Reuben Jackson
Scattered Clouds: New and Selected Poems
Welcome back to Vermont the former host of VPR’s Friday Night Jazz when he presents his new collection of poetry–a volume of lyrical, emotionally forthright meditations on love, loss, and longing. Jackson is a Black American poetry elder who has influenced generations of younger poets with his musical wisdom as well as his poetry. The poems are often sobering, but they are not, to quote Langston Hughes, “without laughter.” Scattered Clouds contains the complete text of the author’s award-winning first collection, fingering the keys; his nationally lauded poem, “For Trayvon Martin”; and his wry, unabashedly romantic suite of ruminations on a long-time and deeply missed friend, the late barbershop owner Amir Yasin, and his widow Khadijah Rollins. These poems, exploring Amir’s late-life romance with Kadijah, became a national internet sensation.