Orpheus in the Bronx" by Reginald Shepard invites readers on a poignant journey through the vibrant and often overlooked landscapes of the Bronx. Through his evocative poetry, Shepard intricately weaves together themes of identity, community, and resilience, painting a vivid portrait of a borough often overshadowed by its urban reputation. With lyrical grace and keen insight, Shepard explores the complex tapestry of human experience, celebrating the beauty found amidst the chaos of city life while also confronting its harsh realities. "Orpheus in the Bronx" stands as a testament to the power of language to illuminate the overlooked and to find poetry in the everyday.
The reason why I selected this book is because I wanted to learn about what…show more content… The opening lines of the poem read ‘When I was ten (no, younger than that), my mother tried to kill herself (without the facts there can't be faith)... Tanqueray bottles halo the bed and she won't wake up all weekend. In the myth book's color illustration, the poet turns around inside the mouth of hell to look at her losing him (because it's not her fault they had to meet there)...’(Shepard lines 1 - 11). The implication in these lyrics is that Orpheus' mother was close to death when she tried suicide. The statement 'Tanqueray bottles circle the bed and she won't wake up all weekend' indicates that the narrator's mother was unresponsive and had entered a world between the living world and the afterlife. In another part of the poem, Orpheus recounts some pleasant recollections of his mother. He stated that his mother enjoyed listening to Soul and Blues music, with her favorite performers being Al Green and Barry White, and that even in her final moments, she continued to do so, regardless of what others thought. In the lines ‘Al Green was on the radio. It bruised her heel purple and black. So death could get some color to fill out his skin, another bony white boy jealous of all her laugh too loud, her That's my song when Barry White comes on. He's just got to steal it, he can't resist a bad pun, never, never gonna give her
