I absolutely never read this type of book. But, I found myself unable to stop reading it. I didn't read it continuously but would put it down, think about what I'd read and then come back to it again and again. Thought-provoking and interesting and unexpected. ( )

I really enjoyed the first section which was an autobiographical essay. Shepherd and I are roughly the same age, and both grew up in the Bronx, so there was much I could relate to there.

However, the rest of the book didn't really hold me. This is at least in part my own fault, I suspect, as I prefer to read fiction to poetry, and critical theory essays are not usually something I choose to read unless I am particularly interested in the subject being analyzed. ( )

I feel like this is, in some ways, a book unsure of its audience, which is not unexpected in an anthology that collects essays originally published in a variety of places. The first section is an autobiographical essay that was both a fascinating life story and beautiful writing. The second section was poetics and esthetics that struck me as alternately inacessible, trite, naive and insightful - occasionally all three at once. I get the impression they were very much the product of a school of thought, but not the sort of thing that was particularly useful to people outside that school: several times I found myself making notes of books he should read that covered all this same material decades ago (but aren't generally read by English professors.) The third section is critical essays of individual poets and authors, which were a vaguely interesting read, but as I'd never heard of most of the works being discussed, despite having gone through several periods of devouring modern poetry, I got little more out of it than a reading list. The final section finished the books with some general essays on what and why poetry.

I greatly enjoyed the first and last sections of the book, as a reminder (for someone who occasionally forgets about poetry) of why I need and, and as just plain good prose writing. But the middle two sections left me wishing I was still at college taking poetry workshops, still part of the conversation he was having which largely left me out. ( )

I'm not an other other other other. I've taken a poetry work shop which stopped me from writing poetry and started my reading of poetry, don't care about identify which cliqueish "school" a poet belongs, I'm white, male, heterosexual. I like message poets with lots of context, see the radical Thomas McGrath. I like autobiographical poets, see Robert Penn Warren. Shepherd taught at the Iowa Poetry Work Shop. My audience attendance at a couple of Iowa work shops gave me favorites like Michael Culross, and the local hobo Iowa Blackie. I advocate increasing library data entry. I also loved Southside Chicago and its poetry scene. IOW, I have many close parallels to Mr. Shepherd, if seemingly on the non-other side. OTOH, this month when I went to a restaurant at Goodwill to hear a student play folk guitar, we had one wall of the restaurant bouncing with DJ music from the Southwest H.S. (Macon, GA) prom. On Mothers Day 2008, Southwest H.S. was massively damaged by a tornado. I cannot imagine Reginald Shepherd attending the Southwest prom. He would feel too out of place. But he did graduate from Southwest. My kids attend[ed] Central. As a gay black youth in Macon, GA, Shepherd felt out of place. Believable. 25 year old jerk cousins like Gregory are a common local stereotype. Yet there are several Macon black gays role models that were out of the closet back in Shepherd's time. Much of the otherness that Shepherd writes about seems to be adolescent posturing. There's not much more there than found in a white Macon goth chick or white male Yu-Gi-Oh player. But the posture is much of the point. Shepherd asserts that he is an other other other other. 1) Poet. 2) Of the Bennington School. 3) Gay and 4) Black. But he is not a spokesman, hates being typecasted, and believes that a poem must stand on its own in a Wallace Stevens strength. Shepherd dislikes autobiographical message poetry.

Yet the opening essays is very personal, autobiographical story that doesn't stand on its own. It takes context and history. The opening essays work. Above all else, Shepherd is an engaging, clear writer. "Orpheus" is a worthy read just for the prose. The autobiography is interesting enough.

Then there's the critical essays: yes, urban locales like Chicago can have pastorals. Old news here, with Conrad Aiken, Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, Langston Hughes, Carl Sandburg and others that I've read. And there's some artsy deconstruction of Alvin Feinman, Jorie Graham, Jean Genet, Samuel R. Delaney, Aaron Shurin, Tim Dlugos, Donald Britton, D. A. Powell, Linda Gregg, William Butler Yeats and Wallace Stevens. I'm only familiar with Yeats and Stevens, Yet Shepherd's essays are again clear and pointed. I've added Delaney and Britton to my TBR list. And the poetry of Reginald Shepherd.

