Nothin' Ugly Fly
by Marvin K. White
In nothin’ ugly fly, Marvin K. White follows his celebrated last rights by charting the course from being a boy "dangerous and unexpected" to being a man who becomes "expected" through loving another man. The black bird that is his poetry emerges out of the relation between what is said and what is only hinted in the voice and music of his work. In his best poems, the self asserted is fiercely witty and soul-filled, and it embodies the whole flock of men he acknowledges, honors and celebrates. This is a book that lifts off and lifts up. —Forrest Hamer, Author, Middle Ear
Wise and wry, Marvin K. White’s nothin’ ugly fly is a pleasure and a treasure. There are spare poems of concentrated emotion and intensity. There are swirling rococo pieces with all the creeping vines, veils and frou-frou appropriate to nightclub divas. Most of all, nothin’ ugly fly is a lovingly honest rendering of family, faith and the falling and rising of the body black. —Jaime Cortez, Editor, Virgins, Guerrillas & Locas
ISBN-10: 0-9656659-5-X
ISBN-13: 978-0-9656659-5-7
Specs: Softcover,
76 pp.
Price: $14.00
Pub. Date: October
2004
Cover design, cover art copyright © 2004 by mai-lei
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Praise for nothin' ugly fly
In his second work, White reassembles his youth in an effort to find understanding of himself and of his family. [nothin’ ugly fly] hinges on poems like “rememory,” which takes place “somewhere/ in the stuffed pocket/ of my mind’s youth,” where intimate notions of boyhood attraction are accepted and honored. …White witnesses his family’s shame and disappointment at his being gay in order to accept this inevitability of himself. He constructs imagery of signs, curses and conjures to reconnect with and then to banish this fear of self and familial acceptance, and then to return it … as well wishes and blessings… It is this smallness of childhood and misunderstandings that is juxtaposed against poems of his adulthood and embracing his identity, and the healing eroticism of that embrace. This is no easy endeavor; poems like “shy” testify to these growing pains with blaring lines like: “I ball up inside myself/ unwrap loudly/ come undone/ ill-timed peppermint in church.” This awkward coming out is precisely exhibited with skilled enjambment and a gentle prod at social self-awareness.
—Tonya C. Hegamin, Black Issues Book Review, Sept/Oct 2005
Marvin K. White… follows up his startlingly impressive and Lambda Award-nominated last rights with this arrangement that is less an organized collection of poems than it is a photobox brimming with pictures or a sky bejeweled with stars. White’s stripped works indicate the author’s evolution via his distinctive technique and voice—here never better—as the book bypasses one common theme to allow its poetry to come at the reader from various angles and subjects, impacting with captivating clarity.
—H.L. Sudler, PageandAuthor.com, October 2005
“White’s work… grabs me by the throat and balls, deep-kisses me and sucker-punches me, all at once. …These are important works by a gifted poet, and… one of the strongest voices of black gay identity.”
—Mark Mardon, Bay Area Reporter, 12/16/2004
There is loss in this soulful collection: “on that block/before death come sit on our stoop/we counted stars.” There is sorrow in this truth-telling collection: “my brother is pained/thinking about me/kissing men on the lips.” There is politics in this assertive collection: “pray this world’s foot/be taken off our necks.” There is pride in this fierce collection: “we the dark ones/who formed support groups/to speak to our loss.” There is regret in this angry collection: “he/made/me/call/him/lover/believed breaking me/was the only way to keep me.” There is sex in this sultry collection: “his lick almost convinces me/there can be no sweeter place.” There is hope in this tender collection: “let the children walk/the nobody ever stepped on your toes walk.” There is beauty in this exultant collection: “innocent muscle/tight thighed legs unfurl/hot new butterfly.” And there is a black man’s assured voice in this eloquent poetry collection, and there is “nothin’ ugly” about White’s words: they soar.
—Richard Labonte, Book Marks column, 2/14/2005
“With his new poetry collection, nothin’ ugly fly, and the reprint of 1999’s last rights, Marvin K. White takes us not only into the ghetto, but into himself as a gay black man who is part of and apart from the culture that sprouted there. …These poems never wander far from the sights, sounds and smells of people and place, home, food, and song. Most of all, there is a celebration of bodies: bodies of men, beautiful or wasted, contemplated, entered into, worshipped, or released to desertion or death. …nothin’ ugly fly shows an advance in many ways, in craft and confidence that builds on the first collection; there is more poetic precision here and less lecturing, and almost the same number of poems in about half the pages.”
—Harry Eugene Baldwin, Frontiers Newsmagazine, vol. 23, n. 2, Feb. 16-Mar. 1, 2005
Most people hate poetry for two reasons: 1) They think it’s hard to understand because they had to read The Canterbury Tales in high school and got a C- on the test; or 2) They got dragged to some open mic slam night where some chick was bellowing “MOTHER EARTH NEEDS A SMEAR!” and their beer came snorting out their nose. But you can relax around Marvin White. His poetry is like a friend talking to you about his life. Yeah, it’s still poetry, but it’s like the easy chair of poetry—warm, welcoming, sturdy and solid. A-.
—Dave White, Instinct magazine, March 2005
