A Night Without Armor: Poems

We are the living and the living must love the world ~Jewel A Night Without Armor is an intricately crafted collection of honest expression and spontaneous revelation. Jewel Kilcher is not only a singer and songwriter, she is a truly gifted poet. Her love for the poems of Shakespeare, Dylan Thomas, Rumi, Yeats and Pablo Neruda flows through her poems in a mingling of mysterious longings and vision. I spent an entire afternoon reading "a night without armor" and Jewel's intuitive understanding of life and descriptions of loneliness in the midst of popularity left me in a state of extended contemplation about beautiful moments and the cravings of the soul. Jewel paints unforgettable scenes in vivid imagery. In "Communion" she shows a deep understanding of intimacy and her artistic descriptions capture environments in sensual words that slip over the pages in beautiful streams of inspired imaginings. I have cast my heart like a purpled fruit toward the violent earth, far from the Heaven of your arms Her words will at times take you by surprise and I found myself retracing my steps to understand the unique poetic forms and deeper meanings woven within complexity. I found myself reading "Wild Horse" three times before I could turn the page. "Still Life" and "Lost" are also equally interesting in form. "Gold Fish" was a sweet innocent and playful surprise and her witty interpretation of life in Spivey Leaks made me laugh. "You Are Not" is a revealing look at belief that sharply contrasts with action. Many of Jewel's poems are saturated in deep heart longing and many are resting in delicate moments of peaceful childhood memories from Alaska. There is a profound poem about her brother Shane and many poems about her childhood and family life in Alaska. "The Slow Migration of Glaciers" is a love poem to Alaska and explores Jewel's longings for home. Struggling to hold back the dawn open-hearted lovers cling to the sweet fruits of last-minute kisses so eager to lose themselves in the honey-thick gravity of love so new Jewel's love poems are unique and she delves into dreams, experience, loss, passion, trust, betrayal, fear, disappointment, uncertainty, longing, infatuation and kisses. These poems are alive with emotion; they capture the beauty of Jewel's soul and make the world feel a little less lonely. ~The Rebecca Review

I am a poet, with work published in places like Amelia and Impetus. And for 6 years, I published a poetry magazine called Whisper. I read tens of thousands of poems, from many of the same people who are here, reviewing Jewel's work harshly. I spend my time talking about Lifshin or Lewis or Cummings with other poets, go to coffee shops for poetry reading now and then, and even hosted a few poetry slams. I tell you that for two reasons: first, to help you decide if I speak with any authority; and second, because I am going to commit a mutiny.I will not join the chorus of poets in protest here. Saying "this isn't poetry!" over and over again won't make it true. Getting all bent out of shape over how Jewel is making poetry available to (gasp) the masses is ridiculous. I feel like I'm watching the punk scene happen all over again -- every time someone had a success, the fans screamed "sell out!" My, how we love to topple those on top.My loyalty is not to the poets, but to poetry. My loyalty is not to some exclusionary club of latte-sucking introverts, full of pretense, but to language itself. And that is why I must break ranks and say this book is just what the world of poetry needed. Poetry may be "language molded into magnificent text" and many other things, such as meter and rhyme -- but the single most important trait of poetry is that it is relevant. It affects you in a way that is deep and impactful. And Jewel's poetry does exactly that, with so many memorable poems and vivid images filling my head that I eager to read her book again.When reviewers complain that Jewel ought to read some poets before she publishes her own work, they betray their own failure to read her work. For in her book, she DOES talk about her love of poets and mentions them by name. Bukowski comes to mind. In fact, her work resembles Bukowski's. And I realize half the poetry community would gasp to hear me make that comparison, but so what? Both poets write in plain English, without even so much as an attempt to embellish or prop it up with words so full of pompous exaggeration. They both write about everyday events in an almost prosaic way.Does this mean that Jewel's work is a pinnacle of success? No, she lacks the experience of a man like Bukowski, or Cummings, or dozens of others. But she has the talent. In fact, after reading more poems by more poets than nearly any poetry lover could stand, I feel it is reasonable to say that Jewel outshines 90% of the poetry out there. It may take another 2 or 3 books before Jewel has honed her craft, and if she's any good, she'll spend the rest of her life reinventing her words. But what you have here is the poetry of a young woman on the verge of a breakthrough -- the words are raw, but often brilliant.

I believe that this was an excellent collection of poems. One of my former English teachers lent it to me to read after showing her some of my poems. I was touched by most of the poems. I found them easy to realate to, as I struggle through this game called life. This magnificent collection of writings from Jewel reassured me that i wasn't the only one with "these" feelings. After reading her poems, I have found a new respect for Jewel, and for myself.

The poetry was great. It was so inspiring to go out and live your life the best you can. I couldn't put it down, I stay up crying and laughing at the same time all night.

jewels book of poems, a night without armor, is my favourite book of poetry ever! What I like so much about her book is that each poem is meaningful and deep ,yet in a different way for each individual , Each one of us can take them into our lives and apply them differently ... at first i didnt like the way her poems didnt have an even flow to them (as in they werent rhyming and all) but once her beautiful words sunk in to me, I fell in love with the book and i simply adore her poem "infatuation"and "collect beads of night" and "freedom" her poems make me laugh , cry and really think ! congrats to her for being so sucessful , such a wonderful role model ,and such a caring person. she is trully a wonderful unique individual... and if you havent read the book yet ,please do , its amazing!