I Made My Boy Out of Poetry
Subtitle: Poems, Stories, Dreams & Sho 'Nuff Truths
Edition: First
Publisher: Washington Publications
Published: February 1998
Place of publication: Savannah, GA
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 116
ISBN-13: 9780966235654
Subjects: African Americans; Adolescents; Romance; Coming of Age; Race Relations
Genres: Literary anthology; Poetry; Short Fiction
First sentence: For fifteen years Elijah had been traveling then one night went to sleep beside the railroad tracks across from the Heavenly Daze housing project.
Description: I Made My Boy Out of Poetry is a powerful literary vision of rare scope, beauty and emotional intensity composed of stories and poems that flow in and out of each other like the most lucid and articulate of dreams. These are portraits and studies of individual souls attempting to make peace with an awareness of themselves as beings more spiritual than material in a world given largely to the latter. This book offers an amazing journey through the heart and soul of a modern seeker of visions.



	Containing six stories and fifty poems, I Made My Boy Out of Poetry, by Savannah poet and author Aberjhani, was initially published by Washington Publications in 1998. The first cover featured an original oil painting by native New Orleans artist Gustave Blache III. 
 


The stories and poems in I Made My Boy Out of Poetry were written from the early 1980s to the late 1990s. For that reason, they reflect a synthesis of polished academic form and the raw energy of spoken word culture that emerged in the United States during the 1990s. 
 


Prior to its publication, work from the title appeared in a number of both well-established and underground  publications. These included: The African-American Literary Review; The Angry Fixx; The Dull Fly; The Georgia Guardian; Out of the Blue; Poets, Artists, and Madmen; The Savannah Literary Journal; and The Savannah Tribune. Later, ESSENCE Magazine featured work from the title.  
 


Reviews of I Made My Boy Out of Poetry have hailed the book for its creative daring, spiritual vitality, and intellectual range. Weighing in from the University of North Caroline in Greensboro, playwright and poet Mark Smith Soto noted the following of the author: “He has a powerful understanding of the music words can make, not only with their sound but with their meanings… he has intelligence, emotional range, imagination, and is alive to the very tips of his fingers.”
Notes: A Master Griot
Aberjhani is truly a most gifted wordsman and master griot. I MADE MY BOY OUT OF POETRY is a marvelous collection of stories and poetry sure to lift your spirits and touch those special places within your soul. It is a must read for future generations. 

--Angela Kinamore, former poetry editor, ESSENCE Magazine 




Magically Moving Wordsongs
Aberjhani is a splendid poet and storyteller of magical moving wordsongs. His words speak directly to the reader's consciousness. His fiction pulls you in and you live inside the stories. He knows people and hearts and pain and struggle. He knows streets and neighborhoods and families. He is the unlauded poet laureate of a whole new poetry, steeped in tradition and as free as an eagle in the open sky. 

--Reviewer on Amazon.com, Five Stars 




	
Reviewed by Joan Warshauer	6/30/2006

I was impressed deeply. Aberjhani and I worked together and I got to know him a bit, but there is something about poetry and these deep stories that light a way to his inner soul. He is quite a person. I gave a copy to a former principal and she was enthralled. Read it, but his work is not for the prissy or faint of heart.


	


Reviewed by Nordette Adams    	5/16/2005

Oh, make me wanna holler 
And throw up both my hands 
Yea, it makes me wanna holler 
And throw up both my hands 
Crime is increasing 
Trigger happy policing 
Panic is spreading 
God know where we're heading 

Those lines are lyrics by Marvin Gaye from “Inner City Blues,” a standard now in pop culture for stating quickly how you feel about struggling to make it black and cracked upside the head from all sides in this world. It's a good song but probably too smooth to get as deep down and dirty, as wretched, ugly, and putrid as the truth of real pain and suffering. 

When you read or hear recited the slave narratives, the first account stories of African slaves in America-—those tales of torture and torment, of children ripped from their mother’s arms and sold like cattle, of women raped by their master's sons then sent into the field to work minutes later—-you get closer to an understanding of indescribable suffering because you can hardly bear to listen. You wonder why didn’t the slaves go mad? Why didn’t those people just go buck wild insane, lay down and die, or cut off the heads of the slave owners while they slept in the big house and drink their blood, proving themselves to be the savages the civilized free folks claimed slaves were? 

You wonder the same things when you hear of the atrocities families face in war torn countries. Why haven’t they all gone crazy? How can they go about their lives with any semblance of normalcy? And then again when you hear of what happens on any given day in the slums of a city with drive-by shootings, rats big as cats, and poverty stalking blocks like a cold-blooded sociopath. How do the people stand it? Why aren’t they all sitting in hallways banging their heads against walls, drooling? 

Well some have gone mad, and some are the walking wounded, others the walking dead, some warriors, doctors, healers and teachers—-the glue—-some demons, and some are Aberjhani, ingenious madmen spun into the darkness of agonies and sorrows out into the wilderness of a soul searcher's journey and up, up into a glorious light of poetry, lyric prose, and laughter. They rise up stronger, dragon's breath in their bellies, with gold, fantastic jewels, and psychedelic marvels, their thigh-slapping words woven together for our enjoyment and edification. Aberjhani the writer, in his book I Made My Boy Out of Poetry, pulls from his integrated selves a bleeding hunger for love, an ache for justice, the shameless lust for erotic communion in the church of sex, rage at myriad machines of this world, and awe at its mysteries and the universe's mercies. He dives deep into the well of souls and draws from it other madmen, angels, Yoruban mystic miracles, the plain old bitchiness and beauty of blackness, the threads of humanity, and the voices of wisdom in varied shades. Reading I Made My Boy Out of Poetry, you cannot help but examine your own life, spiritual vision, and consider the human condition. It’s a book that makes you think and prompts growth, a classic that you should have on your bookshelf.


	


Reviewed by M. Bauer	3/11/2005

I bought I MADE MY BOY OUT OF POETRY, read it and fell flat out in love. If you're interested in getting deep down under the skin of Aberjhani, then I passionately endorse BOY. 

BOY is comprised of spectacular prose and poetry illustrating passionate visions from a man who's been there, done that and lived to tell the tale. His wordsongs capture the spirit of imagination and you find you can see what he sees, feel what he feels, know what he knows. His words speak directly to your subconscious voice. 

I MADE MY BOY OUT OF POETRY is a stunning work that will be read and read again and... again. Aberjhani's work has a timeless quality and mark my words, will live on long after he's gone.