Ani DiFranco Verses is a book of DiFranco’s poetry and paintings. What I like most about the book is the discussion at the end between Ani DiFranco and Sekou Sundiata, who is a spoken-word poet and teacher of literature at The New School.
l have a hard time reading poetry. Sometimes I understand it too literally and sometimes too figuratively. The conversation with Sekou at the end of the collection of verses really helps ground my reading of the poems. It’s the insight into the work that I wish all poetry volumes held.
One of my favourite poems in this collection is a short poem called Akimbo. It starts “what dreams cause me to abandon my pillow each night?”
Opening lines of poems are important to me. Either I get into it or I don’t.
Ani DiFranco Verses is published by Seven Stories.