Laughing Africa (Iowa Poetry Prize) [Paperback]

Terese Svoboda (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This urgent, spirited collection ranges in tone and subject matter from the vehemently political to the deeply personal. Svoboda ( All Aberration ) draws on her experiences in Africa and the South Pacific to examine modernity's subversion of humanity's archetypal, fundamental impulses. Insistent rhythms and recurring images of a "Paradise" lost to war, exploitation and nuclear destruction make apparent the poet's belief in a global fall from grace to a world of "knowledge without antidote" where "we have science clutched to our breast / like a lily." Svoboda's vision is not entirely bleak, however, and she pursues a recovered, Whitmanesque innocence as symbolized by the fertile, primitive landscape "where we began": Africa. "I hear Africa singing, . . . / and what I see is Africa / the beautiful, a wildness that's America's / no longer." In deftly crafted poems alternately hard-edged, sensual and tender, Svoboda delicately balances a harsh, yet convincing indictment of Western culture with an equally ardent belief in the possibility of human compassion and responsibility.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

As The Birds
Betty's Silence
Beyond Borders
Blessing
Both In And Out Of The Game And Watching And Wondering At It
Captain Andy
Carwash Kiss
Color: 1
Color: 2
Color: 3
Conquistador
Cowboy
The Dead Dance: 1
The Dead Dance: 2
The Dead Dance: 3
The Dead Dance: 4
The Dead Dance: 5
The Dead Dance: 6
Do Machines Bleed?
Dumb Husband
Heartshape
His Dark: 1
His Dark: 2
Komodo Dragon
Laughing Africa
Miracles
My Portrait
The Needle With Both Hands
New Lincoln Penny
Night Sail
No Historical Marker
Nothing Beautiful Except In Things
Permission To Live
Pink
The Ranchhand's Daughter: 1
The Ranchhand's Daughter: 10
The Ranchhand's Daughter: 11
The Ranchhand's Daughter: 12
The Ranchhand's Daughter: 2
The Ranchhand's Daughter: 3
The Ranchhand's Daughter: 4
The Ranchhand's Daughter: 5
The Ranchhand's Daughter: 5
The Ranchhand's Daughter: 6
The Ranchhand's Daughter: 7
The Ranchhand's Daughter: 8
The Ranchhand's Daughter: 9
Rite
The Root Of Mother Is Moth
Shell
Single Parent Wants To See A Film But Has No Sitter
The Sixties
Slaughter Of The Centaurs
Spiders
Water Ballet
Woman With Happiness Inside Her
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press; 1 edition (May 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877452725
• ISBN-13: 978-0877452720
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,395,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Writing in the voice of God as I did in Tin God didn't seem like much of a stretch after being the eldest of nine children. We lived in a small town in southwest Nebraska with the smell of sage tumbleweeds and cattle feedlots. Although I've lived most of my adult life in NYC, I'm still haunted by home, a place that's now mostly in my head. But in NYC, I can travel without going anywhere. Eight languages are spoken on my block, including Chinese. For me, that's perfect--I can be surrounded by people I know but I can't understand a word they're saying. Although I've never been a pirate in 18th America, this year's Pirate Talk or Mermalade should reveal my interest in research. Even Henry Hudson believed in mermaids! Next year's Bohemian Girl will return to Nebraska, albeit 19th century Nebraska, with a spunky girl who escapes from the Indians.