Using the power of language to explore and discover patterns of meaning, this collection brings the lyric poem face to face with the external world—with its politics, social upheavals, and ideological complexity. Whether it is a poem about a near victim of a terrorist attack reflecting on the nature of grace, a president considering the function of art, or a Rastafarian defending his faith, the selections all seek illumination in understanding the world. They are as much about the quest for love and faith as they are about finding pathways of meaning through the current decade of wars and political and economic uncertainty.
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About the Author
Kwame Dawes is an award-winning poet and author who has received the Forward Poetry Prize, the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize, and the Pushcart prize for poetry, among others. He is the author of 12 poetry collections, a short story collection, a play, three critical works, and the novel She's Gone. He lives in Columbia, South Carolina.
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Ghanaian-born Jamaican/ American poet, Kwame Dawes is the award-winning author of eighteen books of poetry and numerous books of fiction, non-fiction, criticism and drama and has edited nine anthologies and numerous books of poetry. He is the Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner, and a Chancellor's Professor of English at the University of Nebraska, and Associate Poetry Editor for Peepal Tree Press in the UK. Kwame Dawes also teaches in the Pacific MFA Writing program and is a faculty member of Cave Canem. Dawes' most recent book, Duppy Conqueror: New and Selected Poems, was published by Copper Canyon in 2013. Dawes is the Director of the biennial Calabash International Literary Festival. Dawes is the author of what is still the most definitive study of the lyrics of Bob Marley, "Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius" He has produced much scholarly work on what he has coined "The Reggae Aesthetic". Dawes lives with his family in Nebraska where he is still trying to understand the language of the big skies.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
'Wheels' by Kwame Dawes (Peepal Tree Press, 2011) is turning out to be one of the best books of poetry I've read for a long time. This Jamaican writer's work is un-self conscious, unpretentious, does not draw attention to itself. It is accomplished work. He has made poetry out of the Caribbean history he experiences. He is a voice for the generation that came to maturity in the seventies. His poems come out of Rasta and reggae, Ethiopia and Haile Selassie; US slavery seen today from his home in South Carolina; the Haiti earthquake and the ever-present spectre of AIDS even in the dust and rubble; and his own Jamaica. The poetry is real, accessible, accomplished. While he generally follows his voice and an unobtrusive skanking, reggae line, he can also produce a sequence of 14-line sonnet-type poems dedicated to Barack Obama. The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel is an enigmatic, metaphorical figure the poet connects to with his own frank prophetic and contemplative queryings. And this poet can be blunt and direct in his vision of his experiences. The AIDS poems of Haiti are testimony to this. But one can also sense a wry distancing as the poet observes the real places and real events he is trodding through. The poems on AIDS-ravaged Haiti after the earthquake are documents from a compassionate heart reaching beyond words, beyond the trauma. On the evidence of this collection, I don't think I exaggerate in saying that Dawes has become the leading, major poet of our generation. His recent Guggenheim award and various other recognitions only point to what is now very obvious. Recommended.
(John Robert Lee is a Saint Lucian writer. His latest publication is "elemental: new and selected poems" (Peepal Tree Press, 2008).
(John Robert Lee is a Saint Lucian writer. His latest publication is "elemental: new and selected poems" (Peepal Tree Press, 2008).
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By willowed_zen
Format:Paperback
Poet Dawes, lends new meaning to sterile, boring attempts at the poetic arts. Not worth the time nor the money.
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