A darkly erotic celebration of love…
New love, sex, motherhood, heartbreak, and loneliness stay at the heart of Black’s latest collection. Drawing from her own experience, Black skillfully captures the despair, evolution, and growth along with the spirit and gist of emotional and physical love. “That Day,” “Make it right,” “One More Chance,” and “Wasn’t Love” touch on first meeting, fears, insecurities, loneliness, and infatuation, bringing depth and resonance to the familiar experience. In the title poem, “Shitty Jody,” Black muses about her many lovers who never could match the charisma of the earlier one. “Repairs” is sketched on similar lines. The avant-garde and voyeuristic “My Rig Hand” uses erotic love-making to evoke intense emotions. The sexually suggestive “The Runner” documents individual moments of passion, ecstasy, and melancholic longing. Black blends vivid descriptions, passionate observation, and private dreams in “His Greatest Sin.” The major part of the collection comprises of intense, erotic, and deeply personal imagery, such as “Awaiting Him,” has arousing description of erotic moments and of sensuality as Black writes: “The Smell of Musk/ lingers within/ I feel his presence/ But can’t capture him/ Silhouettes unseen/ Squirming as I’ve been/ Awaiting his touch”. She experiments with various forms, including rhyme, sonnets, and free verse, and her style remains simple and accessible, allowing readers to easily digest both the raw emotions of tender love and the pure pleasure of erotic, passionate sex. At its core, the collection is a vibrant and transcendent journey about love, heartbreak, and growth.
Shitty Jody
By Krista Black
FriesenPress
Pub date March 15, 2021
ISBN 978-1525582080
Price $20.49 (USD) Hardcover, $2.95 Kindle edition