Poems by Ai
Woman to Man
Nothing but Color
The Kid
Conversation
Riot Act, April 29, 1992

The adobe walls of the house
clutch the noon heat in tin fists
and while bathing, I fan my breasts,
watching the nipples harden.
I pinch them, feeling nothing, but wanting to,
and shift my weight from left buttock to right,
while the water circling my waist tightens,
as if you had commanded it.
I stand up, spreading my legs apart,
Ready to release the next ribbon of blood.

All right. You want me now, this way.
I haven’t locked the door.
My swollen belly feels only its heaviness,
and would weigh less than the pain
chipping away at my navel with an ice pick of muscle.
I can carry you.
The blood, halved and thinned, rolls down my legs,
cupping each foot in a red stirrup
and I am riding that invisible horse,
the same one my mother rode.
It’s hungry, it has to be fed,
the last man couldn’t, can you?

-- The Penguin Book of American Verse

Ai is the only name by which I wish, and indeed, should be known. Since I am the child of a scandalous affair my mother had with a Japanese man she met at a streetcar stop, and I was forced to live a lie for so many years, while my mother concealed my natural father's identity from me, I feel that I should not have to be identified with a man, who was only my stepfather, for all eternity.

My writing of dramatic monologues was a happy accident, because I took so much to heart the opinion of my first poetry teacher, Richard Shelton, the fact that the first person voice was always the stronger voice to use when writing. What began as an experiment in that voice became the only voice in which I wrote for about twenty years. Lately, though, I've been writing poems and short stories using the second person, without, it seems to me, any diminution in the power of my work. Still, I feel that the dramatic monologue was the form in which I was born to write and I love it as passionately, or perhaps more passionately, than I have ever loved a man.

A Buddhist and Creative Writing Professor. The poetess Ai is a pseudonym of Florence Anthony. Born in Tucson, Arizona, Ai is multiethnic: Japanese, Black, Choctaw, and Irish. Known for her mastery of dramatic monologues, Ai uses the different voices in her poetry to tear at the vulgar sores of our human condition, uncovering hunger, sexual deviations, social disconnection, violence, and vengeance.

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Poetry

Edition(s):
1973 / hardcover / ISBN 0-395-17720-0
1973 / paperback / ISBN 0-395-17714-6

Page count: 46

About this Book: The poems in this book deal with hard-edged topics such as suicide, abortions, hanging, and domestic violence. This book takes an unfliching look at the unpredictability of our gross desires.

The poems in this book have appeared in the following magazines and anthologies:

• “After a Long Time” – The American Poetry Review
• “The Anniversary” – The American Poetry Review
• “Before You Leave” – The American Poetry Review
• “The Corpse Hauler’s Elegy” – The American Poetry Review
• “The Deserter” – The American Poetry Review
• “The Dwarf” – The American Poetry Review
• “The Estranged” – The American Poetry Review
• “Everything: Eloy, Arizona 1956” – The American Poetry Review
• “Forty-Three-Year-Old Woman, Masturbating” – The American Poetry Review
• “The Hitchhiker” – The American Poetry Review
• “Indecision” – The American Poetry Review
• “New Crops for a Free Man” – The American Poetry Review
• “One Man Down” – The American Poetry Review
• “Possessions” – The American Poetry Review
• “Prostitute” – The American Poetry Review
• “The Tennant Farmer” – The American Poetry Review
• “Tired Old Whore” – The American Poetry Review
• “Twenty-Year Marriage” – The American Poetry Review
• “The Unexpected” – The American Poetry Review
• “But What I’m trying to Say Mother Is” – The Iowa Review
• “Abortion” – Ironwood
• “The Cripple” – Ironwood
• “Cuba, 1962” – Ironwood
• “Why Can’t I Leave You” – Ironwood
• “The Widow” – Ironwood
• “Woman” – Ironwood
• “Young Farm Woman Alone” – Ironwood
• “I Have Got to Stop Loving You” – Lillabullero
• “Cruelty” – Renaissance
• “Disregard” – Renaissance
• “The Sweet” – Renaissance
• “Woman to Man” – Renaissance

Critical Response: Critics agree with the Library Journal that “this book… has the smell of life about it. Ai writes with power” and efficiency, shining light on taboo subjects.

-- Library Journal (1876) v. 98 (Nov. 15 1973) p. 3380

Publisher Website: http://www.hmco.com/indexf.html

Edition(s):
1979 / hardcover / ISBN 0-395-27593-8
1979 / paperback/ ISBN 0-395-27590-3

Page count: 49
Dedication: For the Ghosts.
Award(s): 1978 Lamont Poetry Selection Award for the best second book by an American poet from the American Academy of Poets

About this Book: In this collection, Ai paints intensifying images of sexuality and violence. She expands on Cruelty’s theme of dark human tendencies. In “The Kid,” she assumes the voice of a boy-murderer, who emerges unperturbed after destroying his family.

The poems in this book have appeared in the following magazines and anthologies:

• “Father and Son” – Antaeus
• “He Kept on Burning” – Antaeus
• “Confession” – Antaeus
• “The Kid” – Antaeus
• “The Singers” – Antaeus
• “The Gilded Man” – Agni
• “Lesson, Lesson” – Black Box
• “Sleep Like a Hammer” – Chicago Review
• “Ice” – Chicago Review
• “Almost Grown” – Choice
• “The Mortician’s Twelve-Year-Old Son” – Exile
• “Jericho” – Iowa Review
• “The Ravine” – Ironwood
• “She Didn’t Even Wave” – Ironwood
• “The Expectant Father” – Ironwood
• “The German Army, Russia, 1942” – Ironwood
• “Talking to His Reflection in a Shallow Pond” – Michigan Quarterly Review
• “29 ( A Dream in Two Parts)” – Ms.
• “The Ravine” – Ms.
• “Nothing But Color” – Paris Review
• “Killing Floor” – Paris Review
• “Guadalajara Hospital” – Virginia Quarterly Review

Critical Response: Though no one doubts Ai’s talent, most critics agree with The New York Times Book Review, which has the following to say on the “emotional excesses” in this collection. “The poems' context is often murky; strange, terrible and ‘beautiful’ images of mutilation… sex, death and violence recur with a predictable monotony…”

-- The New York Times Book Review (July 8 1979) p. 14

Reviews: read reviews.

Publisher Website: http://www.hmco.com/indexf.html

Edition(s):
1987 / paperback / ISBN 0-938-41038-5

Page count: 99
Cover Design by: Loretta Li

About this Book: This collection is a reprint of Ai’s first two collections. Read Foreword by Carolyn Forché.

The poems in this book have appeared in the following magazines and anthologies:

• See Cruelty and Killing Floor.
  

Critical Response: See Cruelty and Killing Floor.

Publisher Website: Thunder's Mouth Press was an imprint of Avalon Publishing Group Inc. Thunder’s Mouth Press no longer exists. The Perseus Books Group purchased the Avalon Publishing Group.

Edition(s):
1986 / paperback (uncorrected proof) / ISBN 0-395-37907-5
1986 / paperback / ISBN 0-395-37908-3

Page count: 80
Dedication: For Galaway, who could see in me when I was twenty, the poet I hope to become.
Award(s): American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation

About this Book: Chilling voices of powerful men and mass-murderers eminate from the pages of Sin. In “The Good Sheperd: Atlanta, 1981,” the killer speaks of “devouring his children.” “…A man like me eats and is full./Only God is never satisfied.”

The poems in this book have appeared in the following magazines and anthologies:

• “The Priest’s Confession” – Agni Review
• “The Emigre” – Agni Review
• “Saint Anne’s Reel, 1870” – The American Literary Review
• “The Man with the Saxaphone” – The American Voice
• “Solome” – Antaeus
• “Kristallnacht, Part 1” – Bennington Review
• “The Death of Francisco Pizatto” – Bennington Review
• “The Detective” – Cambridge University Poetry Magazine
• “Blue Suede Shoes” – Callaloo, No. 26 (Winter, 1986) pp. 1-5
• “Blue Suede Shoes” – Callaloo, Vol 24, No. 3, the Best of Callaloo Poetry. A Special 25th Anniversary Issue (Summer, 2001) pp. 683-687
• “More” – Crazy Horse
• “Elegy” – Crazy Horse
• “The Mother’s Tale” – Crazy Horse
• “Blue Suede Shoes” – The Iowa Review
• “They Shall Not Pass” – The Iowa Review
• “Two Brothers” – Ironwood
• “The Testimony of Robert Oppenheimer” – Michigan Quarterly Review
• “The Journalist” – Missouri Review
• “Conversation” – Paris Review
• “Kristallnacht, Parts 2 - 4 ” – Poetry
• “Immortality” – The Seatle Review

Critical Response: According to The New York Times Book Review, this is Ai’s best collection. Other critics echo an admiration for her ability to “penetrate” her characters. However, according to Poetry (Modern Poetry Association), “… all Ai's monologists sound like Ai.”

