Hurricane in a Bad Mood

Sue Owen

In her fifth book of poetry, Sue Owen, who lived and taught in Louisiana for more than thirty years, continues to offer poems rich with her provocative dark humor. Here she explores her familiar themes of fear, danger, and death, but with a new emphasis on the threat of global warming and a future of possible doom. Her vivid curiosity, displayed in the examination of language, proverbial sayings, and the personification of inanimate objects, extends to nature’s fury, as in the title poem “Hurricane in a Bad Mood.” In addition, she depicts the many victims of oil spills in “When Pelicans Cannot Fly” and “The Gulf Turns into Tears.” As in her earlier books, one of which won a national competition, the poems range in tone from the playful to the prophetic, often containing flashes of wit, as in “Last Nail in the Coffin” and “Even the Dead Do It.” Whether ethereal or earthy, these poems encourage the reader to remain aware of our inevitable fate, but also to confront without despair the environmental challenges of our difficult century. 

About the Author

Sue Owen, who retired to Cambridge, MA, taught as the poet-in-residence at Louisiana State University and received the Professional Artist of the Year Award from the Louisiana State Arts Council. Her four previous books of poetry are Nursery Rhymes for the Dead, The Book of Winter, My Doomsday Sampler, and The Devil’s Cookbook.

Praise for Hurricane in a Bad Mood

“The poems in Sue Owen’s Hurricane in a Bad Mood are made by a classic, chiseled intelligence, a maker of poems at once philosophic, wry, investigative, sly, spare, and unrelenting. This storm of a collection is a triumph for American poetry and poetics everywhere.” —Darrell Bourque, author of Until We Talk and Louisiana Poet Laureate, 2007–2011

“These lines teem with exactly what’s needed to survive, to progress, and to smile no matter the circumstances. Owen’s poems ponder the mysteries of the afterlife, the power of ‘and,’ the persistence of water, and the damage done by natural disasters, and for this collection’s craft, its skill, for this poet, I feel tremendous gratitude.” —Jack B. Bedell, author of Ghost Forest and Louisiana Poet Laureate, 2017–2019

“There are so many reasons to love Sue Owen’s poems. The macabre streak she inherited from Poe and Dickinson. The way she can focus her attention on something tiny and make it loom. Her dark humor. But with this book, something new appears in her witch’s cauldron of ingredients: heart. And that new development in a body of work that was already outstanding makes this her best collection yet.” —Julie Kane, author of Mothers of Ireland and Louisiana Poet Laureate, 2011–2013

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