Riddim & Riddles

by Owen Blakka Ellis

Riddim & Riddles throbs with the heartbeat and drumbeat of Jamaica. From the cool, majestic Blue Mountains to the hot, bloodied streets of Kingston it paints vivid and vibrant images. The poems in this collection move from urgent social insights about masculinity, the environment and how the bony fingers of history reach into the present and sweep through to the intensely personal and erotic. They mark Owen Blakka Ellis as a clear inheritor of dub, poetry and music, but with a distinctive voice of his own.

72 pages, Paperback

First published November 12, 2014

Reviews

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Riddim & Riddles is a worthwhile collection of poems. Blakka's attention to contemporary Caribbean masculinity is insightful without being too preachy. A few of the pieces sparkle while others, particularly his exploration of life with his abusive aunt, are haunting. He is particularly interested in history and how this continues to play out in the contemporary context, and how art can be a mitigating factor for this.