Gomer's Song

by Kwame Dawes

Gomer’s Song is a re-rendering of the Bible story. In Gomer, a harlot who was the wife of the Old Testament prophet Hosea, Kwame Dawes finds the subject for a beautiful contemporary exploration on freedom and sacrifice.

Kwame Dawes is an award-winning Ghanaian-born Jamaican author of several books of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction (including his debut novel, She’s Gone , published by Akashic Books in 2007). He teaches at the University of South Carolina, where he is distinguished poet in residence and director of the USC Arts Institute and the South Carolina Poetry Initiative. Dawes is the programmer for the annual Jamaican Calabash International Literary Festival.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

Born in Ghana in 1962, Kwame Dawes spent most of his childhood and early adult life in Jamaica . As a poet, he is profoundly influenced by the rhythms and textures of that lush place, citing in a recent interview his "spiritual, intellectual, and emotional engagement with reggae music." His book Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius remains the most authoritative study of the lyrics of Bob Marley.

His 11th collection of verse, Wisteria: Poems From the Swamp Country, was published in January 2006. In February, 2007 Akashic Books published his novel, She's Gone and Peepal Tree Books published his 12th collection of poetry, Impossible Flying, and his non-fiction work, A Far Cry From Plymouth Rock: A Personal Narrative.

His essays have appeared in numerous journals including Bomb Magazine, The London Review of Books, Granta, Essence, World Literature Today and Double Take Magazine.

In October, 2007, his thirteenth book of poems, Gomer's Song will appear on the Black Goat imprint of Akashic Books. Dawes has seen produced some twenty of his plays over the past twenty-five years including, most recently a production of his musical, One Love, at the Lyric Hammersmith in London .

Kwame Dawes is Distinguished Poet in Residence, Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts and Founder and executive Director of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative. He is the director of the University of South Carolina Arts Institute and the programming director of the Calabash International Literary Festival, which takes place in Jamaica in May of each year.

Reviews

[Peter Kerry Powers · Rating 4 out of 5]

The conceit of this book is intriguing, focusing on the "idea", I guess I would say, of Gomer, the prostitute whom God commanded Hosea to marry as a symbol of God's own faithfulness and Israel's metaphorical harlotry. The biblical story tell us about the nature of God, and perhaps Hosea, but Dawes goes in the opposite direction and explores what it must be to be a "Gomer," i.e. a fallen woman, a prostitute, or more simply a woman with desire. To some degree it is a book that assumes that the subaltern has not had the chance to speak, and so the poet seeks to find her language. What would these women say, given the chance to speak in their own voices instead of remaining voiceless as they largely do in biblical texts and pop cultural fantasies alike? I think this kind of thing is usually a risky business in producing literature: there's the risk of mindless reversals and romanticizing the weak or the oppressed out of a form of artistic pity. There's also the risk of banality and being controlled inadvertently by the parent story--as I regularly see happening, for instance, in recent fiction that tries to retell novels from the point of view of minor characters who, in the view of some author somewhere, have been unjustly neglected or represent an unjustly neglected class. Although there are moments where I think Dawes falls in to this, by and large I think he avoids both sentimentality and political posturing, or the sentimentality of political posturing. Although there is back story to some of these poems, implying rationales for why the Gomer-figures act as they, these don't descend into sociological explanation; the acts and images themselves are always in excess of explanation, suggesting a human mystery that extends beyond our ability to explain ourselves to one another. Some of the sex is pretty raw, and sometimes I felt that Dawes was simply going for shock value. On the other hand, That the frank depictions of women's desire remain somewhat shocking is probably only testimony that we see it pretty rarely in literary classics and not even that much more in more recent literature. Worth the read.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chose this to read because it's April, National Poetry Month, and I work below the SC Poetry Archive. I pulled out a bunch of poetry by Kwame Davis because I had recently read and enjoyed some anthologies he edited. He used to teach in SC and thus is considered an SC poet forevermore, but does not in fact live in the state anymore.

I thought I was going to skim this volume but a poem halfway through grabbed me, and then I went back to the beginning and read them all more carefully. The poet was inspired by the story of Gomer, the prophet Hosea's wife who used to be (or still is? I'm not overly familiar with the story) a "harlot." The poems aren't her story but perhaps the mood. From my varied experience with Kwame Dawes, I can say I enjoy his focused single-topic books of poetry the most.

Some highlights:

Secret
"...It is true that I never hold secrets
long; I camouflage them in words,
then push them out into the bush;
I reheat the secrets passed on to me
by friends who know my ways...."

On Me and Men
"I.
Here is the calculus of desire -
I have studied its insides....

...I ruin love
with a medley of men, slipping

into the soft hunger of my dreams;
won't know that I can make storms

and quiet them
with just a breath."

The Sinner
"A man who is just looking for companionship
is confused...."

[Nikita Ladd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection is sensual, sexual, and told loosely from the perspective of Gomer, the prostitute who married Hosea. I did like Dawes' ability to write a book of poetry entirely from a woman's perspective, or with some feminine voice. The speaker in these poems is explicit and quick with her tongue. My favorite poem, maybe one of the least sexual ones, was "The Courtyard."

[Benjamin Fasching-Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was expecting roots, but it’s more slack with soul.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the concept of these poems. My favourite is 'Skin' pg 34-35

"Mark me, press your nails in me,
make me bleed, write into this girl's skin the heirogylphs
of your ownership, then tongue
and blow the skin until your brand
is in me for as long as we live."

[Vasha7 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some things here caught my attention, others were hard to comprehend or seemed to miss the mark.

[Siel Ju · Rating 2 out of 5]

Narrative poems from the point of view of Gomer (contemporized), prostitute and wife of prophet Hosea.

[josé miguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Often, I am not writing to describe what I have seen, but trying to voice what the work is stirring in me.

—Kwame Dawes