Wind at their back, ear to the ground, the poems in Music For Exile beckon a “mythical assemblage,” of loss that is personal and historical, intimate and shared. From walking up Canefield River to hearing a thief on the stairs in Philadelphia, from dredging the voices of New England’s enslaved to confronting familial grief, these poems pass with the ache, that “ironic hunger for home” that exists when home holds violence and cruelty. Nehassaiu deGannes narrates and associates in poems of place, of encounter, of domestic epics and epistolary calls. Wherever home is, from the U.S. to the Caribbean to Canada, it has beauty and substance in these poems; it also has continuing, devastating loss. In lyrical, received, and invented forms, these poems trace, retrace, and cross over; they make us aware of, and help us reckon with, all that has brought us here. They “draw poison out” and “fissure desire” and powerfully proclaim: “no one can say gone is gone.” Publisher : Tupelo Press (January 31, 2021) Language : English Paperback : 87 pages ISBN-10 : 1946482463 ISBN-13 : 978-1946482464 Dimensions : 5.75 x 0.5 x 7.75 inches
