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I Have Crossed an Ocean: Selected Poems
Grace Nichols' poetry has a gritty lyricism that addresses the transatlantic connections central to the Caribbean-British experience. Her work brings a mythic awareness and a sensuous musicality that is at the same time disquieting. Born and educated in Guyana, Grace Nichols moved to Britain in 1977. I Have Crossed an Ocean is a comprehensive selection spanning some 25 years of her writing.
- GenresPoetry
221 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 27, 2010
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About the author
Grace Nichols
71 books58 followersGrace Nichols was born in Georgetown, Guyana, in 1950 and grew up in a small country village on the Guyanese coast. She moved to the city with her family when she was eight, an experience central to her first novel, Whole of a Morning Sky (1986), set in 1960s Guyana in the middle of the country's struggle for independence.
She worked as a teacher and journalist and, as part of a Diploma in Communications at the University of Guyana, spent time in some of the most remote areas of Guyana, a period that influenced her writings and initiated a strong interest in Guyanese folk tales, Amerindian myths and the South American civilisations of the Aztec and Inca. She has lived in the UK since 1977.
Her first poetry collection, I is a Long-Memoried Woman, was published in 1983. The book won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and a subsequent film adaptation of the book was awarded a gold medal at the International Film and Television Festival of New York. The book was also dramatised for radio by the BBC. Subsequent poetry collections include The Fat Black Woman's Poems (1984), Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Woman (1989), and Sunris (1996). She also writes books for children, inspired predominantly by Guyanese folklore and Amerindian legends, including Come on into My Tropical Garden (1988) and Give Yourself a Hug (1994). Everybody Got A Gift (2005) includes new and selected poems, and her collection, Startling the Flying Fish (2006), contains poems which tell the story of the Caribbean.
Her latest books are Picasso, I Want My Face Back (2009); and I Have Crossed an Ocean: Selected Poems (2010).
Grace Nichols lives in England with her partner, the poet John Agard.
She worked as a teacher and journalist and, as part of a Diploma in Communications at the University of Guyana, spent time in some of the most remote areas of Guyana, a period that influenced her writings and initiated a strong interest in Guyanese folk tales, Amerindian myths and the South American civilisations of the Aztec and Inca. She has lived in the UK since 1977.
Her first poetry collection, I is a Long-Memoried Woman, was published in 1983. The book won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and a subsequent film adaptation of the book was awarded a gold medal at the International Film and Television Festival of New York. The book was also dramatised for radio by the BBC. Subsequent poetry collections include The Fat Black Woman's Poems (1984), Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Woman (1989), and Sunris (1996). She also writes books for children, inspired predominantly by Guyanese folklore and Amerindian legends, including Come on into My Tropical Garden (1988) and Give Yourself a Hug (1994). Everybody Got A Gift (2005) includes new and selected poems, and her collection, Startling the Flying Fish (2006), contains poems which tell the story of the Caribbean.
Her latest books are Picasso, I Want My Face Back (2009); and I Have Crossed an Ocean: Selected Poems (2010).
Grace Nichols lives in England with her partner, the poet John Agard.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 15, 2017
I loved this so much that I gave up with tabs and started elephant-earing.
July 12, 2021
Around the World Reading Challenge: GUYANA
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Really gorgeous anthology of poems compiled of selections from some of her previous poetry books. Stunning lyricism and rhythm, with lines that really punched me in the gut. My favorites were definitely the selections from The Fat Black Woman's Poems.
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Really gorgeous anthology of poems compiled of selections from some of her previous poetry books. Stunning lyricism and rhythm, with lines that really punched me in the gut. My favorites were definitely the selections from The Fat Black Woman's Poems.
January 6, 2018
This collection demonstrates the brilliance of Grace Nichols over thirty years of poetry. It shows a career with few weak moments and plenty of highs. She is an absolute joy to read, whether she is being subvertive and humourous or deadly serious. It is an interesting career trajectory to follow; her early work deals with immigration, life in exile, the colonial gaze, racism and, while the places of her origins (Guyana and Africa) are present, they are not as directly presented as in her later collections which serve as a kind of return and recovery.
The first two collections are the best - there is not a bad poem among them, ending with the fantastically funny and powerful 'Black Woman Sequence'. I is a Long-Memoried Woman begins with images of colonial history and repression, drawing on the inheritance of slavery. 'Sugar Cane' and 'Up My Spine' are powerful images of the plantations, written in her direct, efficient and clear style. The poems are short and packed with implied rhythm, often piled into short, thin lines that trip off the tongue. She writes, sometimes, in Creole grammar and pronunciation, always with the implication that she is master of both. Women are the main characters in her little stories of slavary, 'In My Name' being a particular good example of Nichol's ability to craft narratives and characters with the minimum of words. The collection ends with the majestic 'Epilogue' (I have crossed an ocean / I have lost my tongue / From the root of the old one / A new one has sprung') leading into the urban, English setting of the next collection.