Reginald Shepherd won't live forever, but he will live longer than his life. He shouldn't be bored, and he's not boring. I am glad that Shepherd as made my short life better. ( )

I'm going to resist rating this. I found the book to be rather self-indulgent, and academic without being deeply intellectual. The sort of thing that gets one tenure without necessarily getting one read. Intelligent without being insightful.

It may just be, however, that I simply don't have sufficient interest in the "identity" part of his project. In my humble opinion, the overly-introspective artist/academic has been over-explored.

Oh my, I have only just finally started reading this text. Shepherd makes me want to take a course in poetry. I have never been all that into poetry. I agree with him that the lyrics of songs often seem like poems set to music, but I have never been very good at understanding all the words. I am one of those people who would mishear songs and then wonder why someone would've written a song in which "Carrie Moon leaves home in a jar" And, I never went through that teenage phase of poetry writing, though my husband did, and actually was pretty good at it.

I feel so woefully inadequate as I read the first 29 pages of Orpheus in the Bronx. I have read The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, but can't remember specifically the lines to which he refers or actually what the poem was about. I have also read some of the English poets to which he refers, and I know that I did find that John Donne's poetry articulates some inspiring ideas.

I am pleased to see that we have science fiction and fantasy in common. I was thrilled the time I met Samuel Delaney at a Readercon in Burlington, MA.
I am looking forward to reading the rest of Shepher's book asap!

Orpheus in the Bronx: Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry by Reginald Shepherd is undoubtedly one of the more difficult books I have ever read. Shepherd's thinking is a few levels above mine. He's definitely more academic than I. I still enjoyed it. Having an intellectual poet's viewpoint was enlightening, since I'm always looking for a better understanding of poetry.

His first chapter, "Portrait of the Artist," provides a perspective from which to comprehend his discourse. In the following chapters, Shepherd so conscientiously quotes and credits, that by the time I figured out what his point was, I had also learned a lot about what poetry is. (Also it gave me new ideas of my own about how to write poetry.) The section on readings was interesting and provided information about poetry, but since I have not yet read the poems/writings he's writing about, I have no thoughts of my own to compare with his. Shepherd did make me more interested in reading them, however, in particular those by Samuel R. Delaney, because I have read some of his other work. I think he saved the best for the end. There was a lot in his final chapter, "Why I write" -- things to make me think about poetry and about writing in general.

This isn't a book for the average reader. The very quotes and credits I found helpful by the time I understood, were also the stumbling blocks to easy reading. If you love explorations of poetry (in addition to poetry itself) and are at least somewhat intellectually inclined, it is worth the effort to read. ( )

I have mixed feelings about this book. I'd strongly recommend the beginning where he discusses his process toward becoming a writer, as well as identity politics as poetry and his look at the urban pastoral, all of which is fascinating and engaging, as well as well-written. However, the farther one gets into this book, the heavier the language becomes, and the more overburdened. At times, I felt like I was back in a critical theory class reading for a homework assignment--which this was in a sense since I got this book from the ER program. If I hadn't felt some push to finish this book, it would have been set aside long before the end--around the middle perhaps--to receive attention at some far-in-the-future date. I found myself having to reread sentences multiple times to grasp at the meaning, and in the end often feeling that they were simply overwritten, and so, confusing. For writers, I'd recommend the sections which seem of interest--for me, this was the first two sections and the last chapter. For scholars, I'd recommend delving into the sections which seem of interest, but with the caveat that this is not an easy or particularly engaging read during the "Readings" section, which unfortunately comprises about half of the book.

On a side-note, I've realized that the blurb on the back of the book sticks fairly exclusively to discussing the sections I've here recommended--theory is not mentioned, and nor is literary criticism aside from mentioning that Shepherd is a scholar. Apparently, the editors realized which portions of this were marketable, and which were simply not. ( )