10/29/2023 0 Comments Roger reaves poem![]() This, meaning winter rain unable to flow into the gutters because of bodies lining the streets. ![]() Do you have this in America? This, meaning kites. Soon there will be gunfire, drugs, and dead children head-to-foot along the paves and unpaved roads leading in and out of this favela. Those are suicide notes, he says, the kites. The bee above his head, the kites drifting from the hills, the white puffs of cloth, slew-footed, wading into the sky like a wasp drunk on insecticide. What are you here for? The children waiting for bottles of water to be thrown from each car. This man whom I have peeled two oranges for since this train left Rio de Janeiro and, because his hands were full, placed each quartered wedge in his mouth. Have I come to infiltrate the black movement. I will focus all my attention, now, on the man with braces, asking me if I am a member of the CIA. No, I will not focus upon the spines of the men walking these rails, yelling cerveja, coca-cola, agua, these men who bare no resemblance to ghosts but even as they pass disappear into motes and motes of dust most of us are too busy to notice falling inside a sleeping child’s mouth. I will not focus on the wasp at the window, the cat’s white hair stretching along this orange peel, or even the train’s green breath, its asthmatic clack upon these arthritic tracks that turn every head into a cautious metronome. Its history.’ The beauty of that repair, which does not hide nor erase the evidence of trauma-of history-but transforms it, is the abiding metaphor in this capacious and wide-ranging meditation. At the intersections of history and myth, elegy and celebration, these poems chart the ruptures and violences enacted across time and space-particularly against black humanity-while leaning always toward beauty. Beauty and tenderness abound in this collection that dares to risk both: a brilliant and ambitious book.I will begin with braces strung across a man’s teeth as a downed kite might string itself across four lanes of a seven-lane highway and bid a barefooted child to wade into evening traffic and slip. Where the vessel broken, only gold will permit / Its healing. ![]() Judges’ Citation for Best Barbarian: “Among the many remarkable poems in Best Barbarian is ‘Journey to Satchidananda’ in which the poet writes: ‘The Japanese call it Kintsugi. The announcement was made at the Griffin Poetry Prize Readings held in Toronto. The evening included a selection of readings by the six finalists, the 2023 Lifetime Recognition Award recipient Fanny Howe, and Emily Riddle-the Canadian First Book Prize winner, who read from her winning book The Big Melt.ĭiscover the 2023 Shortlist here and Longlist here.īiography: Roger Reeves is the author of King Me and the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, and a 2015 Whiting Award, among other honours. His work has appeared in Poetry, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Austin, Texas. ![]() Judges Nikola Madzirov (Macedonia), Gregory Scofield (Canada), and Natasha Trethewey (USA) each read 602 books of poetry, including 54 translations from 20 languages, submitted by 229 publishers from 20 different countries. The trustees select the judges annually. TORONTO – June 7, 2023 –The Griffin Poetry Prize is pleased to announce the 2023 winner, Best Barbarian by Roger Reeves, who received C$130,000 in prize money. The other finalists were each awarded C$10,000.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |