Review (PDF)

Travelling Mercies

At the heart of acclaimed poet Lorna Goodison’s seventh book of poetry – her first published in Canada – is music, moving from a slow ska, a hard rocksteady, and a sweetie-come-brush-me bossanova, to line and sight gratitude psalms, lionheart outlaw anthems, and Miles Davis, blown by the winds to a concert in Berlin. Many of the poems are about those not heard or less counted, those who live in places like the favelas of Rio or the Kingston slum called Moonlight City. Goodison chronicles how “from shameports we passed through whale-belly nights of no return”, or from prison through the fields of Tecumseh on a Greyhound bus to Detroit. And she journeys, as they must have, to hell, this time in a marvellous translation of the canto about Brunetto Latini from Dante’s Inferno, where she meets Mr. Brown, a Jamaican duppy conqueror from her own land of look behind. Set mainly in her native Jamaica but universal in its concerns, this book, rare and special, is the real thing.

Paperback: 104 pages

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart; First Edition edition (April 17, 2001)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0771033826

ISBN-13: 978-0771033827

Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.3 x 8.5 inches

Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces

Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Best Sellers Rank: #1,957,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #56 in Books > Travel > Caribbean > Jamaica #534 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Regional & Cultural > Caribbean & Latin American

I love poetry; all types of poetry. I am neither offended by 'free verse' nor bored by rhyme. I do, however, need verse that is intelligible. I gave this 2 stars because there were just a few poems in the book that were interesting. Realizing that I do not share a cultural or racial history with Ms Goodison, there may be things I just don't get. This is not a book I could recommend.

Travelling Mercies Travelling the Path of Love: Sayings of Sufi Masters Crimes & Mercies: The Fate of German Civilians Under Allied Occupation, 1944-1950 Crimes and Mercies: The Fate of German Civilians Under Allied Occupation, 1944–1950 God's Mercies: Rivalry, Betrayal, and the Dream of Discovery