Description
Book SynopsisIn The Insomnia Poems Grace Nichols explores those nocturnal hours when Sleep (the thief who nightly steals your brain) is hard to come by, and the politics of the day hard to shut out, never mind the lavender-scented pillow. Here memories of her own Guyana childhood mingle with the sleeping spectres of dreams and folk legends such as Sleeping Beauty. A lyrical interweaving of tones and textures invites the reader into the zones between sleep and no-sleep, between the solitude of the dark and the awakening of the light. The Insomnia Poems was Grace Nichols's first new collection since Picasso, I Want My Face Back (2009). Neither that collection nor this one is included in her Bloodaxe retrospective, I Have Crossed an Ocean (2010).
Trade ReviewLunar and likeable, Grace Nichols’s Insomnia Poems chart the hinterland between sleep and wakefulness, memory and desire, dreams and the realities of life. -- Suzannah V. Evans * Times Literary Supplement *
This beautiful volume is so excellent in so many ways that the relevance of its subject matter is a very minor feature. Drawing inspiration from the worlds of art, poetry, mythology, and with its own inherent musicality rising from each and every poem, it is a cultural education…. Not often bereft of words, this reviewer struggles to praise this volume highly enough. At least one copy should be in every school library. -- Elizabeth Finlayson * The School Librarian [on The Insomnia Poems] *
Not only rich music, an easy lyricism, but also grit, and earthy honesty, a willingness to be vulnerable and clean' - Gwendolyn Brooks. -- Gwendolyn Brooks
Table of Contents9 Once Again 10 One Night Comes Like a Blessing 11 The Projectionist 12 A Tale 13 Moon-mothers 14 An Insomniac's Attempt at Her Own Self-hypnosis 15 Another Day 16 At the Edge of the Table 17 In Search of Sleep 18 Nightmare 19 Wherever They Lie 20 To the Virgin of Guadalupe 21 Night-coos 22 Learning 23 Sleeping Legend 1: Sleeping Beauty 26 Night 27 Watershed 28 Tonight My Childhood 29 The Shadow-stealers 30 Diablesse 32 Our Pied Piper 33 Moon-calf 34 Rain Rain 36 Beyond the Dreaming Dark 37 Streams of Mercy 38 Snowdrops at the Hurst 39 Sleeping Legend 2: Rip Van Winkle 40 Insemination of Pig Between Sleep and Wake 41 The Accomplice 42 Parallel World 43 The Myoclonic Jerk 44 Close to the Edge 45 Dream Libation 46 Within the Gospels 47 Sleeping Legend 3: Gilgamesh 50 My Best Cure (for John) 51 The Long Haul 52 In the Meditating Dark 53 Starry Night 54 Adam to Eve 55 Naming 56 Baby Sleep 57 Dawn Speaks of Dawn 58 Twin Sisters 59 Reflecting on Pebble 60 Waking-up London 61 Guitar 62 The One You Don't See Coming
