Baltimore Sons
Dean Bartoli Smith
Frank, unsparing, often violent and disturbing, these poems speak in the voice of a young man trying to navigate the city he loves as he lives in the long shadow of its decline with a sense of grace and hope. With the city of Baltimore as his backdrop, accomplished poet, author, and editor Dean Bartoli Smith offers a wrenching examination of our troubled attachments to place and the deepest wounds of the American psyche.
In Baltimore Sons, the city rises inside the breath of memories that are the history of a place. In Smith’s terse language, Baltimore is the heart of the nation, containing all the hopes and wrecked dreams, drawing them along the persistent presence of our tragic bonding with drugs, guns and violence. Walking the aisles of an army surplus store, finding a loaded revolver inside an old shoebox, sitting alone in a diner with a hot roast beef sandwich, these are the markers of the common experience of men growing up in cities where, even with muted imaginations, make the major points in the nervous system of this country. There is that centrality that Baltimoreans know as the Baltimore attitude. Smith breathes the complex dust of the language of a border town, one whose southern heritage was made into twentieth century monuments for the Confederacy. The poems are given a deftness in bones that sing songs of the commonality of loss in a great city, a loss that the poet carves alongside a faith in the idea that it could still become a haven for dreamers of hope and change, a resurrection with an indelible humor. Baltimore Sons is the vision of a just life rising in the consciousness of a believer whose hope is rooted in what is real.
Afaa M. Weaver, author of Spirit Boxing
Duration - 1h 16m.
Author - Dean Bartoli Smith.
Narrator - Tim Wendel.
Published Date - Sunday, 22 January 2023.
Copyright - © 2021 Dean Smith ©.
Location:
United States
Description:
Frank, unsparing, often violent and disturbing, these poems speak in the voice of a young man trying to navigate the city he loves as he lives in the long shadow of its decline with a sense of grace and hope. With the city of Baltimore as his backdrop, accomplished poet, author, and editor Dean Bartoli Smith offers a wrenching examination of our troubled attachments to place and the deepest wounds of the American psyche. In Baltimore Sons, the city rises inside the breath of memories that are the history of a place. In Smith’s terse language, Baltimore is the heart of the nation, containing all the hopes and wrecked dreams, drawing them along the persistent presence of our tragic bonding with drugs, guns and violence. Walking the aisles of an army surplus store, finding a loaded revolver inside an old shoebox, sitting alone in a diner with a hot roast beef sandwich, these are the markers of the common experience of men growing up in cities where, even with muted imaginations, make the major points in the nervous system of this country. There is that centrality that Baltimoreans know as the Baltimore attitude. Smith breathes the complex dust of the language of a border town, one whose southern heritage was made into twentieth century monuments for the Confederacy. The poems are given a deftness in bones that sing songs of the commonality of loss in a great city, a loss that the poet carves alongside a faith in the idea that it could still become a haven for dreamers of hope and change, a resurrection with an indelible humor. Baltimore Sons is the vision of a just life rising in the consciousness of a believer whose hope is rooted in what is real. Afaa M. Weaver, author of Spirit Boxing Duration - 1h 16m. Author - Dean Bartoli Smith. Narrator - Tim Wendel. Published Date - Sunday, 22 January 2023. Copyright - © 2021 Dean Smith ©.
Language:
English
Opening Credits
Duration:00:00:16
Dedication
Duration:00:00:12
Six Shooters
Duration:00:00:43
Ali
Duration:00:00:36
Cash for Guns, 1975
Duration:00:00:45
Outlaw
Duration:00:00:34
The Stickup
Duration:00:00:45
Empty the Chamber
Duration:00:00:53
At the Bel-Loc Diner
Duration:00:00:51
Pistol Range
Duration:00:00:46
My Father's Trains
Duration:00:01:47
Ordnance
Duration:00:00:48
Big Boy
Duration:00:00:52
Unseld
Duration:00:00:59
Baltimore
Duration:00:00:50
Cap Guns
Duration:00:00:58
Sidearm
Duration:00:00:32
Howitzer
Duration:00:01:54
Pure Shooter
Duration:00:00:59
Assassin Sonnet
Duration:00:00:53
Meeting Archie Clark at the Flaming Pit
Duration:00:01:03
Miss Mason
Duration:00:00:44
Memorial Stadium
Duration:00:03:00
Sportswriter
Duration:00:01:17
Bowman
Duration:00:00:52
Trash Night, Guilford
Duration:00:01:21
Baltimore Sons
Duration:00:01:03
McKenzie
Duration:00:00:39
Station North
Duration:00:01:14
Bullet Fragments
Duration:00:01:04
Riots
Duration:00:02:36
Fatherhood
Duration:00:01:09
Gwendolyn and Freddie
Duration:00:01:11
Reading James Baldwin on Election Day in Charleston
Duration:00:01:11
Joy Ride
Duration:00:01:31
Shotgun
Duration:00:00:48
One Blow Out the Brain
Duration:00:01:14
The Wanting
Duration:00:00:46
Anything I Want (He Gives It to Me)
Duration:00:00:41
Pulling the Trigger
Duration:00:00:48
Photograph
Duration:00:00:36
The Viewing
Duration:00:01:07
Secret Place
Duration:00:00:57
Second Coming
Duration:00:01:14
Delivery Room
Duration:00:01:10
Cardboard Note
Duration:00:00:14
The Lost Photographs
Duration:00:01:17
Decoys
Duration:00:00:56
Eady Does the Eagle Rock
Duration:00:00:53
Lieutenant Fox
Duration:00:01:33
Something to Cool You Off
Duration:00:03:53
Virginia Creeper
Duration:00:00:40
Father's Day Shotgun Sale
Duration:00:00:39
.357
Duration:00:00:59
Snipers
Duration:00:00:29
Shooting Gallery
Duration:00:03:44
America
Duration:00:01:07
.45
Duration:00:01:11
Yellow Coat, Motorbike
Duration:00:00:50
Mirage
Duration:00:00:31
Final Out
Duration:00:02:46
The Wrecking of Old Comiskey
Duration:00:01:25
Misericordia Blues
Duration:00:02:49
Warrior
Duration:00:01:16
Three Poems of Departure on Route 96
Duration:00:02:29
Acknowledgments
Duration:00:00:54
Ending Credits
Duration:00:00:05