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Summary and Reviews of A Night Without Armor by Jewel Kilcher

A Night Without Armor by Jewel Kilcher

A Night Without Armor

by Jewel Kilcher
  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • First Published:
  • May 1, 1998, 160 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Aug 1999, 160 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

In A Night Without Armor, her first collection of poetry, Jewel explores the fire of first love, the fading of passion, the giving of trust, the lessons of betrayal, and the healing of intimacy.

I've learned that not all poetry lends itself to music -- some thoughts need to be sung only against the silence. There are softer and less tangible part[s] of our selves that are so essential to peace, to openheartedness, to unfolding the vision and the spiritual realm of our lives, to exposing our souls. - Jewel, From the Preface.

Writing poems and keeping journals since childhood, Jewel has been searching for truth and meaning, turning to her words to record, to discover, and to reflect.

In A Night Without Armor, her first collection of poetry, Jewel explores the fire of first love, the fading of passion, the giving of trust, the lessons of betrayal, and the healing of intimacy.

She delves into matters of the home, the comfort of family, the beauty of Alaska, and the dislocation of divorce.

And then there are the images of the road, the people, the bars, the planes, places exotic and mundane, loneliness and friendship.

Frank and honest, serious and suddenly playful, A Night Without Armor is a talented artist's intimate portrait of what makes us uniquely human.

I Miss Your Touch

I miss your touch
all taciturn
like the slow migration of birds
nesting momentarily
upon my breast
then lifting
silver and quick--
sabotaging the landscape
with their absence

my skin silent without
their song
a thirsty pool of patient flesh



Insecurity

you don't call
I check again
I become uneasy--
is this a frame?
Suddenly I'm not so sure
I check my sources
each conversation becomes a crumb
how easily I'm led
how stupid I've been
to believe
you could be
loving me
you who can not be seduced
by anything other than
the temperance
of need
each one facilitating the next
and suddenly I see my place
the phone rings
you say hello
but I don't believe you


 

I Say to You Idols

I say to you idols
of carefully studied
disillusionment

And you worshipers
who find beauty
in only fallen things

that the greatest
Grace
we can aspire to
is the strength
to see the wounded
walk with the ...

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Reviews

Media Reviews

Entertainment Weekly - Andrew Essex
[H]er best poems, raw autobiographical sketches that chronicle her Alaskan upbringing, hint that Jewel is just a polish away from shining.

The New York Observer - James Hunter
Jewel has a fairly scary way to save our souls: not memoir or fiction or even poetic effects smuggled into records or movies or whatever, but poetry - its big, bad super bizarre self, stuff written in lines, stuff that reduces beastie boys and cool chicks everywhere to states of literary terror.

Library Journal
For people who don't regularly follow MTV (which unfortunately includes most of those who listen to poetry), Jewel will seem to have sprung up out of nowhere. But the 23-year-old Alaska native has four albums to her credit and several web sites. ...Sure, there are too many prepositions and some cliched images; an attempt to be philosophical is laughable; and many "poems" are nothing more than fragments. But a lot of the material is also straightforward and deeply honest...Certainly, she's as good as Leonard Cohen and deserves serious attention from poetry lovers.

Reader Reviews

Erica

I am 18 and I found this poetry book very inspiring. I do not agree with the review written earlier about Jewel's poetry. When reading this you will find that some things are very straight forward and other poems have a deeper meaning to them. The ...   Read More
max

this book was VG, jewel was bold and wrote what she felt wich (to me) is brave.
It was in a form of poetry that is rarely (if ever) used like in her song 'Peaces of you" she used one emotion to inflict meany emotions.
this singer/poet has never ...   Read More
Richard David

I have always listened to jewels music, she has inspired me numerous times. I had the chance to read her book "A Night Without Armor" for the first time when i saw it at our local library. i could not put it down. I read the book all the ...   Read More
Kathy

This is an amazing book. Jewel Kilcher is a very talented poet, author, singer and song writer. You will not be disappointed.

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