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Over the Roofs of the World
Using nature as both model and metaphor, Toronto resident Olive Senior delves into birds, flying, and Caribbean life in her third book of poems. Following her much-loved collections, Gardening in the Tropics and Talking of Trees, this long-awaited book of poems is sure to delight readers around the world. Translated into several languages, represented in numerous anthologies, and broadcast in Canada, Britain, and the Caribbean, Senior's work enjoys international acclaim. Her work is taught at universities around the world, and her short story collection, Summer Lightning, has been a literature textbook in Caribbean schools. She has taught creative writing workshops at universities in Canada, the US, the UK, and the Caribbean, and is on the faculty of the Humber School for Writers. Praise for Over the Roofs of the World "Olive Senior's Over the Roofs of the World is a richly crafted, cunning and precise collection of poems. The songs found here move gently through the world and summon grace." — Judges' citation, 2005 Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry
- GenresPoetry
110 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
4 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Olive Senior
43 books108 followersOlive Senior was born and brought up in Jamaica in 1941 and educated in Jamaica and Canada. She is a graduate of Montego Bay High School and Carleton University, Ottawa.
She is one of Canada's most internationally recognized and acclaimed writers having left Jamaica in 1989, spending some years in Europe and since 1993 being based in Toronto.
Among her many awards and honours she has won the Commonwealth Writers Prize and F.G. Bressani Literary Prize, was nominated for a Governor-General’s Literary Award, and was runner up for the Casa de Las Americas Prize and the Pat Lowther Award. In 2003, she received the Norman Washington Manley Foundation Award for Excellence (preservation of cultural heritage – Jamaica). Her body of published work includes four books of poetry, three collections of short stories and several award-winning non-fiction works on Caribbean culture.
She is one of Canada's most internationally recognized and acclaimed writers having left Jamaica in 1989, spending some years in Europe and since 1993 being based in Toronto.
Among her many awards and honours she has won the Commonwealth Writers Prize and F.G. Bressani Literary Prize, was nominated for a Governor-General’s Literary Award, and was runner up for the Casa de Las Americas Prize and the Pat Lowther Award. In 2003, she received the Norman Washington Manley Foundation Award for Excellence (preservation of cultural heritage – Jamaica). Her body of published work includes four books of poetry, three collections of short stories and several award-winning non-fiction works on Caribbean culture.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 13, 2021
Just stunning. As always Senior executes a collection that speaks to the depth and wealth of her love and knowledge.
Blue was like standing on that isthmus between oceans, finding washed up on the beach
a lone shoe. Blue was not me and you, but me
or you. Avoidance the true meaning of 'true blue.' -excerpt from Blue
What I appreciate the most about Senior's poetry is the wicked wit that shines through stanza after stanza. She braids it seamlessly with the history and culture that is vividly conveyed through her words.
With every poem collected here, there is a particular animal, circumstance, piece of history and tradition that is examined and depicted with clarity and depth.
Her dedication to our culture is a beacon that travels from poem to poem, that takes to the sky on the wings of birds both grounded and aflight, through colours like blue and the face of the moon. Senior takes beauty, mundanity, tradition, movement, behaviour, and transforms it. She molds as a master and crafts poetry that invades hearts and neurons.
The depth and wealth of her love and knowledge matched with her skill in weaving tapestries with her poetry is wonderful to behold.
Reading the poems of Olive Senior teaches, recalls, amazes, and welcomes. And for all these, I am grateful and will forever be a reader and rereader of her words.
Blue was like standing on that isthmus between oceans, finding washed up on the beach
a lone shoe. Blue was not me and you, but me
or you. Avoidance the true meaning of 'true blue.' -excerpt from Blue
What I appreciate the most about Senior's poetry is the wicked wit that shines through stanza after stanza. She braids it seamlessly with the history and culture that is vividly conveyed through her words.
With every poem collected here, there is a particular animal, circumstance, piece of history and tradition that is examined and depicted with clarity and depth.
Her dedication to our culture is a beacon that travels from poem to poem, that takes to the sky on the wings of birds both grounded and aflight, through colours like blue and the face of the moon. Senior takes beauty, mundanity, tradition, movement, behaviour, and transforms it. She molds as a master and crafts poetry that invades hearts and neurons.
The depth and wealth of her love and knowledge matched with her skill in weaving tapestries with her poetry is wonderful to behold.
Reading the poems of Olive Senior teaches, recalls, amazes, and welcomes. And for all these, I am grateful and will forever be a reader and rereader of her words.
May 28, 2020
Olive Senior keeps doing these amazing things.
"Here" is my favourite in this collection and I'm looking forward to re-reading in August with Rebel Women Lit
"Here" is my favourite in this collection and I'm looking forward to re-reading in August with Rebel Women Lit
January 24, 2022
Ostrich in forsaking flight for speed, gave up
the empowerment of challenging gravity.
