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A few Saturdays ago, I visited Patricia Spears Jones at her apartment in Brooklyn. She ordered BLTs on sourdough bread that were delicious. It had been a while so we spent some time catching up, talking about ourselves and old friends, breaking news, sharing thoughts and gentle gossip.
I admire Patricia’s generosity because she manages to get herself out there and supports other artists, writers and poets, attending their many events. Even today, a car was coming to take us to a poetry reading that Hanging Loose Press was having at a Park Slope community garden.
Before we left, I recorded Patricia reading from her new chapbook, The Devil’s Wife Considers. I love chapbooks and this one is a pleasure to hold and beautiful to behold with artwork by Alex Callender on the covers.
Patricia is from Arkansas where, when she was a little girl, people used to say that when the sun was shining and it was raining at the same time, the Devil was beating his wife. In The Devil’s Wife Considers, the devil’s wife laments, complains and shares not only her plight, but her philosophy of life, a POV told in the tradition of stories passed down, over generations, offering an assonance in the dissonance, a communal connecting salvation in the sense and sound one might hear in a Protestant hymn or in the resolute defiance of a Blues lyric. The Devil’s Wife Considers sings.
In the Vimeo below, Patricia reads from her new chapbook. Enjoy.
Patricia Spears Jones reads from the Devil’s Wife Considers
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The Devil’s Wife Considers is published by the Song Cave. You can check it out here:
https://the-song-cave.com/products/the-devils-wife-considers-patricia-spears-jones
And here are four poems from The Devil’s Wife Considers:
Patricia Spears Jones
Patricia Spears Jones reads from The Beloved Community