Oracabessa
Published on 31. October 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
157 pages
978-1-84777-242-8 (ISBN)
Description
Oracabessa is a book of risky journeys, mappings and re-mappings, as the poet navigates place, history and imagination. Goodison travels to Spain and Portugal, to Canada ('Winter has landed') and back to the Hope Gardens of her childhood in Jamaica; even to the Old Testament world of Ruth and Hagar. Throughout her journeys she hymns the artists who inspire her: El Greco, John Donne, Billie Holiday, 'Miles Marley Mozart'. At the end of travel, she is, as she says, 'Still on the road to Heartease'.
What is the rare quality that has gone out of poetry that these marvellous poems restore? Joy.
Derek Walcott
What is the rare quality that has gone out of poetry that these marvellous poems restore? Joy.
Derek Walcott
Reviews / Votes
'What is the rare quality that has gone out of poetry that these marvellous poems restore? Joy.' - Derek WalcottMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Carcanet Press Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 135 mm
Thickness: 9 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-84777-242-8 (9781847772428)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Lorna Goodison was born in Jamaica, and has won numerous awards for her writing in both poetry and prose, including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Musgrave Gold Medal from Jamaica, the Henry Russel Award for Exceptional Creative Work from the University of Michigan, and one of Canada's largest literary prizes, the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction for From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her People (2007). Her work has been included in the major anthologies and collections of contemporary poetry over the past twenty-five years, such as the Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, the HarperCollins World Reader, the Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry, the Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, and Longman Masters of British Literature.
Along with her award winning memoir, she has published three collections of short stories (including By Love Possessed, 2011) and nine collections of poetry.
Her work has been translated into many languages, and she has been a central figure at literary festivals throughout the world. Lorna Goodison teaches at the University of Michigan, where she is the Lemuel A. Johnson Professor of English and African and Afroamerican Studies.
Lorna Goodison was appointed PoetLaureate of Jamaica on 17 May 2017 and will serve until 2020.
Along with her award winning memoir, she has published three collections of short stories (including By Love Possessed, 2011) and nine collections of poetry.
Her work has been translated into many languages, and she has been a central figure at literary festivals throughout the world. Lorna Goodison teaches at the University of Michigan, where she is the Lemuel A. Johnson Professor of English and African and Afroamerican Studies.
Lorna Goodison was appointed PoetLaureate of Jamaica on 17 May 2017 and will serve until 2020.
Content
To Make Various Sorts of Black
To Make Various Sorts of Black
Reporting Back to Queen Isabella
You Should Go to Toledo
New Sketches of Spain
O Africans in the Plazas of Madrid
Bookmarks for Eyes
O Lisboa
Not Sadness
La Casa Dos Dourados
In a Dream My Mother Says
In a Little Spanish Town I Google Father Louis
In Days of Sail
It Is Sunday in Sevilla
Sintra's Glorious Eden, After Lord Byron
Postcards to Miles
Spinning in the Head
Ideas of Home
Praise to the Limping Angel
Praise to the Limping Angel
Limonade Shimmer of Autumn Air Over Aroma of Roast Corn
A Cure
A Visit to the East
At Lunch in Les Deux Magots
Remember Us in Motherland
Hope Gardens
Hope Gardens
Quest
Gauguin Girl
Our First Christian Martyr
My Teacher Lena
Reading Through the Wall
Bookmobile Days
Tagore on the Bookmobile
Town Drunk Recites Omar Khayyam
Need
In the Blue Boarding House
In the Blue Boarding House
A Small Blues for Lady's Gardenia
Dance Card
Otis Ode
Paul Robeson at Athena's
Red T-Shirt
The Two Sisters Cave
Your Heart
Bye Boonoonoonoos
Bye Boonoonoonoos
One in a Long Line
Our Blessed Country Lady
On Sighting Makak by the Roadside
The Bear
A New State
What Does It Mean
Everyday Revelations
Morning Ballad
A Cleanse Petition
Note to Self
Charlie Chaplin at Golden Clouds
Canto I
Soon It Is Going To Rain Milk
Ruth
Hagar's Account
Be It Done Unto Me According To Your Word
Soon It Is Going To Rain Milk
St Michael in Sitka
Mr Davis Runs the Voodoo Down
Some of My Worst Wounds Again
From the Bard's Book of Common Prayer
Upsetter
About the Kind Who Wrestle With You All Night
Some More Things You Do Not Know About Me
I am a Love Siren
Acknowledgements
To Make Various Sorts of Black
Reporting Back to Queen Isabella
You Should Go to Toledo
New Sketches of Spain
O Africans in the Plazas of Madrid
Bookmarks for Eyes
O Lisboa
Not Sadness
La Casa Dos Dourados
In a Dream My Mother Says
In a Little Spanish Town I Google Father Louis
In Days of Sail
It Is Sunday in Sevilla
Sintra's Glorious Eden, After Lord Byron
Postcards to Miles
Spinning in the Head
Ideas of Home
Praise to the Limping Angel
Praise to the Limping Angel
Limonade Shimmer of Autumn Air Over Aroma of Roast Corn
A Cure
A Visit to the East
At Lunch in Les Deux Magots
Remember Us in Motherland
Hope Gardens
Hope Gardens
Quest
Gauguin Girl
Our First Christian Martyr
My Teacher Lena
Reading Through the Wall
Bookmobile Days
Tagore on the Bookmobile
Town Drunk Recites Omar Khayyam
Need
In the Blue Boarding House
In the Blue Boarding House
A Small Blues for Lady's Gardenia
Dance Card
Otis Ode
Paul Robeson at Athena's
Red T-Shirt
The Two Sisters Cave
Your Heart
Bye Boonoonoonoos
Bye Boonoonoonoos
One in a Long Line
Our Blessed Country Lady
On Sighting Makak by the Roadside
The Bear
A New State
What Does It Mean
Everyday Revelations
Morning Ballad
A Cleanse Petition
Note to Self
Charlie Chaplin at Golden Clouds
Canto I
Soon It Is Going To Rain Milk
Ruth
Hagar's Account
Be It Done Unto Me According To Your Word
Soon It Is Going To Rain Milk
St Michael in Sitka
Mr Davis Runs the Voodoo Down
Some of My Worst Wounds Again
From the Bard's Book of Common Prayer
Upsetter
About the Kind Who Wrestle With You All Night
Some More Things You Do Not Know About Me
I am a Love Siren
Acknowledgements