Description
Book SynopsisAma Ata Aidoo is one of the best-known African writers today. Spanning three decades of work, the poems in this collection address themes of colonialism, independence, motherhood, and gender in intimate, personal ways alongside commentary on broader social issues.
Table of ContentsForeword by Helen Yitah
Part One: New and Uncollected Poems
Prelude
For My Mother in Her Mid-90s
I. Fires and Ashes
Me Pilgrim
Heathrow Healing
As the Dust Begins to Settle II: An Afterword, Twenty Years On
To a Silk Shirt in the Sun
After the Ceremonies
II. Grieving for the Living
An Interrogation of an Academic Kind: An Essay
For Bessie Head
A Taking Care of Our Bourgeois Palates II—
Our Very Dear Juliana
Juliana (The Translation)
More Bad News: In Memoriam Fred E. K. Gbedemah
Awoonor? Ebei Oo!
Awoonor, Hmmm . . . (The Translation)
These Days (III): A Letter to Flora Nwapa
Ode to Qunu
III. The National Corruption Index and Other Poems
The National Corruption Index
I. Really Funny Numbers
II. Just This Morning
III. More Really Funny Numbers
IV. About Single Trees
IV. All of It
On Reading Jackie Kay
Why on Earth Do I Continue to Listen to the BBC?!
Mourning Ricci
IV. Ghana: Where the Bead Speaks
Ghana: Where the Bead Speaks
Part Two: Selections from An Angry Letter in January
I: As Always, a Painful Declaration of Independence
As Always, a Painful Declaration of Independence
II: Images of Africa at Century’s End
Images of Africa at Century’s End
In Memoriam: The Ghana Drama Studio
A Question from the Expatriate Community
An Angry Letter in January
Speaking of Hurricanes
These Days: I
Three Poems for Chinua Achebe
1. A Modern African Story
2. Questions
3. New in Africa: I
Loving the Black Angel
No Grief No Joy
An Insider’s View
Homesickness
Two Letters
1. Family
2. After an Argument
III: Women’s Conferences and Other Poems
Just One More Job for Mama
Whom Do We Thank for Women’s Conferences?
A Young Woman’s Voice Doesn’t Break. It Gets Firmer
Comparisons II: We Women, Still!
These Days: II
A Path in the Sky
A Birthday Gift
A Postcard from My Vacation
A Revelation
Part Three: Selections from Someone Talking to Sometime
I: Of Love and Commitment
Crisis
Of Love and Commitment
Greetings from London
Three Poems for Atta Britwum
1. Ghana Funerals
2. Nation Building
3. A Salute to African Universities
For Steve Hymer—A Propos 1966
Two for Kojo
1. As the Dust Begins to Settle—A Long Story II
2. Regrets
II: New Orleans: Mid-1970s
Carolyn
For a Zulu in the Bayous
Lorisnrudi
Acknowledgments—with an Apology to Ronald
III: Routine Drugs
Routine Drugs I—for Eldred Jones
Routine Drugs II
Gynae One
Comparisons—for Rose
Wondering about Him Who Said No to the Glare of the Open Day
IV: Reply to Fontamara
Reply to Fontamara I
Reply to Fontamara II
Now That the Weatherman Has Gone Crazy . . .
Heavy Traffic
From the Only Speech That Was Not Delivered at the Rally
V: Legacies
The Visible World
Of Gifts and References
For Kinna II
Ekunekun
Totems
VI: Kwadwom from a Stillborn Creole Kingdom
Egyeifi’s Farewell
Nourishment
Woaeenn I
VII: Tomorrow’s Song
Wanted Urgently for Immediate Employment
Source Acknowledgments