-- The New York Times Book Review (June 8 1986) p. 38
-- Poetry (Modern Poetry Association) v. 149 (January 1987) p. {231}

Fate: New Poems. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991.

Edition(s):
1991 / hardcover / ISBN 0-395-55636-8
1991 / paperback / ISBN – 0-395-55637-6

Page count: 77
Book Design by: Robert Overholtzer
Dedication: For Willem Dafoe, the muse this time.

About this Book: Fate is littered with dark themes. The poetry in this collection gives voice to the dead, which includes General George Custer, President Lydon Johnson, James Dean and Elvis Prestley.

The poems in this book have appeared in the following magazines and anthologies:

• “Jimmy Hoffa’s Odyssey” – Agni Review
• “Lyndon Libre” – Alembic
• “Go” – Areté
• “The Cockfighter’s Daughter” – Café Solo
• “The Resurrection of Elvis Presley” – Chelsea
• “General George Armstrong Custer: My Life in the Theater” – Hayden’s Ferry Review
• “James Dean” – Ironwood
• “Capture” – Ironwood
• “Fate” – Manoa
• “The Shadowboxer” – Manoa
• “Last Seen” – Pequod
• “Eve’s Story” – Pequod
• “Evidence: From a Reporter’s Notebook” – Pequod
• “Boys and Girls, Lenny Bruce, or Back from the Dead” – Ploughshares
• “Interview with a Policeman” – Poetry
• “Reunions with a Ghost” – Quarterly West

Critical Response: Poetry (Modern Poetry Association) concludes, “Instead of harrowing our nervous systems, {the book's} assault on the senses ultimately desensitizes.” On the contrary Library Journal praises the strength of Ai’s unnamed, down-and-out characters and defends the poet. “Ai's horrific, surreal vision continues to mature with each book.”

-- Poetry (Modern Poetry Association) v. 159 (November 1991) p. 108
-- Library Journal v. 115 (December 1990) p. 129

Reviews: read reviews.

Publisher Website: http://www.hmco.com/indexf.html

Greed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1993.

Edition(s):
1993 / hardcover / ISBN 0-393-03561-1
1993 / paperback / ISBN 0-393-31201-1

Page count: 96
Book Design by: Guenet Abraham
Dedication: This book is dedicated to my loyal fans.

About this Book: Poems from this collection are markers for the times, depicting the harsh, truthful realities of inner-city life. Ai tackles important, historical moments like the L.A. riots, the Rodney King’s beating and Mayor Marion Barry’s drug charges.

The poems in this book have appeared in the following magazines and anthologies:

• “Self Defense” – Agni Review, No 36
• “Life Story” – Agni Review
• “Hoover, Edgar J.” – Agni Review
• “Knockout” – Callaloo, Vol 15, No 4 (Autumn, 1992) pp. 880-881
• “Self Defense” – Callaloo, Vol 15, No 4 (Autumn, 1992) pp. 877-879
• “Finished” – Caprice
• “Appomatox” – Caprice
• “Penis Envy” – Caprice
• “Zero Velocity, II” – Graham House Review
• “Respect, 1967” – Lingo
• “Jack Ruby on Ice” – Muleteeth
• “Riot Act” – Muleteeth
• “Reconciliation, 2, 3, 4” – On the Bus
• “Zero Velocity, I” – On the Bus
• “Self Defense” – On the Bus
• “Archangel” – On the Bus
• “Family Portrait, 1960” – Ploughshares
• “Oswald Incognito & Astral Travels” – Snail’s Pace Review
• “Party Line” – Snail’s Pace Review
• “Miracle in Manila” – Tribes
• “Reconciliation, 1” – University of Louisville Review
• “The Ice Cream Man” – Zone

Critical Response: Margaret Atwood writes the following on the importance and necessity of Ai to the American poetry landscape, “Ai is a strong, powerful poet who writes about real things. These are daring, disturbing, ambitious poems that go for the heart of America.”

