In a Language That You Know
1st Edition
Published on 1. October 2017
66 pages
978-1-4962-0319-9 (ISBN)
Description
South Africa is a complicated, contradictory, and haunted place. Len Verwey captures the trajectory of life in such a place, dealing with childhood, war, marriage, divorce, and death. He explores the challenges posed by place and history, shared identities, deep embeddedness in the continent, and the legacies of violence and exclusion, as well as beauty.
Verwey offers poems that speak of uncertainty, ask questions, and challenge simplistic and scapegoating narratives that become so tempting when living in a society undergoing intense social and economic pressure. Dealing less with factual or political explanations of war and more with the compulsion of war, in particular, "maleness" and violence, Verwey pulls the reader into another world, opening eyes to the "crisis of men," the violence against women, children, and the foreign in a country where conflicts are again escalating. In a Language That You Know strives to understand the complexity of one of the most unequal, violent, yet most vibrant societies in the world.
Verwey offers poems that speak of uncertainty, ask questions, and challenge simplistic and scapegoating narratives that become so tempting when living in a society undergoing intense social and economic pressure. Dealing less with factual or political explanations of war and more with the compulsion of war, in particular, "maleness" and violence, Verwey pulls the reader into another world, opening eyes to the "crisis of men," the violence against women, children, and the foreign in a country where conflicts are again escalating. In a Language That You Know strives to understand the complexity of one of the most unequal, violent, yet most vibrant societies in the world.
Reviews / Votes
"Contemplative and lyrical. . . . 'When I cannot find you / I give your name to everything.' Such poems employ the periphery as an active, sometimes disquieting space from which to imagine. Such poems disarm me into sorrow, into hope."-Aracelis Girmay, author of The Black Maria and Kingdom Animalia"Poems in this book plunge you, without warning, from a mattress on the floor, a village bus stop, or a fishermen's boat into the depth of human aloneness. . . . Len Verwey writes: 'You need to breathe / in stone, breathe out a flower.' He accomplishes this mission in his book: breathing in history and landscape, he breathes out powerful, fervent lyricism."-Valzhyna Mort, author of Collected Body and Factory of Tears: A Lannan Literary Selection
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Lincoln
United States
Illustrations
none
File size
2,42 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-4962-0319-9 (9781496203199)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Len Verwey
In a Language That You Know
Book
10/2017
University of Nebraska Press
€17.00
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
Len Verwey is a South African poet. He was born in Mozambique in 1973. His chapbook Otherwise Everything Goes On is included in the boxed set Seven New Generation African Poets, and his poems have been published in various journals including New Coin and New Contrast.
Content
Coast
My Mother Speaks
Fishing Boy
Fathers to Sons
Bitter Boys
El Bandito de los Nadas
The Quarry
Old Joke
The Bills
The Real Evidence
Campaign
Experts
The Stowaway
Our Leader Speaks
Elsewhere
Leaving
Confession of the Stable Hand
I Flew Secretly
Maputo
An Unchained Dog for Each of You
See Them
A Thing of Theirs
Ecstasy Revolver
Sunnyside
Antarctica
1999
Mourning for Beginners
Self-Portrait as a Father
Stone
With the Music Teacher
Rehearsal Notes
Jonah
In a Language That You Know
Doctor
Simple
Acknowledgments
Notes
My Mother Speaks
Fishing Boy
Fathers to Sons
Bitter Boys
El Bandito de los Nadas
The Quarry
Old Joke
The Bills
The Real Evidence
Campaign
Experts
The Stowaway
Our Leader Speaks
Elsewhere
Leaving
Confession of the Stable Hand
I Flew Secretly
Maputo
An Unchained Dog for Each of You
See Them
A Thing of Theirs
Ecstasy Revolver
Sunnyside
Antarctica
1999
Mourning for Beginners
Self-Portrait as a Father
Stone
With the Music Teacher
Rehearsal Notes
Jonah
In a Language That You Know
Doctor
Simple
Acknowledgments
Notes