The Fat Black Woman's poems are perhaps her best work. She repeats her early themes but the scene has moved to a more modern one; there are grey, dull English skies and tales of life as an immigrant. Still, poems like 'Praise Song for My Mother', a beautiful elegy, hark back to her roots. It is part of Nichol's appeal and talent that she can look in both directions at once, that she sees how our history, our present and our hopeful futures inform our identities. 'Island Man' is an example of a poem that crosses oceans. 'Winter Thoughts' turns the poems to its more introverted, personal moments, the weather and the setting of urban London show to be something heavy and restrictive. What follows, 'The Fat Black Woman's Cycle', is an incredible assertion of feminine and racial autonomy, a repossession of physical confidence, written with cutting humour and a cackling wit and scorn. 'Tropical Death' and 'Invitation' are two of the best, but they are all good and work together as a suckerpunch whole, combining body, sexuality, race and gender into an explosive and unique sequence of poems.
The later collections never quite reach the consistent heights of her earlier work, but that relative quality ensures I Have Crossed an Ocean is always engaging. 'Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Woman' continues in the same vein, examining the dirt and the grime of her urban existence with mocking sarcasm and an eye for beauty within the ugly ('Dust' and 'Grime' are two brilliantly evocative poems). Body and sexuality remain important themes; 'My Black Triangle' could almost fit into the Black Woman's Sequence. The collection Sunris moves to Guyana and begins with an ambitious ode to the music and festivals of her home. Many poems return to the mythology, history and Gods of South America and Africa, Nichol's scope moving through the Amazon and to Mexico to tell colourful stories of colonialism and European cruelty. The highlights are as good as anything she's written; 'First Generation Monologue' is a wonderful, longer poem which pulls together many of her concerns in a sentimental and descriptive comtemplation of her origins and her identity.
At the end there is the added treat of some of her poems for young readers, works with push the read while remaining accessible. Nichol's draws on images that children can easily imagine but she doesn't talk down to her readers. 'Granny Granny Please Comb My Hair' is one of the best. Whoever the audience, whichever stage of her career, I Have Crossed an Ocean demonstrates that Nichol's is not only one of the great post-colonial writers but one of the great contemporary writers without question. 'And I am on the edge / of this new world / awaiting the footprints of my arrival' from 'Footprints of My Arrival' says it so well; Nichol's strides across our post-colonial world with a sense of possession and understand that had enabled her to create poems of brilliant power for decades. 9
The first two collections are the best - there is not a bad poem among them, ending with the fantastically funny and powerful 'Black Woman Sequence'. I is a Long-Memoried Woman begins with images of colonial history and repression, drawing on the inheritance of slavery. 'Sugar Cane' and 'Up My Spine' are powerful images of the plantations, written in her direct, efficient and clear style. The poems are short and packed with implied rhythm, often piled into short, thin lines that trip off the tongue. She writes, sometimes, in Creole grammar and pronunciation, always with the implication that she is master of both. Women are the main characters in her little stories of slavary, 'In My Name' being a particular good example of Nichol's ability to craft narratives and characters with the minimum of words. The collection ends with the majestic 'Epilogue' (I have crossed an ocean / I have lost my tongue / From the root of the old one / A new one has sprung') leading into the urban, English setting of the next collection.
The Fat Black Woman's poems are perhaps her best work. She repeats her early themes but the scene has moved to a more modern one; there are grey, dull English skies and tales of life as an immigrant. Still, poems like 'Praise Song for My Mother', a beautiful elegy, hark back to her roots. It is part of Nichol's appeal and talent that she can look in both directions at once, that she sees how our history, our present and our hopeful futures inform our identities. 'Island Man' is an example of a poem that crosses oceans. 'Winter Thoughts' turns the poems to its more introverted, personal moments, the weather and the setting of urban London show to be something heavy and restrictive. What follows, 'The Fat Black Woman's Cycle', is an incredible assertion of feminine and racial autonomy, a repossession of physical confidence, written with cutting humour and a cackling wit and scorn. 'Tropical Death' and 'Invitation' are two of the best, but they are all good and work together as a suckerpunch whole, combining body, sexuality, race and gender into an explosive and unique sequence of poems.