Slick and swift as a steed, its feet are also
weapons: Ostrich can turn vicious.
In choosing Earth, did Ostrich abandon
that loop connecting worlds to indulge
its own base instinct? Or is flight to Earth
the natural pair, as flight to Air?
* * *
I
The Ship
trips
into sight of land. Blackbird
is all eyes. Vows nothing but sunlight
will ever hold him now.
II
Survivor of the crossing, Blackbird
the lucky one in three, moves
his eyes and weary
limbs. Finds his wings clipped.
Palm trees gaze and swoon.
III
Swept like the leaves on autumn wind,
Blackbird is bought and sold and bought
again, whirled into waving fields
of sugar cane.
IV
Blackbird no longer knows
if he is man or woman or bird or simply is.
Or if among the sugar cane he is
sprouting.
V
Blackbird's voice has turned rusty.
The voice of the field mice
is thin and squeaky.
I do not know which to prefer.
VI
Blackbird traces in the shadow not cast
the indecipherable past.
VII
Blackbird finds thrilling
the drum beats drilling
the feet of
men of women into
utterance.
VIII
To Blackbird rhythm
is inescapable
Fired to heights alchemical
the immortal bird consumed
Charlie Parker
wired.
IX
Blackbird once again
attempts flight. Crashes into
the circle's contracting edge.
X
Even the sight of the whip makes
Blackbird cry out sharply.
No Euphony.
XI
Pierced by fear, Massa and all his generation
mistake Blackbird for the long shadow.
XII
Blackbird strips to reduce gravity's pull
readying for flight again. Fate hauls him in
to another impetus.
XIII
In the dark
out of the sun
Blackbird sits
among the shavings
from the cedar coffins.
* * *
Friend, I'm in a bad way, my skin
leaches out more tropic every day
like flood-prone mountain soil.
Left behind: uncompromised bones
like volcanic stones on hillsides.
Waiting. For Thunder.
Today, though, no rain. The Sky Shepherds
have corralled their flocks.
the empowerment of challenging gravity.
Slick and swift as a steed, its feet are also
weapons: Ostrich can turn vicious.
In choosing Earth, did Ostrich abandon
that loop connecting worlds to indulge
its own base instinct? Or is flight to Earth
the natural pair, as flight to Air?
- Ostrich, pg. 38
* * *
I
The Ship
trips
into sight of land. Blackbird
is all eyes. Vows nothing but sunlight
will ever hold him now.
II
Survivor of the crossing, Blackbird
the lucky one in three, moves
his eyes and weary
limbs. Finds his wings clipped.
Palm trees gaze and swoon.
III
Swept like the leaves on autumn wind,
Blackbird is bought and sold and bought
again, whirled into waving fields
of sugar cane.
IV
Blackbird no longer knows
if he is man or woman or bird or simply is.
Or if among the sugar cane he is
sprouting.
V
Blackbird's voice has turned rusty.
The voice of the field mice
is thin and squeaky.
I do not know which to prefer.
VI
Blackbird traces in the shadow not cast
the indecipherable past.
VII
Blackbird finds thrilling
the drum beats drilling
the feet of
men of women into
utterance.
VIII
To Blackbird rhythm
is inescapable
Fired to heights alchemical
the immortal bird consumed
Charlie Parker
wired.
IX
Blackbird once again
attempts flight. Crashes into
the circle's contracting edge.
X
Even the sight of the whip makes
Blackbird cry out sharply.
No Euphony.
XI
Pierced by fear, Massa and all his generation
mistake Blackbird for the long shadow.
XII
Blackbird strips to reduce gravity's pull
readying for flight again. Fate hauls him in
to another impetus.
XIII
In the dark
out of the sun
Blackbird sits
among the shavings
from the cedar coffins.
- Thirteen Ways of Looking at Blackbird, after Wallace Stevens, pg. 47-49
* * *
Friend, I'm in a bad way, my skin
leaches out more tropic every day
like flood-prone mountain soil.
Left behind: uncompromised bones
like volcanic stones on hillsides.
Waiting. For Thunder.
Today, though, no rain. The Sky Shepherds
have corralled their flocks.
- Lost Tropic, pg. 61
December 2, 2020
Olive Senior's writing has so much depth that each time you read her poems you discover something that you hadn't seen before. I must admit that Gardening in the Tropics has a special place in my heart and I feel that this selection of poetry although I enjoyed it a lot , didn't give me the same feeling I get as when I read Gardening in the Tropics. That being said however this was truly an exquisite selection of poetry that uses such beautiful imagery to talk about the Caribbean experience.
August 29, 2020
Rejected Text for a Tourist Brochure was my favorite poem from this collection (among so many others). I decided to finally read this because I saw that Rebel Women Lit Book Club was reading it this month.
September 15, 2020
Olive Senior really has a fun and creative way of teaching Caribbean history through poetry
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews