Rating: 
Summary: expressive beautiful lit
Review: This book is getting bad reviews but even though the actual form of the poetry isnt that great, jewel uses words to perfectly discribe her experiencesand difficulties. It is beautlful expressive lit. I want to see you write a book of poetry from the heart! i think more singers like jewel who write their own music should write poetry that really reveals them.
Rating: 
Summary: who are the masses?
Review: I hate the elitist assumptions of so many reviews that assume this poetry speaks to the masses. Despite what so many people think, people outside the university enjoy quality art. Whether it's poetry, visual art, movies, or music. Come on. Don't disguise your elitism by presuming to speak for the "masses." A few poems are ok, but this is nothing great. Poetry takes a lot of revision (despite any false romantic notions of the inspired first thought, best thought artist). A journal entry with line breaks will probobly not be great poetry any more than a camera shooting someone crying for 2 hours is a great movie. Capitalism may not be the best judge of authenticity or quality!
Rating:
Summary: Everybody relax
Review: It's not the end of the world. It's just poetry. And yes, it is poetry, even if it's truly bad poetry. There are good poems and there are bad poems, and that's no more elitist than to say that Battlefield Earth is a bad movie and The Godfather is a good one. Poetry is an art and a discipline. If you want to write about your aching heart or how much you love the springtime and you rhyme "moon" and "June" in the process, I'm going to call it what it is -- bad poetry -- but it's still poetry. This doesn't make you a poet, however; the term is "poetaster."Jewel was fortunate enough to have a famous name in another field and thus, like Richard Thomas, was able to get this stuff between hard covers without paying any dues. Hardback collections of good poetry, on the other hand, consist of poems previously published in magazines that likely wouldn't give Jewel or Thomas the time of day. Those poets paid their dues by already being published and by being good. If the name "Jewel" and the title "A Night Without Armor" aren't enough to dissuade you, I hope I have.
Rating: 
Summary: let those throw the first stone
Review: a well known and respected poet once said in an answere to a fans question. what do you say of those who call your work illigitimate? "my dear i speak to hear myself, i write to see myself, i set these both aprint so others might understand what i do not, my own mind. so those that rate talent as bad i feel truley sorry for because they understand less than i do, not only do they not understand themselves but they understand less in others. those that reconize talent no matter how small are the the wisest and most talented of all". this book will teach those who did not know, to know. i recommend it not for critical merit, but for the lesson of the soul. read, learn, and cherish what makes us poets,all! the ability to create with no concern whether our creation is good or bad. as for all the expert poets of coffee houses and universities, i fear the fact our creative intellect is left in your callous hand. prehaps this is why the greatest poets of history, that you set so high and compare all, wrote outside your acadimic small minds. reread the very definition of poetry and relearn for yourselves, before you begin to presume to teach others.
Rating: 
Summary: Only poetry by Britney Spears could be more amusing
Review: The title, "A Night Without Armor" implies to me that Jewel Kilcher's attempt at poetry will be filled with soul bearing lines and introspective verse. What I found, however, was a collection of 109 poems that were mirror images of Jewel's pop-influenced folk songs. While a true fan of Jewel may praise her for exploring another medium to express herself, I personally feel Jewel should stick to guitar ballads (her voice, after all, turns out to be her saving grace!). Although I disliked the way her typical metaphors were used again and again, multiple times in different poems, I cannot say that some poems did not captivate me. My personal favorite was a poem entitled "Traffic". "Throw yourself/ into the traffic of/ his desire/ unpredictable/ red sports car/ no helmet in hand/ your heart a potential/ red smear/ in the hindsight of/ his rear view mirror" What that fascinated me, the piece "Goldfish" only made me say, "Huh? What is she thinking?" The poem goes: "In my belly is a goldfish. I swallowed it and kept it there. I sing to it, and can feel it wiggle when it especially likes the tune--Brahms makes it do backflips of glee." Um okay. The bottom line? Jewel gets a C for effort--stick to singing.
Rating:
Summary: I'm a certified poetry elitist, but I liked this.
Review: I am a poet, with work published in places like Amelia and Impetus. And for 6 years, I published a poetry magazine called Whisper. I read tens of thousands of poems, from many of the same people who are here, reviewing Jewel's work harshly. I spend my time talking about Lifshin or Lewis or Cummings with other poets, go to coffee shops for poetry reading now and then, and even hosted a few poetry slams. I tell you that for two reasons: first, to help you decide if I speak with any authority; and second, because I am going to commit a mutiny. I will not join the chorus of poets in protest here. Saying "this isn't poetry!" over and over again won't make it true. Getting all bent out of shape over how Jewel is making poetry available to (gasp) the masses is ridiculous. I feel like I'm watching the punk scene happen all over again -- every time someone had a success, the fans screamed "sell out!" My, how we love to topple those on top. My loyalty is not to the poets, but to poetry. My loyalty is not to some exclusionary club of latte-sucking introverts, full of pretense, but to language itself. And that is why I must break ranks and say this book is just what the world of poetry needed. Poetry may be "language molded into magnificent text" and many other things, such as meter and rhyme -- but the single most important trait of poetry is that it is relevant. It affects you in a way that is deep and impactful. And Jewel's poetry does exactly that, with so many memorable poems and vivid images filling my head that I eager to read her book again. When reviewers complain that Jewel ought to read some poets before she publishes her own work, they betray their own failure to read her work. For in her book, she DOES talk about her love of poets and mentions them by name. Bukowski comes to mind. In fact, her work resembles Bukowski's. And I realize half the poetry community would gasp to hear me make that comparison, but so what? Both poets write in plain English, without even so much as an attempt to embellish or prop it up with words so full of pompous exaggeration. They both write about everyday events in an almost prosaic way. Does this mean that Jewel's work is a pinnacle of success? No, she lacks the experience of a man like Bukowski, or Cummings, or dozens of others. But she has the talent. In fact, after reading more poems by more poets than nearly any poetry lover could stand, I feel it is reasonable to say that Jewel outshines 90% of the poetry out there. It may take another 2 or 3 books before Jewel has honed her craft, and if she's any good, she'll spend the rest of her life reinventing her words. But what you have here is the poetry of a young woman on the verge of a breakthrough -- the words are raw, but often brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: Simplistically beautiful
Review: I seriously don't know what it is, but there's something about Jewel that just seems to pull me in. This book of poems is beautiful. It just flows. There's this simplistic, natural, sensual, soulful, flowy feeling throughout her words. She doesn't need to try, it just happens. These words are soul food. Whatever fix you need, you can find it in here. There's also words in here that I keep close to my heart. Just flick through, read right through, read one everyday. It doesn't matter, but just read it. Jewel's words are bliss. Peace.
