Weblines [Paperback]

John Agard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2001

Anansi, the trickster god and Spiderhero of West African folktales, is the spinning voice at the hub of the ""Come Down Nansi"" sequence of poems. By including ""Limbo Dancer in Dark Glasses"" (1983) and ""Man to Pan"" (1982), this new cycle forms an orchestrated trilogy, where John Agard explores three powerful Caribbean metaphors of transformation: the steeldrum, the limbo dancer, and Anansi-each spinning and weaving its own special kind of web.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"And in your utmost imaginings/ I began new weavings// spinning rainbow cloths from history's rubble." Agard grew up in Guyana and now lives in England; his accessible, syncopated verse, in dialect and in standard English is well-suited to his own oral performance. Weblines combines a book's worth of new poems, focused on the spider and trickster figure Anansi, with generous selections from Agard's last two volumes, Limbo Dancer in Dark Glasses and Man to Pan. Alter egos and folktale motifs from West Africa join with modern immigrant experience: readers discover "How Wisdom and Commonsense Were Scattered," "How Tiger Played Dead and How Anansi Played Along," and how Anansi means to "apply to the law of the loom/ to warp and weft of bedroom."

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

After A Playful Bout
All Seasons Nansi
All This Pan-beating
Anancy's Thoughts On Clock
Anancy's Thoughts On Colours
Anancy's Thoughts On Couples
Anancy's Thoughts On Hospitality
Anancy's Thoughts On Love
Anancy's Voice Mail
Anancy's Website
Anancygrams
At The Crossroads
Aunty And Uncle Nancy's Pillow Talk
Aunty Nancy's Sound Check
Beat It Out Man
Beware Of Limbo Dancer
Board Games
Born Naked
But Cynic As I Am
Ceiling Thomas
The Coin Of Birth
The Coming Of Debt
De Road Goin Groan Today
Deliver
Dethatched
The Diasporic Dice
Earth Moving To Greet Feet
Eight-limbed Star
The Embodiment
Even Then I Knew Water
Everspinning Grandmother Ma Opened
Flesh To Fancy
Flight Of Fingers
Fly?
For Hands Honed By Pan Grooves
From Grandmother Ma
Getting High
Goatskin Tongue
God Hear Me Is You I Talkin To
Hear It At Hosein
Hide Talking Drum
How Ananse's Waist Suffered A Double-dine Dilemma
How Anansi Got Last Yam
How Anansi Helped Skygod Get One Hundred Slaves From Earth
How Anansi Won Who-is-oldest Contest
How Aunty Nancy Converts The Intruder
How Aunty Nansi Reshuffled Prospero's Books
How Aunty Nansi Singularly Widened The Debate On Plural Identity
How Dance And Sores Spread Far And Wide
How Nansi Got Lead Part In Swan Lake
How Nansi Reigned Over A Royal Bath
How Tiger Played Dead And How Anansi Played Along
How Wisdom And Commonsense Were Scattered
How Worksong Call-and-response Came To Be
I Ain't Know Head Or Tail
I Suppose It's Necessary
In A Rain Of Sounds
In Sunweb Of Steel I Squatted
In Time's Cosmic Courtroom
Inter-city Anancy
Is More Than A Snapshot Mirror
Is The Sinking
Is This Pan/mirror
It's Weaving Time, My People
Let Each Hammer Blow
Lick Pan
Limbo Dancer & The Press
Limbo Dancer At Immigration
Limbo Dancer At The Conference Table
Limbo Dancer At The Orgy
Limbo Dancer's Mantra
Limbo Dancer's Memo
Limbo Dancer's Morning
Limbo Dancer's Reading Habits
Limbo Dancer's Soundpoem
Limbo Dancer's Wombsong
Look
Messages Pour
Musicologist Anancy
My Brollie
Name
Nansi Airobics
The Nansification Of Nf
Not Again
Not In My Style
Ocean Caul
Ogun
On New Ground We Scatter Old Drum Seeds
Once
Out Of The Question
Pan Recipe
Pan
Question Mark
Rainbow
The Reason
Reflections
Rivulets Of Melody
Rubber Tip
Scatter A Handful Of Pan
Sign
Small Voices Weep
Spiderwheel Of Steel
Steelpan
The Stranger's Cloth Billows On Water
Street Turn River
Take A Tip
They Mean To License We Tongue
Thirteen Ways Of Looking At The Old Tie
To Baby Nansi's Head
Was Like A Return To Me
Water Stand Up
When Anansi Goes Walkies With Eight Dogs
When I Crouch Over
When I Tell You
When You Hear
When You Talking Pan
Where Whispers Fill
Whether Male Or Female
Who Speaks
Why?
The Word
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd (April 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852244801
• ISBN-13: 978-1852244804
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,550,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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