*3.5*i didn't even realise while reading that suddenly i had reached the last page.although i try to stay away from feeling ashamed about my reading habits as much as i like not to judge other people's, i do feel a bit of embarrassment at realising this is my first poetry collection of the year written by a woman. i wouldn't go as far as to say shame on me but perhaps i could softly whisper it to me once.without carrying with me any form of expectation about this collection, ultimately i was p...

Dove descends onto the concreteness of the lives of poetry on the bus. Strange and familiar as historical fiction.

Rita Dove writes blow you away (and sometimes for me any way, makes me feel like i need to be a lot more intelligent to understand) poetry. Here series that ends the book and makes the title on Rosa Parks is a very powerful exploration of that moment and change. Here is from one of the poems:"The situation is intolerable"Intolerable [italics]: that civilized word.Aren't we civilized too? Shoes shined,each starched cuff unyeilding,each dovegray pleated trouser lega righteous sword advancingonto t...

An ok collection of poems with a few standouts. The first set, "Cameos," captures mid-century working life for blacks. Dove is especially vivid here. The closing sequence, the namesake for the book, tells the Rosa Parks story more obliquely, less narrative than moments, or reflections. I had hoped, I suppose, for a little more heat here, but Dove instead keeps the voice cool as is her style. For a poem for graduation or an important birthday, Testimonial brought a lot of pleasure:Back when the e...

The Women's National Book Association sent this book to the White House yesterday (March 24) in honor of Women's History Month: https://www.wnba-centennial.org/book-...From the Women's National Book Association's press release:Rita Dove manages something rare and wonderful in a story told through poems—she humanizes icon Rosa Parks, whose quiet act of courage changed the course of history. We see how an everyday woman with no notion of fame, acted from her convictions. More importantly, we see h...

*SPOILER FREE*I'd heard of Rita Dove, but never read any of her work. I stumbled upon this collection in my local library and am so glad I decided to pick it up."On the Bus with Rosa Parks" is a deeply lyric, and descriptive poetry collection, each poem bearing its own lush story. Each section of the book has a thin theme tying the pieces together, but of course my favorite was the final section for which the collection is titled. The little details Dove inserts through using newspaper clippings...

Rita DoveΦBK, Miami University, 1973AuthorFrom the publisher: From the opening sequence, probing the private griefs and dreams of a working class family, to the emblematic grace of the living legend Rosa Parks, these poems explore the intersection of individual fates with the grand arc of history.

Her work is very beautiful. It is just as someone described "a film with the volume turned down." this is beautiful and elegant. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to hear what silence is like but to also feel the small feelings that follow many women around.

(So there you are at last -a pip, a button in the grass.The world's begunwithout you.And no reception butaccumulation time.Your face hidden but your nameshuddering on air!)- Cameos: Birth, pg. 16* * *When I was young, the moon spoke in riddlesand the stars rhymed. I was a new toywaiting for my owner to pick me up.When I was young, I ran the day to its knees.There were trees to swing on, crickets for capture.I was narrowly sweet, infinitely cruel,tongued in honey and coddled in milk,sunburned and...

ironically enough, I found the titular section the least interesting lol. really liked the surreal almost horror trends in some of these: "Once I Cut My Thumb On Purpose," "Sunday," "Best Western Motor Lodge" etc, "Revenant"

Poet Rita Dove was named Poet Laureate of the United States in 1993 at the age of 40. Much of her work is about the African-American experience, although many of her poems also show her love of music, history, and creativity. A group of poems about a working class family going through difficult times begins her 1990 work, "On the Bus With Rosa Parks". She ends it with poems about the Civil rights era as young black women bravely speak out about racist actions. From the third stanza of "The Enact...

YES

I carried it home, past five blocks of aluminum sidingand the old garage where, on its boarded-up dloors,someone had scrawled I can eat an elephantIf I take small bites. Yes, I said, to no one in particular: That'swhat I'm gonna do!

I couldn't quite get into it as a collection, but there were some standouts. The first collection, Cameos, hung together very well, as did the On the Bus With Rosa Parks section. Maple Valley Library, 1967, probably resonated with me the most, but "ah - and then / no more postponed groceries, / and that blue pair of shoes!" were the lines that spoke to me most (from "My Mother Enters the Work Force") because it cuts out all the fat and gristle from the bone of the poem.

This was brilliant. So many of these poems are so relatable, and at the same time they look at the world from an angle I never considered.Dawn RevisitedImagine you wake up with a second chance: The blue jay hawks his pretty wares and the oak still stands, spreading glorious shade. If you don't look back, the future never happens. How good to rise in sunlight, in the prodigal smell of biscuits — eggs and sausage on the grill. The whole sky is yours to write on, blown open to a blank page. Come on...

Since she's discoveredmen would rather drownthan nibble,she does just fine.There are no direct references to social justice in these pages but to suggest it isn't present is to quip that since breathing isn't in itself named, that such a motor function is likewise absent. I myself feel as if I am choking on fibers, torn tissue of what it means to be alive. We are a dastardly species. Certain hopes satisfied a philosophical ideal. This led to institutions which serve to protect us. Alas, we are j...

There's a lot here that I can appreciate on a technical, craft level... but it just isn't necessarily my thing. I want to understand Dove's poetry and it feels at once accessible and inaccessible - like I have to work too hard to find out what's being said, and in the end it feels like too much and not enough.

I wanted to love this book but did not. I found a few poems, like Singsong, that were beautiful and thought-provoking. However, most of the poems did not affect me in that way. I even reread most of them after finishing the book once. I would still recommend this book. The poems that did stand out were memorable, and maybe others can see in the poems that I did not.

Rosa How she sat there,the time right inside a placeso wrong it was ready.That trim name withits dream of a benchto rest on. Her sensible coat.Doing nothing was the doing:the clean flame of her gazecarved by a camera flash.How she stood upwhen they bent down to retrieveher purse. That courtesy.

On The Bus With Rosa Parks is the first collection I have read from Rita Dove, and it feels like a wonderful place to start. The poetry varies in style from poem to poem, and blend individual history with a broader, societal history. The poems I most enjoyed were Maple Valley Branch Library, 1967; Gotterdammerung, and Ghost Walk. I definitely recommend this for anyone looking for a good poetry collection to read.