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Measures of Expatriation
Vahni Capildeo is known for the experimental edge in her work and her love of collaborating on live performances with fellow poets. In this compelling new collection from the Trinidadian-born poet and Rhodes scholar, her uninhibited style invites us to delve deep between the lines and experience for ourselves the heartaches and emotional challenges that come from separation; both from a testing relationship and one's motherland.
127 pages, Paperback
First published January 28, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 7, 2020
"It is inconceivable to me that there was nothing on the land in the residential area of Port of Spain where my family's house was built, though I knew the construction date was 1971, and some of the building materials from the quarry that my grandfather owned; thereby his ill elder son and unarranged daughter-in-law were enabled to hide respectfully and save face for the family. There is no such thing as nothing.
Our storybooks were English and children in them ran around thousand-year-old castles...our mouths were Hindu and we were encouraged to imagine many civilizations in a universe cyclically created and destroyed; and our island geography, we were told, had been Arawak and Carib."
From "Too Solid Flesh" in MEASURES OF EXPATRIATION (2017) by Vahni Capildeo.
A much longer, sprawling prose poem touching on Trinidadian landscape / indigenous peoples' history, South Asian diaspora and culture in the West Indies, and colonial education models and materials still taught.
Capildeo (they/them) uses this prose story poetry form in many of their works. I read their 2019 collection SKIN CAN HOLD back in December 2019 and realized I never reviewed it here, and that's likely because I felt unequipped on how to discuss. It made me feel curious for more, but I also wasn't sure I was able to grasp it all.
Confronting the complexity of words and forms. Their poems are often quite long, meandering, with snippets that precisely cut back to a theme before meandering again. It's a novel form, and one that requires attention. Later pieces in this collection shift to more personal narratives, describing transatlantic travel from current home in Scotland to Trinidad for family visits, and the emotions surrounding these travels.
Not an easy breezy reading experience, but one that definitely has me considering the diverse forms and voices in the Caribbean context.
Our storybooks were English and children in them ran around thousand-year-old castles...our mouths were Hindu and we were encouraged to imagine many civilizations in a universe cyclically created and destroyed; and our island geography, we were told, had been Arawak and Carib."
From "Too Solid Flesh" in MEASURES OF EXPATRIATION (2017) by Vahni Capildeo.
A much longer, sprawling prose poem touching on Trinidadian landscape / indigenous peoples' history, South Asian diaspora and culture in the West Indies, and colonial education models and materials still taught.
Capildeo (they/them) uses this prose story poetry form in many of their works. I read their 2019 collection SKIN CAN HOLD back in December 2019 and realized I never reviewed it here, and that's likely because I felt unequipped on how to discuss. It made me feel curious for more, but I also wasn't sure I was able to grasp it all.
Confronting the complexity of words and forms. Their poems are often quite long, meandering, with snippets that precisely cut back to a theme before meandering again. It's a novel form, and one that requires attention. Later pieces in this collection shift to more personal narratives, describing transatlantic travel from current home in Scotland to Trinidad for family visits, and the emotions surrounding these travels.
Not an easy breezy reading experience, but one that definitely has me considering the diverse forms and voices in the Caribbean context.
May 15, 2016
Very interesting and varied poems exploring the core and strange edges of expatriate experience. Much of the work is prose poetry, which shows how well Ms Capildeo observes and records her surroundings and feelings.
Recommended to anyone who enjoys modern poetry or who likes to understand other people's point of view.
Recommended to anyone who enjoys modern poetry or who likes to understand other people's point of view.
April 10, 2017
I've been on Goodreads for a while now. In that time this is by far the worst book I have read. It comes across to me as just pretentious nonsense, I'm amazed that it was chosen as a PBS choice.
May 4, 2022
winner of the Forward Prize in 2016, Vahni Anthony Ezekiel Capildeo's collection centres on the role of the body across a multitude of experiences and roles.
based on Capildeo's identity as a Trinidadian non-binary poet (at the moment of publication, they didn't publicly identify as such but this does not mean they were not at the moment; to create a distinction between past and present in terms of gender identity verges too close on the idea of non-binary identities as less legitimate ones; see this thread by Capildeo on it: https://twitter.com/VCapildeo/status/...), the Body throughout these poems is one in constant motion and conflict.
although by the title, one might expect a great focus on a poetics of migration (and the strongest poems do focus on the intersection between language, identity, and home politics), there is also ample room for 'romantic' and 'anti-romantic' poetry, meditations on what it means to love somebody and be abused by that love. in all cases, language is twisted and crafted with a strong sense of intention that might compromise the emotional core of the poetry while still leaving the reader impressed by Capildeo's scope.
based on Capildeo's identity as a Trinidadian non-binary poet (at the moment of publication, they didn't publicly identify as such but this does not mean they were not at the moment; to create a distinction between past and present in terms of gender identity verges too close on the idea of non-binary identities as less legitimate ones; see this thread by Capildeo on it: https://twitter.com/VCapildeo/status/...), the Body throughout these poems is one in constant motion and conflict.
although by the title, one might expect a great focus on a poetics of migration (and the strongest poems do focus on the intersection between language, identity, and home politics), there is also ample room for 'romantic' and 'anti-romantic' poetry, meditations on what it means to love somebody and be abused by that love. in all cases, language is twisted and crafted with a strong sense of intention that might compromise the emotional core of the poetry while still leaving the reader impressed by Capildeo's scope.
September 15, 2016
"Language is my home... not one particular language."
December 11, 2022
Assessed as poetry
Some of the prose is excellent. Much of the poetry is too intent on innovation, and fails as lyric. Maybe it's me.
Some of the prose is excellent. Much of the poetry is too intent on innovation, and fails as lyric. Maybe it's me.
Read
November 4, 2022this is huge it's a real feat in poetic stamina (for both poet and reader) and in many ways unique in VC's work. I'm not able to put it into this but a case study in decolonizing poetics or deterritorialising poetics. Huge poems. I'm in love with (V) THE POET TRANSFORMED INTO SPACE
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L’amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle
L’amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle
*********************************************
*********************************************
sphere gas gravity heat radiation collapse
luminosity color temperature location
**********************************************
***************************************** * O
*
love,
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L’amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle
*********************************************
*********************************************
luminosity color temperature location
**********************************************
***************************************** * O
*
love,
March 22, 2018
The author is clearly an academic and it shows in her writing, her poems feel very thought out and edited. But the way she formed words together was delicious. I preferred the prose poems, they reminded me of Virginia Woolf at times, or at least how Woolf makes me feel. The switching back and forth between prose and poetry threw me off though, it felt like I kept having to switch to another part of my brain. Recommend this but not to first time poetry readers, it’s a dense one, but in a good way.
May 7, 2017
Capildeo plays with language, making it feel foreign, strange and unsettling which reflects the topics of the collection. The alienation of being somewhere unfamiliar is me reading this book!
I got the sense that Capildeo feels safe behind words, in words, surrounded by words. For me personally there are too many words. The poems feel over-worked.
This is a collection that requires time and patience, providing you are not put off by the dense complexity of its contents.
I got the sense that Capildeo feels safe behind words, in words, surrounded by words. For me personally there are too many words. The poems feel over-worked.
This is a collection that requires time and patience, providing you are not put off by the dense complexity of its contents.
January 2, 2020
This collection hits too close to home to not adore it.
March 14, 2024
SO excellent. favorite: "In 2190, Albion’s Civil Conflicts Finally Divided Along Norman-Saxon Lines"
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February 6, 2017‘Language is my home. It is alive other than in speech. It is beyond a thing to be carried with me. It is ineluctable, variegated and muscular. A flicker and drag emanates from the idea of it. Language seems capable of girding the oceanic earth, like the world-serpent of Norse legend. It is as if language places a shaping pressure upon our territories of habitation and voyage; thrashing, independent, threatening to rive our known world apart.’
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews