Turn Thanks: POEMS [Paperback]

Lorna Goodison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1999

The lyric energy, compassion, humor, and tenderness that characterize Lorna Goodison's work are once again in evidence in "Turn Thanks", her seventh collection. Here the Jamaican poet turns to acknowledge her own ancestors and those of her craft: mother and father, aunts and uncles, Africa, William Wordsworth, Vincent Van Gogh, the Wild Woman. "Whether you will receive this letter or not I cannot tell," she writes, "Still, I intend to send it ...".

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

There is such ripe sensuousness in Goodison's work that it is hard not to wish she published more frequently. But her delicacy and immense aural power would probably dissipate if she wrote more speedily. Her earlier books focused almost entirely upon the Caribbean world of her childhood and her heritage, evoking mango days and jasmine nights and the hurly-burly mixture of European, American, and African cultures that defines Jamaica. She begins this book with evocations of her mother and father, limning the family's strengths and struggles with enduring love but no lack of honesty. This is familiar territory to Goodison's fans, but is nonetheless welcome. What particularly surprises and delights about this book is its movement, in the latter half, into new territory--literally, as Goodison describes her life in the American Midwest, how her soul and senses yearn for warmer climes, and how she comes slowly to find a new home in a new land. It is a classic immigrant's story, one in which Goodison enfolds us in her own special, sensuous way. Patricia Monaghan

From Kirkus Reviews

Now teaching at the Univ. of Michigan, this Caribbean-born poet finds comfort in the spirits of her ancestors, whom she conjures in delightful poem after poemthe volume here raises the dead with its Island patois and lilts. Goodison sings rude songs and ribald ditties to commemorate her big, loving family, who worked hard and took pleasure in the food and beauty of their surroundings. A hymn to her dead mother, inspired by Bob Marleys imperative to catch a fire, celebrates the mothers oneness with the earth to which she returns, and a sea chanty hopes that she will breathe easily and ride a wild white horse in the afterlife. Goodisons title refers to the poems giving thanks: to the speakers nanny, a displaced African bush healing woman who gave her charge the gift of her impossible English (Turn Thanks to Miss Mirry); to her grandmother, who found redemption in cleaning the local clergys vestments (Turn Thanks to Grandmother Hannah); and to her aunt Rose, who advises lovers always to keep honey mixed in with their food (Aunt Roses Honey Advice). Other poems introduce Great- grandmother Leanna, who married a stout free Guinea man; Great- grandfather William, who scandalized the village by marrying his maid after his wife died; Uncle, whose childrenmasons, carpenters, seamstressesmake everything for his funeral; and Grandmother, who lost all her land to tiefing [sic] Russell. The best poem of all, Angel of Dreamers, is in the voice of a dreamseller who sets up shop in town despite the cuss-cuss and fight down from other merchants. Except for a few editorial slips (one poem talks about captured collective memory), Goodisons narratives fly by on lovely rhythms and easy beats. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252067886
• ISBN-13: 978-0252067884
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #797,600 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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