What to Do with Red

In what to do with RED, Jacquelyn Shah draws upon the philosophy or words of poets and writers Franz Kafka, Herman Melville, George Orwell, Sylvia Plath and many more, exploring the plight of humanity and reflecting her chagrin at the same time she plays with a language imbued with humor, irony, and a modicum of mockery.-Sehba Sarwar, author of Black Wings, a novel of transgression and redemption. This is, simply, magnificent poetry. Jacquelyn Shah delivers to the reader an incredible range of topics, styles, and passions within a book that shows a lifetime's apprenticeship to the craft of poem-making and tuning her ear to the music and rhythm of her unique voice and vision. The range of forms offered is astonishing-from a play on the paradelle to a pair of ars poeticas to the visual rhetoric of "Snowman's Eyes" and "Knit Purl" with its deft verbal interplay. An Oulipian opus is offered, and a half sonnet plus "Preposterous Sonnets for the Letter S"-all captivating, original, and vibrating with intensity. Beneath the humor, quick wit, and clever poise with form and language, Shah's words roil with passionate intention. Lines that are playful, ("Hell's bells--there they are again!") such as those found within the surprise of "Paul's Balls" are undergirded by a focused and committed anger. "I've developed a taste for it," directly says the speaker in the poem "Anger," followed by the lines, "I don't want a cure besides, it's powerful- " Conviction and passion about issues of gender equity and the place of woman in the world, run throughout this amazing book, revealing their power. The harm done to women, the dangers in the world, the unapologetic violence men wield is framed clearly and indicted. Classic literary texts are rewritten or re-referred to include a world that includes women. In this book, red is an anger, a mood, a credo-a commitment explored with intensity throughout these gripping poems that grab hold of the reader and emblazon new meanings, new understandings, and new love for poetry.-Dr. Elline Lipkin, author of The Errant Thread, poems and Girls' Studies: Seal Studies"Shah's What to Do with Red is part exuberantly talky Jabberwocky, part mournful Mother Goose, or as she puts it, and Most of Shah's poems are giddy, garrulous and profoundly playful, so it is notable that when she turns to the subject of violence against women her poems turn minimal, nearly mute."-Matthea Harvey, author of five books of poetry, including If the Tabloidsare True What are you? and teacher of poetry at Sarah Lawrence