A Night Without Armor : Poems

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Summary: Jewel combines the flavors of Angelou and Hughes
Review: Jewel's poetry reminds me of the works of Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes. It goes into more diverse emotional ground then the songs on her album, _Pieces of You_.

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Summary: She sure is purty...
Review: I think "a reader from Texas" had it right when he said, "Jewel, what were you thinking?" This is bad, this is very bad. Get something by Robert Pinsky if you want to read REAL contemporary poetry at its best. Jewel is a somewhat overwrought and sentimental singer/songwriter and she is doubly so as a poet. It just goes to show you, if a woman is attractive, she can do anything she wants and do it so badly that the stink could clear an arena and PEOPLE BUY IT. Don't buy this. Read it in the bookstore. It won't take but a minute.

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Summary: "Ogling" as serious poetry.
Review: There are certain things in the world which should not happen. People should not be killed. Republicans should not be voted into office. And Jewel Kilcher should not write poetry. However, for some reason known only to her, her agent, and a publisher who obviously had too much to drink one night, she has done just that. And it is bad. Oh lordie, is it bad. I refer you to "Sun Bathing," a magnum opus located on page 14, which contains the final lines "the father tries/to bond with/his teenage boy/by ogling my breasts." Ladies and gentlemen, "ogling" is not a word for serious poetry. Indeed, it is not a word for poetry at all. And the case can be made for it to not be a word at all. And this is just one of the countless poems in this book that, to be quite honest, are awful. There is no excuse for these poems. None. They are childish, cheesy, badly written, and contain the word "ogling." You'd do well to drift down the shelf a bit, and grab some Ginsberg. Or some Williams. Or, indeed, just about any other poet. Just not Jewel. Trust me. You won't regret the decision.

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Summary: Simply wonderful
Review: I bought this book last Monday and in two days I was done with it! This book you just can not put down. She speaks about love, war, politics, ignorance, and her personal experenices throughout this whole book. It has a definite quality of turning this book into a music compact disc because all of these poems have a very lyrical and passionate emotion in them. I recommend anyone to get this book. It is simply wonderful.

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Summary: Oh, Please
Review: Jewel, what were you thinking? Let me guess....your agent mentions a book deal and your eyes turned into dollar signs. Understandable, given your age and inexperience, but surely someone must have tried to talk you out of it? These "poems" are nothing but poorly wrought, moony, childish nonsense. "Sausages slipped from her pockets/I hope she misses them sorely"? Spare me! Even more offensive than your clumsy verse is the cleverly deceptive packaging, making this seem like a substantial literary work. In reality, everything is double or triple spaced, with far too many 2 or 4 line poems. Note to Jewel: Read Dickinson or Poe for lessons in sparse beauty. A Night Without Armor (ooh, clever!) reads like random scraps from a songwriter's notebook--words or phrases that, given time and effort, could have gone on to be good songs. I felt nothing but pain and embarrassment reading this sophomoric schlock. Do yourself a favor, Jewel, and keep it to yourself.

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Summary: Jewel at her best with great poems of her life
Review: I know lots about Jewel. I have her album, this book, another book also in amazon, I've even attended a chat session she was on, and of course I've seen her on Saturday night live, MTV awards, etc. She is a wonderful person, musician, and poet, to name a few. If you have a twinkling of thought about purchasing this book i consider it a good idea. She writes great poems that also provide you with biographical info that is sometimes neat or even shocking or baffling. But whether you like poetry, music, and/or Jewel this book is a good one. It is one of the greatest collections of poems I've ever seen. Even though they dont all ryhme, you'll get into, you'll follow along, and most likely -you'll enjoy as extremely well as i did.

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Summary: Not a literary masterpiece.
Review: I'm a big Jewel fan, I love her music and intellect. Yet this book isn't a Yeats or a Frost. I still rather read poetry with more soul.

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Summary: This was the most inspiring book I have ever read.
Review: This was a definate inspiration to my poets heart. This was truely a novel of a minded poet.

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Summary: Tastes are subjective
Review: I'm a huge fan of Jewel's, so it's only natural that I'd like her poetry. I know little about rhyme, meter, and verse, but I know what I like, and this is it. I'll never forget the way I felt when I read the last line of "I'm writing to tell you" or "Bukowsky's Widow." Poetry, to me, isn't about thinking. It's about feeling. And Jewel communicates plenty of that.

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Summary: A GREAT poet!
Review: In my life I am looking for great poets, so I can learn how to better use the English language. When I saw Jewel with a book of poems on Charlie Rose, I thought, "No way am I going to buy some dumb book of poetry by a celebrity." But then Jewel read three of her poems. They were really great. On the strength of those poems, I am buying this book.