Travel Light Travel Dark - Softcover

Agard, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1852249919 ISBN 13: 9781852249915

Publisher: Bloodaxe Books, 2013

Synopsis

In this new symphonic collection, Agard casts his unique spin on the intermingling strands of British history, and leads us into metaphysical and political waters. Cross-cultural connections are played out in a variety of voices and cadences. Prospero and Caliban have a cricket match recounted in calypso-inspired rhythms, and in the long poem, ""Water Music of a Different Kind,"" the incantatory orchestration of the Atlantic's middle passage, becomes a moving counterpoint to Handel's Water Music.

About this title

About the Author

Poet, performer, anthologist, John Agard was born in Guyana and came to Britain in 1977. He won the Casa de las Americas Prize in 1982, and a Paul Hamlyn Award in 1997. He was writer-in-residence with the BBC in 1998, working with the Windrush Project, and writer-in-residence at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich in 2007. His books include six collections from Bloodaxe, From the Devil's Pulpit (1997), Weblines (2000), We Brits (2006), Alternative Anthem: Selected Poems (2009), Clever Backbone (2009), and Travel Light Travel Dark (2013). His anthology Hello New (2000), published by Orchard Books, was chosen by the Poetry Society as its Children's Poetry Bookshelf Best Anthology. We Brits was shortlisted for the 2007 Decibel Writer of the Year Award. He won the CLPE Poetry Award 2009 for The Young Inferno (Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2008). He lives in Lewes, East Sussex.

Review

'John Agard's poetry is a wonderful affirmation of life, in a language that is as vital and joyous as we are able to craft it in the Caribbean, in spite of our history of distress' - David Dabydeen. 'A unique and energetic force in contemporary British poetry, John Agard's poems combine acute social observation, puckish wit and a riotous imagination to thrilling effect' - Ben Wilkinson. 'His poems are direct and arresting, playful, full of startling imagery, and are hilarious, passionate and erotic as often as they are political - often managing to be all these things at once - Maura Dooley. 'The new poems create multiple entertaining voices, but they are also urgent fables for our time' - Paula Burnett, Times Literary Supplement. 'A specialist in word trickery - Agard is one of our most consistent, culture-crossing spokesmen' - Graeme Wright, Poetry Review. 'One of the most eloquent contemporary poets - rich in literary and cultural allusion, yet as direct as a voice in the bus queue' - Helen Dunmore, Observer.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1852249919
• ISBN 13: 9781852249915
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 95