Not to brag (OK, we’ll brag), but we were raving about soulful singer Jewel before most people had even heard of her. Still, we snorted when we heard she was publishing a book of poetry. After all, lots of people like to consider themselves poets – yet most aren’t. The planet reeks of bad poetry. Plus, nobody gets poetry published. But enough ranting… Jewel’s book, “A Night Without Armor” ($15, HarperCollins), has just been released – and once again, we’ll rave.
Jewel’s poems are honest and moving, playful and tender. We’re including an excerpt below so you can see for yourself. Plus, we recently joined in a group interview with Jewel. Here’s some of what she said:
Why she writes poetry: “I never wrote my poetry thinking people would hear it. I wrote it just out of my own need to understand what was going on in my own life, and also out of my own fascination with imagination, fairy tales and that kind of thing. … I think poetry, you know, needs to be honest, and the only way it’s honest is if you’re not trying to make it sound like something other people will want to hear. All of my poetry I wrote, and my songs I even wrote, very, very, just personally, I didn’t think anybody would hear them. They used to help me deal with life.”
Why she put out a book: “Through the pop culture, people have come to know me in an odd way. I’ve been kind of perceived through the media to be a girl raised in Alaska by wolves in an igloo on a commune or something. I wanted, I began to fear that people would consume me … through TV and VH1, through things that weren’t very dear to me, or that didn’t portray what I held close to my heart. So I was interested in putting this book out so that people would know me for my own word.”
How she answers cynics who say she wouldn’t have gotten a book of poems published if she hadn’t been a pop star: “I’d say they’re right. … If my album wouldn’t have been as successful as it was, there would’ve been very little interest in my poetry book anyway. Poetry deserves a greater voice; it also deserves a greater voice than mine. If I can bring a lot of awareness to poetry, not only to my poetry but just to poetry in general, I’d be honored.”
Would she rather be remembered as a poet or a songwriter: “Oddly enough, both things seem superfluous in a way. Always I am what I am, it’s all just creativity.”
———-
As a Child I Walked
As a child I walked
with noisy fingers
along the hemline
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of so many meadows
back home.
Green fabric
stretch out
shy earth
shock of sky
I’d sit on logs like pulpits
listen to the sermon
of sparrows
and find god in Simplicity,
there amongst the dandelion
and thorn.