The Silence Of Men
"...exposes the violence of men toward men, and men toward women, and the tenderness also, the resounding tenderness. [Newman's] is an unremitting empathy, as uncommon as it is necessary." —Robin Behn
Published in 2006 by CavanKerry Press, The Silence of Men explores what it means to be a man who breaks the silences in which society all-too-often forces men to exist, in particular the silencing of men who have been sexually victimized, as I was, during childhood. In his Foreword, Yusef Komunyakaa wrote, “[T]he speaker in this collection suggests that we are responsible for what we know, for what we’ve witnessed and dreamt, and for what we don’t say to ourselves and each other…[T]here’s a moral gesture at the heart of this collection, but the poetry isn’t moralistic or didactic. In fact, when the narrator says, ‘I’m not being hard on myself,’ we know that the whole journey has been about freedom, renewal, and release.” I encourage you to buy The Silence of Men directly from CavanKerry Press, since it's important to support small presses. If, on the other hand, you would like to get signed copy, please contact me directly.
- Buy from the publisher, CavanKerry Press.
- Buy a signed copy directly from me.
Reviews
"Newman...explores the space between old-fashioned male silence and contemporary male sound and presents poems that force us to rethink the place of poetry in masculinity studies. Newman’s poems explore the tension between insensitivity and sensitivity through art, and show us what happens when a feeling man grapples with the problems of being a man today." Read the full review below.
Fred Gardaphe, in Men and Masculinities
"Social construction of reality begins in the cradle, and Newman’s poems return repeatedly to this theme, even though it leads so often to 'The silence between us [which] is the silence of men.' Here 'disfigured manhood' becomes precisely an indicator of what we might term disfigured 'humanhood,' for I could imagine such a volume (perhaps I’ve read it already) being written from a woman’s perspective." Read the full review below.
William G. Doty, Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality
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