Rating: 
Summary: What a misleading title
Review: The problem with this book is it should be called A Night Without Armor:Thoughts. While the book gives the reader insight into Jewel I wouldn't dare call it poetry. Poetry is a whimsical mix of words that paints a picture so vivid you could smell, touch, and feel it. These are rather ramblings of her mind, blandly stated in a rather matter of factly way. I'm not saying it's a bad book, it's just that calling it poetry is an insult to a tradition that goes back to the dawn of human civiliation.
Rating:
Summary: Good effort from a musical poet
Review: Originally not a fan of Jewel, my first reading of this book swayed my opinion. My second readthrough allowed me a more skeptical look. I'll be one of the first to admit Ms. Klicher has talent, both musically and poetically, and this book highlights the good... and the not-as-good. Poetry, to many, has been sometimes about saying to hades with form or tradition, and apparently Jewel is a subscriber to the belief. But then again, poetry is about spilling one's emotion or soul onto the paper, so having poems as short as five lines or as long as two pages (of which she had both) are not abnormal. With this book we are allowed a look at the world through Jewel's eyes, and what we see is sometimes mysterious, sometimes wonderful, sometimes saucy and often beautiful. Among the impressive works are "1B", in which she quietly ponders the burn marks on the woman who is seated next to her; "Tai Pei" 1-3, in which she weaves some sort of ethereal web of words about loneliness and the strange beauty of her surroundings; "Paramount, NY, 9:34 AM", in which she makes waking up sound like one of the greatest things you can ever do; "I Look at Young Girls Now", in which she sees the newfound sensuality of teenaged girls and reflects on her own youth; and "Saved From Myself", in which we see a silent melody to sadness. Those are some standout examples of her works. There are no truly bad poems in her book, but there are some that don't shine as brightly as the others, but I'd have to recommend it to anyone with time to go sit under a shady tree and reflect, and delve into the world through the prose of Ms. Klicher.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover
Review: I think that what people forget is that this is a collection of many poems, each is distinct, each has its unique voice, and clearly as in all collections, some poems rise to a greater height. Reflect for awhile on these lines from Jewel's poem entitled Love Poem: "I wander the continent of your golden valleys without ceasing, and delight each day in discovering a new dawn, rising from the depths of your mysterious being." To my mind this is a wonderful metaphor about the birth of beauty that arises from a newly awakened love, a love which is bright and flowing with deep poetic sentiment. In other poems Jewel is a bit more raw and less refined in her poetic expressions. But in any event, she is always honest in her honest revelations of the world. Here is an excellent example of this, the darker side of her poetic vision: "They suck on coffee with great indifference, their young thighs weapons they have cocked, hardly comprehending the potency which lies in suggestion." This is a lament of innocence lost to a world that abuses what could be a great gift, the gift of sensuality with all its magic and power. In these few lines from her poem Coffee Shop, Jewel lays bare the heart of the matter. It is a fact of life that women have to or think they have to use their bodies and their sensuality to procure what they want out of life. It speaks volumes and few women poets have handled this theme with such delicacy. Take for instance the short but poignant poem Pretty. It reads: "There is a pretty girl on the face of the magazine, and all I can see are my dirty hands turning the page." It's easy to imagine the details. Jewel stifled in a small town atmosphere is dreaming of the gorgeous life of a hollywood star or possibly a fashion model. She has not yet attained the awareness of the emptiness that is at the top of that illusory image of beauty; nor has she felt the sting of the critics who because of their lack of understanding do little else but clutter up pages with their jeering words. This happens a bit later on in the book. Take for example these lines from Tai Pei: "I have no lover, only a pen and an answering machine back in the states which no one calls. I am told I am adored by millions, but no one calls." Again, Jewel reveals the dark side of fame and fortune, and one gets the feeling that though she is somewhat addicted to her new life style there is something in her soul which longs to be free of it. So all and all, I would have to say such insights in such a young poet are rare. And Jewel is an excellent poet for our times. Hopefully her fame as a singer will not overshadow her poetic achievements, and judging from what I've read thus far they will be considerable.
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