The later collections never quite reach the consistent heights of her earlier work, but that relative quality ensures I Have Crossed an Ocean is always engaging. 'Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Woman' continues in the same vein, examining the dirt and the grime of her urban existence with mocking sarcasm and an eye for beauty within the ugly ('Dust' and 'Grime' are two brilliantly evocative poems). Body and sexuality remain important themes; 'My Black Triangle' could almost fit into the Black Woman's Sequence. The collection Sunris moves to Guyana and begins with an ambitious ode to the music and festivals of her home. Many poems return to the mythology, history and Gods of South America and Africa, Nichol's scope moving through the Amazon and to Mexico to tell colourful stories of colonialism and European cruelty. The highlights are as good as anything she's written; 'First Generation Monologue' is a wonderful, longer poem which pulls together many of her concerns in a sentimental and descriptive comtemplation of her origins and her identity.
At the end there is the added treat of some of her poems for young readers, works with push the read while remaining accessible. Nichol's draws on images that children can easily imagine but she doesn't talk down to her readers. 'Granny Granny Please Comb My Hair' is one of the best. Whoever the audience, whichever stage of her career, I Have Crossed an Ocean demonstrates that Nichol's is not only one of the great post-colonial writers but one of the great contemporary writers without question. 'And I am on the edge / of this new world / awaiting the footprints of my arrival' from 'Footprints of My Arrival' says it so well; Nichol's strides across our post-colonial world with a sense of possession and understand that had enabled her to create poems of brilliant power for decades. 9
April 9, 2022
Grace Nichols was born and raised in Guyana and moved to Britain in 1977. This is a selection of her work that goes back to her first selection, I Is a Long-Memoried Woman, from 1983.
Her poems neatly weave experiences and memories of the Caribbean, of Africa, of India, of South America, and Britain. Gods and goddesses of all these places pop up throughout the collection. They being an anchor against the chill of imperialism - and the British weather. She balances lyricism with realism. I think the word I've seen used a lot about her work is 'grit'.
But alongside the grit is a wit and poise that makes these poems a good read. Even though some of the poems look back at Empire there is still a positivity and generosity in a lot of them. The strength of women is another key theme alongside the effect of emigration and being part of a diaspora. One of my favourite poems in the collection, "Old Canecutter at the Airport", covers the pain of that departure:
"His cane shot eyes
his voice cracked as he wails
what his bones know for certain:
'Nevaar to meet again
Nevaar to meet again'
The last part of the collection is called Poems for Younger Readers and features some lovely poems, particularly about cats.
So, I could waffle on in an uneducated way about this collection but I enjoyed it a lot.
Her poems neatly weave experiences and memories of the Caribbean, of Africa, of India, of South America, and Britain. Gods and goddesses of all these places pop up throughout the collection. They being an anchor against the chill of imperialism - and the British weather. She balances lyricism with realism. I think the word I've seen used a lot about her work is 'grit'.
But alongside the grit is a wit and poise that makes these poems a good read. Even though some of the poems look back at Empire there is still a positivity and generosity in a lot of them. The strength of women is another key theme alongside the effect of emigration and being part of a diaspora. One of my favourite poems in the collection, "Old Canecutter at the Airport", covers the pain of that departure:
"His cane shot eyes
his voice cracked as he wails
what his bones know for certain:
'Nevaar to meet again
Nevaar to meet again'
The last part of the collection is called Poems for Younger Readers and features some lovely poems, particularly about cats.
So, I could waffle on in an uneducated way about this collection but I enjoyed it a lot.
January 30, 2020
More or less the complete record of the poet's work from the 1980s to present, I Have Crossed an Ocean is the definitive Nichols collection, yet it might not be the best starting point for the uninitiated. It's easier here to observe the author's talent and how her work addresses issues of race, feminity, immigration and the importance of hanging on to one's customs and folklore after migrating to a new country. Taken as a whole oeuvre rather than in shorter individual works, however, it comes off as a little repetitive, as though Nichols works with a limited pallet. Still, there are plenty of really good poems here including, "Hurricane Hits England", "Blackout", "Configurations" and the smaller pieces comprising "The Fat Black Woman's Cycle".
October 27, 2021
There were a few things off with the editing of this book - some typos and errors that were particularly present, and I feel like it should have been done with more care.
That being said, the poems themselves, both extracts and full length, were all fantastic. Nichols has an incredible voice in her poetry. I've seen her and her husband perform some of their poems before several years ago, and while it's hard to compare to the poets actually speaking their words, reading this was almost just as impactful.
That being said, the poems themselves, both extracts and full length, were all fantastic. Nichols has an incredible voice in her poetry. I've seen her and her husband perform some of their poems before several years ago, and while it's hard to compare to the poets actually speaking their words, reading this was almost just as impactful.
June 25, 2025
just some great poems about life and immigration and alienation and community and escaping your parents to go to carnival.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews