Poets and Poems: Shane McCrae and "Sometimes I Never Suffered"

In his latest collection Sometimes I Never Suffered, poet Shane McCrae tells a story. Or perhaps he’s telling several stories that are different threads of the same story. Thirty-six poems become one poem, and one story, and they do what good poetry always does – leave the reader unsettled and reflecting upon something new in the reader’s experience. The story also leaves the reader wondering what might happen and what should happen. 

McCrae uses a historical figure, Jim Limber, to tell his story. Limber was a young boy of mixed race who was brought into the household of Jefferson and Varina Davis in Richmond, Virginia. He lived with the Davises from February 1864 to May 1865, when the family was captured by Union troops in Georgia. He was taken from the family, and the facts of his life after that are not fully documented. It seems he lived for a time with a Union general in occupied Charleston and was sent north for his education.

 

But that is as much as anyone knows about the boy. What happened to him later, when he died, or where he was buried are all unknown. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.