Utter

by Vahni Capildeo

Exploring a universe where anything can happen, because there is nothing that can’t be imagined and there’s no connection between different experiences that can’t be made, Utter breaks down old between the past and present, between human and animal, animate and inanimate, between the Caribbean and the global elsewhere, between the experienced world and the world of books. Vahni Capildeo rarely appears to speak in her own voice but creates a whole range of striking and sometimes mysterious personas; in the dialogue among the voices in the poems, a way of seeing, multifarious as it is, begins to emerge. The poems express a view that finds much in the world that is unjust, cruel, corrupt, and hypocritical but also finds moments of community and tenderness; there is darkness and there is humor, and sometimes the latter seems the only possible response to the former.

Genres: Poetry

78 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2013

Reviews

[Caspar "moved to storygraph" Bryant]

earlier Vahni but much to think about it's actually been too long since my last dip into Like a Tree their concerns are here though often more prose than I remember and the experimental aspects take different forms, literally. Anyway certainly one of the podium contemporaries for their use of OE poetry and Utter really places them their with lovely turns on Wulf and Eadwacer and the underread but wonderful Wife's Lament

also an oddly huge bio at the end of this (not a poem, a professional bio) which is kind of shocking I hope you're ok VC and sorry about being hit by a police car before your exams I understand that's probably traumatic but honestly a bit of a mood

[for-much-deliberation ... · Rating 5 out of 5]

Discourses on thoughts, dreams, ideas, and experiences, encompassing the animate and inanimate, space and time...

Recommended for poetry lovers...

[Astrid · Rating 3 out of 5]

full of ingenius imagery, wordplay & experiments w/ form. a lot of the non-satirical poems don't flow so well, partly due to the complicated syntax (which is overdone, in my opinion), which might be a putoff if you're into poetry that sounds nice. the satirical poems were hilarious; loved them.
ps. also like to add that some of the poems were really hard to understand so i've probably missed quite a few things.
pps. a poem defo worth checking out from this is title poem on the first page. it's eerie & passionate & just wonderful.