Voyage of the Sable Venus and Other Poems

In Lewis's (Provost's Fellow in Poetry and Visual Studies, Univ. of Southern California) ambitious experimental three-part book, the first and third sections are made up of original poems and the second section (most of the book), "is a narrative poem comprised solely and entirely of the titles, catalog, or exhibit descriptions of Western art objects in which a black female figure is present." Like an erasure, then, the second section is a testament to playfulness but not originality. The list-like nature of those poems, epitomized by the pieces in "Catalog 4" (e.g., Our Lady/ of Presentation// Our Lady of the Confession"), reduces them to references, which have the benefit, as Yusef Komunyakaa says, of "mak[ing] us question racial constructs" in art history but little more. Lewis's original poems show range and density—the lines move easily between humor and social critique, and from narratives to fables, and put line breaks to great use ("Sometimes the ground swells/ With disappointment").