Brian L. Ragsdale

Across the month of August and September 2013, artist/writer Brian L. Ragsdale wrote a series of prose and poetry. Themes of the poems emerge from daily experiences, wanderings, musings, and childhood memories.

Something happened to the author when he grew up on Sable street, and now looking back 40 years he revisits that time and space, but also interweaves his present day, heart- longings. Some of the poems are lyrical, for example, in "Lather" he writes about the joy of making suds, in another poem, his writing takes on a surrealistic quality, when he writes about meeting Oprah in one of his dreams. Other poems in this first collection discuss erotic musings, domestic violence, and then weaves it ways around to talking about love of autumn.

Here is the voice of a new American writer who also happens to be African American and gay. His writing shows elements of how jazz is constructed; known notes into unknown spaces, or how an artist engages with know material and then abstracts it. This interwoven collection of 18 poems from Brian L. Ragsdale presents a unique emerging voice on the literary scene. You will enjoy "The boy from sable street", and after reading this you will want more from this gifted, unique, and talented writer.