No Jewels is the first book from poet, singer and creative
director Tai Allen. The chapbook narrates a young life that was loved
well, loved wrong and, sometimes, not loved at all. Sadly, this tale
is not an aberration or an oddity. There are numerous #NoJewels
scenarios in every locale, and there you find false-love victims who
encounter abuse and control. This book of lines, devices, spaces,
forms and stanzas hopes to serve them all. The poems speaks of both
the deeds and the emergence from them, with admirable self-love to
preserve sanity and soul—ambitious, but possible!
