| When a 15-year-old girl is seduced by a 57-year-old man and he ends up in prison, where does the girl end up? Bekah Bevins ended up writing. Read all about it. REVIEW: I was really impressed with Bekah's book--and I was surprised that I was. I haven't read many teenagers' poetry that had any real merit, but she has an amazingly powerful voice. --Lindsy J. O'Brien SELECTED POEM FROM PAGE 80 let me scream
let me rage, let me cut myself open
and bleed this out, the broken parts
that i'm tired of picking up and fitting
back together
so jagged, growing smaller and smaller
the more they shatter, the more they fall
let me break open and find something else
something different than this blue misery--
the gulf the flame the broken |
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Book
Reviews for:
I Was Night |
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Rating: Excellent
Comments: After meeting and getting to know Bekah Bevins, I was not able to put this book down. Bekah really puts her self into her work. I thoroughly enjoyed the way Bekah lets you deep into her mind and heart. You really get a sense of raw emotion. I believe everyone, at one point, has had the same feelings, even if it is a different situation. I know that I was able to relate in my own ways. Keep at it Bekah. You definitely have a new fan. : )
Submitted by: Candice Simpson on 11/30/2004 3:22:37 PM |
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Rating: Excellent
Comments: This is a kick-ass book.
Submitted by: Tattoo on 12/23/2004 12:56:38 PM |
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Rating: Excellent
Comments: “So I’m simply speaking”
When Bekah Bevins was 15 years old, she fell in love with a 57-year-old man.
He wound up in prison. She wrote these stunning poems.
She doesn’t remember a time when she didn’t write poetry, but “in the past couple of years,” she says, “it’s transformed into an all-consuming need. Sometimes I read it and begin weeping or screaming, or I grow very pensive and can’t be talked to for hours.”
rain outside the window
reminds her of their kisses
wrapped tight
in dirty sky
fractured, gray kisses
lips meeting
after thunderstorms
draining kisses
eddies of kisses
his gazes warned her
like flash flood bulletins
signaling disaster.
This first collection “lacks a great deal of splendor,” she says, and she’s at work on a second, Us Damaged Ones. “I feel that my writing is going through some sort of cerebral transformation.”
the blade dulls
orange rust
decorated, like staining tattoos
my scars
from rollerskates
and razor blades,
from shaving my legs
too quickly—
these hands shaking
with their own revelation
of womanhood
the scars pulse
where blood runs thin
“There’s a maddening, nearly feral emotion towards writing, language, and what I do with it,” she says. “If I didn’t write, I’d die.”
She reads “a million other poets,” ranging from Anne Carson, a new favorite, to Shakespeare and Keats, Sharon Olds to Octavio Paz.
“The point is not to stand out” in being a poet, she says, “but to show people, hold up a sign, and blaze across all the trivial delusions and configurations, this very simple meaning: Without speaking, nothing is ever spoken. So I’m simply speaking.
“The fact that I’m obsessed or infatuated or half-delirious by what I see and witness and take inside of myself is nothing more than me being human.”
You said I was beautiful,
but I didn’t know what that meant
now, I know it means I wasn’t broken
not yet
not yet, by you
i wasn’t scarred
you couldn’t see my pain
i was good at hiding it.
You can buy Bekah’s collection from all the usual suspects or directly from the publisher, Box 115, Superior, WI 54880. www.savpress.com
Submitted by: Marshall J. Cook on 12/29/2004 11:06:21 AM |
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Rating: Fair
Comments: I would like to hear some constructive criticism, someone who wasn't so crazy about her work. I find it nice, but no striking with accomplished-ness. I have some background in all this, and it hurts us all when rave reviews are given by people who are either not tough enough, if you will, or by people themselves a little debutant-ish. Believe me, I am a Huge fan of encouragement and praise, but...like, is this poet someone's wife or good friend there at Savage Press? Or, why are you highlighting her alone?
Submitted by: Liz Burton on 1/5/2005 3:30:06 AM |
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Rating: Excellent
Comments: I think this book of poetry is truly amazing. It is wraught with social implication and it my opinion that people everywhere should read it. There is a contridiction between innocence and rude sexual awakening which makes Bekah's poems so powerful. After reading her book, my main question was, why has our society promoted sexuality in young adolescent females so ruthlessly, and how can we correct this so girls are allowed to, once again, be proud to have a childhood? Definately a book to make one think.
Submitted by: Anni Friesen on 9/14/2005 4:06:42 PM |
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