthralls as Indigo Moor explores a myriad of topics in a keenly aware, yet compassionate voice filled with stirring language, powerful observations, and intense wonder.”—Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas, author of Epitaph for the Beloved

Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas