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BURN
“Shapely intimations of disaster, poems of incendiary grace.”
—Mervyn Morris, Poet Laureate of Jamaica
“Burn is a kaleidoscopic, surreal and stunning collection. Bagoo forges carnivalesque, enigmatic, experimental, vivid, wild and wonder-inspiring poems full of verve and utterly fresh language that are, by turns, eerie, elegiac, fleshy, pensive, mournful, rhapsodic and absolutely scorching…
Poems traverse geographical locations, from his island home of Trinidad, to other Caribbean islands and as far distant as Iceland. There, personal and societal angst, passions and pleasures are held up to a ‘sea of mirrors,’ into which we gaze. Bagoo explores daily life, love, art, history, literature, myth, popular culture, ritual and the molten ground of memory, bringing together and animating douens, lionfish, Auden, Mozart, Caravaggio and Tchaikovsky, among other figures. Bring the fire, burn.”
—Loretta Collins-Klobah, author of 'The Twelve-Foot Neon Woman'
—Mervyn Morris, Poet Laureate of Jamaica
“Burn is a kaleidoscopic, surreal and stunning collection. Bagoo forges carnivalesque, enigmatic, experimental, vivid, wild and wonder-inspiring poems full of verve and utterly fresh language that are, by turns, eerie, elegiac, fleshy, pensive, mournful, rhapsodic and absolutely scorching…
Poems traverse geographical locations, from his island home of Trinidad, to other Caribbean islands and as far distant as Iceland. There, personal and societal angst, passions and pleasures are held up to a ‘sea of mirrors,’ into which we gaze. Bagoo explores daily life, love, art, history, literature, myth, popular culture, ritual and the molten ground of memory, bringing together and animating douens, lionfish, Auden, Mozart, Caravaggio and Tchaikovsky, among other figures. Bring the fire, burn.”
—Loretta Collins-Klobah, author of 'The Twelve-Foot Neon Woman'
- GenresPoetry
70 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2015
25 people want to read
About the author
Andre Bagoo
15 books40 followersAndre Bagoo is a poet and writer from Trinidad. He's the author of several books of poetry including Trick Vessels (Shearsman, 2012), Pitch Lake (Peepal Tree Press, 2017), and Narcissus (Broken Sleep, 2022). Additionally, his essay collection, The Undiscovered Country, was published by Peepal Tree Press in 2020 and won the 2021 OCM Bocas Prize for Non-Fiction. His fiction debut, The Dreaming, is published by Peepal Tree in 2022.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 8, 2023
BURN is a wonderful collection of poems by Andre Bagoo that mainly explores the complexities of the Trinidad landscape. Bagoo takes us from street to street and celebration to celebration, to show the richness of culture and history in the mundane aspects of life. The poet's voice comes out strongly in several poems, without explicitly revealing too much of himself. For example, in Fun:
"Among these treadmills I live
For permission to live again
In arms which, no matter
How hooked up
Cannot blackout this desire
With their corporeal accomplishment."
This is an early work by Bagoo, but, having read his most recent collection, Narcissus, I can see his progression as a poet, a skilful poet at that.
4.5/5
"Among these treadmills I live
For permission to live again
In arms which, no matter
How hooked up
Cannot blackout this desire
With their corporeal accomplishment."
This is an early work by Bagoo, but, having read his most recent collection, Narcissus, I can see his progression as a poet, a skilful poet at that.
4.5/5
Displaying 1 of 1 review