Dyke
Hands and Sutras Erotic Lyric by
SDiane Bogus, Noreen D. Dresser (Illustrator)
"Dyke Hands & Sutras Erotic &
Lyric," by SDiane Bogus, is an outstanding work from this
prolific African-American lesbian writer. A collection of poems
and essays, "Dyke Hands" covers a wide range of the
author's diverse interests: spirituality, eroticism, cultural
politics, love, and the struggles that come with being a writer.
The book is divided up into four sections:
"Spirituality," "Race and Culture,"
"Love, Joy, Sex, and Loss," and "Selves and
Selfhood." Each of the four sections begins with several
poems and concludes with one of Bogus' characteristically witty
and insightful essays. From a diversity of her own materials,
Bogus has thus constructed a unified and satisfying whole.
Bogus' poems cover a broad range of themes and
poetic styles. Some standouts include "The Creator's
Dalliance: Psalm 3," a playfully rhyming deconstruction of
gendered concepts of deity; "Michael Jackson," a painful
meditation on the public image of the celebrated entertainer; and
"Making Whoopee," a highly erotic description of a
lesbian sexual encounter with another Black woman.
Equally engaging are her four essays. The best
of the quartet are strongly autobiographical. "The First
Temptation of an Arrogant Christian and a Fledgling Buddhist"
is a revealing memoir of the author's own spiritual journey, and
of her quest to integrate her lesbian sexuality into that journey.
The final essay, "To My Mother's Vision," is a stunning
memoir of her birth as a poet during a fertile period of
African-American cultural production in the 1960s and 70s.
Containing Bogus' reflections on her encounters with such
important African-American literary figures as Gwendolyn Brooks,
Nikki Giovanni, and Dudley Randall, this final essay is a
wonderful resource for students of Black literature.
"Dyke Hands" will be of particular
interest to those interested in the art of poetry and of the
essay, as well as to students of lesbian literature and
African-American culture. SDiane Bogus writes, "I personally
advocate for the good, just, right, truthful, faithful, and an
appreciation of the beautiful." With regard to that goal,
"Dyke Hands" is a triumph. -- Michael J. Mazza
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