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Overview
Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, finalist.
“Dawes’s verse has an expressive power and lyric resonance that can be attributed to a trans-Atlantic consciousness weaned on the spiritual sources of reggae.”—New York Times Book Review
“Raised in Jamaica, Dawes takes some of his cues, and this book’s title, from reggae music. But his voice in these long and short poems and sequences selected from each of his many books, which began appearing in the mid-1990s, is crystal clear, accessible and serious, mixing a timeless myth-making energy with a strong contemporary conscience…” —National Public Radio
“This first U.S. selection from the Jamaica-bred, Nebraska-based poet (he also has a reputation in Britain) is his 16th book of verse in just 20 years; it reveals a writer syncretic, effusive, affectionate, alert to familial joys, but also sensitive to history, above all to the struggles of African diasporic history—the Middle Passage, sharecropper-era South Carolina, the Kingston of Bob Marley, whose song gives this big book its title. Dawes is at home with cityscape and seascape, patois and transatlantic tradition.” —Publishers Weekly
"[Dawes] is highly original and intelligent, possessing poetic sensibility that is rooted and sound, unshakeable and unstopped, both in its vibrancy and direction. He writes poetry as it ought to be written."—World Literature Today
"Dawes asserts himself as man and artist and finally, with grace achieved and grace said, sits down to begin life's tragic feast . . . a writer of major significance."—Brag Book
"The notion of a reggae aesthetic—of the language moving to a different rhythm, under different kinds of pressure . . . underpins all Dawes' work as poet."—Stewart Brown
Born in Ghana, raised in Jamaica, and educated in Canada, Kwame Dawes is a dynamic and electrifying poet. In this generous collection, new poems appear with the best work from fifteen previous volumes. Deeply nuanced in exploring the human condition, Dawes' poems are filled with complex emotion and consistently remind us what it means to be a global citizen.
From "The Lessons":
Fingers can be trained to make shapes
that, pressed just right on the gleaming
keys, will make a sound that can stay
tears or cause them to flow for days.
Anyone can learn to make some music,
but not all have the heart to beat
out the tunes that will turn us inside out. . .
Kwame Dawes is the author of fifteen collections of poetry, two novels, four anthologies, and numerous essays and plays. In 2009 he won an Emmy Award for his interactive website, LiveHopeLove.com. Since 2011 he has taught at the Universityof Nebraska, and lives in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781556594236 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Copper Canyon Press |
| Publication date: | 05/14/2013 |
| Pages: | 260 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d) |
About the Author
Matthew Shenoda: Matthew Shenoda has coedited four previous anthologies including From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great (Persea Books, 2009) and Enough: Poets Against the War (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2003). Associate Dean of the School of Fine and Performing Arts at Columbia College Chicago, Shenoda’s collection of poetry Somewhere Else (Coffeehouse Press, 2005) was named a 2005 debut book of the year by Poets and Writers and his second collection Seasons of Lotus, Seasons of Bone was published in 2009 by BOA editions. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.
Table of Contents
Editor's Note xiii
Progeny of Air (1994)
Change 5
Barnabas Collins 6
Excursion to Port Royal 9
Progeny of Air 11
Akwaba 15
Resisting the Anomie (1995)
After "Acceptance" 19
House Arrest 23
Straitjacket and All 26
Dreaming on My Music Box 28
History Lesson at Eight a.m. 29
Prophets (1995)
Chapter X 33
Hermit 33
Chapter XVII 39
It Is the Cause (Belleview Ska) 39
Chapter XXVIII 44
Flight 44
Jacko Jacobus (1996)
A Way of Seeing 55
Emigrant 56
Trickster I 58
Trickster II 60
Trickster III 62
Trickster IV 63
Kingston Harbor 65
Requiem (1996)
Research 69
Swamp Poem 71
Requiem 72
Language 74
Shame 75
Warrior 76
Land Ho 79
Shook Foil (1997)
Caution 83
Natural 85
Silent 86
Shook Foil 88
Prayer for My Son 90
Shadow Play 92
Rita 93
Midland (2001)
Inheritance 99
Holy Dub 107
Satta: En Route to Columbia, S.C. 110
Midland 111
A Letter from Greeleyville 111
Blues on Route 15 with Krystal 112
In Search of Alma 113
Crow over Corn Row 114
Roosting 115
Decent Folk 116
Epoch 117
To the Third and Fourth Generations 118
Somebody Trouble the Water 119
Bruised Totems (2004)
Bruised Totems 123
Mask 124
Gallery Art 125
Sight 126
Gourd 127
Brimming (2006)
Dreaming of Saint Augustine 131
How to Pick a Hanging Tree 132
Brimming 133
Graves 134
Carolina Gold 135
Wisteria (2006)
Wisteria 139
Tornado Child 140
Black Funk 142
Dem 144
Long Memory 146
Fire Makers 148
Gomer's Song (2007)
Hinterland 151
What We Have Learned 153
Sweet Old Women 156
Water Carrier 159
Long Time 160
Impossible Flying (2007)
Legend 163
Estimated Prophet 165
Impossible Flying 166
Casting Out Demons 170
Secrets 172
Wasps 173
Switch 175
Mistaken 176
Hope's Hospice (2009)
Coffee Break 181
Live Up 182
Making Ends Meet 183
Yap 185
Faith 187
The Seen Things 187
The Unseen Things 189
Evidence and Substance 190
Back of Mount Peace (2010)
Found 195
The Habits of Love 196
Steamed Fish Supper 197
Evidence 198
A Woman Wants 199
Sea 200
Seer 201
Redux 202
Esther's Nightmares 203
The Accident 203
The Drowning 204
The First Body 205
Esther's Daughter Returns 206
Prognosis 207
Wheels (2011)
The Glory Has Left the Temple 211
Wise Man 213
Patience 215
Faithful 217
Rasta 220
African Postman 221
Reach 223
New Poems
Steel 227
Dirt 229
Talk 231
Transaction 232
Apparition 234
Playing Lymon 236
Prophet 237
Divination 239
Revolution Man 240
Traveling Man 241
Penitentiary 243
Piano and the Drunken Wake 245
Playing Wining Boy 247
Elevator 249
Avery 252
A Good Woman Blues 254
Soldier Man 257
Rupture 259
Coreen 261
Prophet Man 263
The Actors' Meeting 265
Salesman 267
Creed 269
The Transaction 271
Thieving 273
Four Songs for Berniece 275
If You Know Her 279
Role Playing 281
The Host of Holy Witnesses 283
Avoiding the Spirits 289
The Burden 291
Death 293
Fire 295
Land 297
To Tame the Savage Beast 299
Mama 301
Exorcism 304
Old Man under a Pecan Tree 306
The Lessons 308
Index of First Lines 311
Index of Titles 315
About the Author 317