Ms. Pretty Rickey: The Street Sweeper

LOCAL AUTHOR

Sometimes poetry can be more than just words on a page: it can bring images, ideas, and concepts to life in a whole new way; it can stir your emotions, bring you to tears, awaken your anger, or make you laugh; and sometimes it can capture exactly how you feel about a particular subject, concept, or societal injustice that brings it to a whole new light.

In Ms. Pretty Rickey: The Street Sweeper Bryneen Gary does all of these.

Gary’s poetry is not like a lot of the simple, easy-to-read poetry out there, but that is what makes it all the more special. You need to give the words time and patience, read the poems more than once to get the meaning and intention, and then you see the true depth of the stanzas. At first I thought I had read the words right, but when I applied these steps, I got much more out of the poems than I at first expected. “Breezy Disposition” is a good example of this and here is a sample:

You are Perceived Unique, With Precious Love
A Break from the Storm, Ready My Hug

Reaching for a Beautiful Link that’s Priceless
I Question the Best of Your Royal Highness

The words are carefully chosen, as is true for all good poetry; the punctuation and capitalization thought-out and very intentional.

From “Dirty Money”:

It’s not always the root of all evil
He got all that cash for a better Diva

It can be a source of a lot of pleasure
They created sex parties without measure
However, those poor decision became a Pressure

And from the poignant “Wreaked Havoc”:

Eased to Remember the victims of September 11th.
It was said, Some were warned around the 7th
I pray all those precious Souls made it to Perfect Heaven

The World Trade Center had it’s share of Troubles
Fires, Bombings and Robbery it goes
Buried Hostilities right under the fold

Criminal Organizations, Bloody Murders and Twilight killers
For the bread and butter, it doesn’t decrease any Thriller