Reviews: read reviews.

Publisher Website: http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/fall94/031201.htm

Vice: new and selected poems. New York: W.W. Norton, 1999.

Edition(s):
1999 / hardcover / ISBN 0-393-04705-9
1999 / paperback / ISBN 0-393-32018-9

Page count: 272
Book Design by: Abbate Design
Dedication: This book is dedicated to my mother.
Award(s): 1999 National Book Award for Poetry

About this Book: Vice includes a collection of 58 monologues from Cruelty, Killing Floor, Sin, Fate and Greed along with 17 new poems capturing characters from recent headlines, such as O.J. Simpson, Jon-Benet Ramsey and Monica Lewinsky.

The poems in this book have appeared in the following magazines and anthologies:

• “Passing Through” – The American Poetry Review
• “Chance” – Bed of Rice: Momento Mori
• “Chance” – Caprice
• “Afterschool Lessons form a Hitman” – Focus on Art
• “The Paparazzi” – Focus on Art
• “Star Vehicle” – Focus on Art
• “Knock, Knock” – New Letters
• “Sleeping Beauty” – New Letters
• “Rapture” – On the Bus
• “Visitation” – On the Bus
• “The Antihero” – Poetry International
• “Stalking Memory” – Pequod
• “Back in the World” – Quarterly West
• “Charisma” – Rattle
• “False Witness” – Sniper Logic

Critical Response: Critics agree with the Library Journal that Ai’s ability to pause the spotlight on the sufferings of the ordinary people results in poetry that is “richly rewarding, but not for the squeamish."

-- Library Journal v. 124 no. 7 (April 15 1999) p. 100

Reviews: read reviews.

Publisher Website:  http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/spring00/32018.htm

Dread. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003.

Edition(s):
2003 / hardcover / ISBN 0-393-04143-3
2004 / paperback / ISBN 0-393-32619-5

Page count: 136
Book Design by: Blue Shoe Studio
Dedication: This book is dedicated to the survivors of childhood trauma and to Gwendolyn Brooks.

About this Book: For the first time, some of the fictionalized characters in her poems are from Ai’s family. Included in this collection are poems about her mother and father. Ai dedicated this book to survivors of childhood trauma.

The poems in this book have appeared in the following magazines and anthologies:

• “The Greenwood Cycle” – Callaloo, Vol 24, No 4 (Autumn, 2001) pp. 947-952
• “The White Homegirl” – Callaloo, Vol 24, No 4 (Autumn, 2001) pp. 953-954
• “Dread” – Canary River
• “Rude Awakening” – Columbia Magazine
• “Intercourse” – Crazy Horse
• “The Psychic Detective: Identity” – Crazy Horse
• “Greetings Friend” – Divide
• “Family” – Estrella Mountain Community College
• “Fairy Tale” – Estruscan Press
• “The Broker” – The Manthology
• “The Calling” – The Mantholog
• “The Secret” – New Delta Review
• “Lullaby” – Pacific Review
• “Grandfather Says” – Pacific Review
• “Delusions” – Southwest Review
• “The Psychic Detective: Fantasy” – Witness
• “Passage” – The Writer’s Garret

Critical Response: The substance of this book is in its personal nature. The New York Times Book Review writes, “We feel in this book, as perhaps never before in Ai's work, the presence of the writer and her anguished condition.”

-- The New York Times Book Review v. 108 no. 18 (May 4 2003) p. 7

Reviews: read reviews.

Publisher Website: http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/fall04/032619.htm

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“On Being 1/2 Japanese, 1/8 Choctaw, 1/4 Black, and 1/16 Irish.” Ms., 6 (June 1974): 58.
“Movies, Mom, Poetry, Sex, and Death: A Self-Interview.” Onthebus, 3-4 No. 2-1 (1991): 240-48.

Short Stories

“Little America Confidential” Callaloo, No 39 (Spring, 1989) pp. 391-395
“Smoking Gun”, Callaloo, Vol 17, No 2 (Spring, 1994) pp. 405-406

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