Erin Belieu

Black Box Erin Belieu

?Belieu?s poems use a vernacular of their own to suggest a noir world of erotic innuendo and red lights waiting to be run.??Neon

Black Box is a raw, intense book, fueled by a devastating infidelity. With her marriage shattered, Erin Belieu sifts the wreckage for the black box, the record of disaster. Propelled by a blistering and clarifying rage, she composed at fever pitch and produced riveting, unforgettable poems, such as the ten-part sequence ?In the Red Dress I Wear to Your Funeral?:

I root through your remains,
looking for the black box. Nothing left
but glossy chunks, a pimp?s platinum
tooth clanking inside the urn. I play you
over and over, my beloved conspiracy,
my personal Zapruder film?look. . .

When Belieu was invited by the Poetry Foundation to keep a public journal on their new website, readers responded to the Black Box poems, calling them ?dark, twisted, disturbed, and disturbing? and Belieu a ?frightening genius.? All true.