Gold

by George Elliott Clarke

The poems in Gold glitter. From the lush, unrestrained and unabashed tumble and thrust of his sensual lyrics (vivid expressions of love and lust which brook no admonishment) to the measured and stately resonance of his eulogies for community organizers, tributes to leaders and laureates, and contemplations on the principles for good governance, George Elliott Clarke strives to enact Robinson Jeffers’s assertion that “Beauty. . . Is the sole business of poetry.” Whether it be in the whiskey-hue of skin or the metal of the love in one’s heart, the poems in Gold riff on the colour’s cultural and poetic properties, joining Blue, Black, and Red as the fourth volume in Clarke’s series of ‘colouring’ books.

Genres: Poetry

160 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2016

About the author

A seventh-generation Nova Scotian, George Elliott Clarke was born in 1960 in Windsor Plans, Nova Scotia. He is known as a poet, as well as for his two-volume anthology of Black Writing from Nova Scotia, Fire in the Water. Volume One contains spirituals, poety sermons, and accounts from 1789 to the mid-twentieth century; Volume Two collects the work of the Black Cultural Renaissance in Nova Scotia, which, in Clarke's words, "speaks to people everywhere about overcoming hardships and liberating the spirit." Currently on faculty at Duke University, he is now writing both a play and an opera on slavery in Nova Scotia, a reformulation of Shelley's The Cenci. He has won many awards including the 1981 Prize for Adult Poetry from the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia, he was the 1983 first runner-up for the Bliss Carman Award for Poetry at the Banff Centre School of Arts and 1991 winner of the Archibald Lampman Award for Poetry from the Ottawa Independent Writers.

Books: Saltwater Spirituals and Deeper Blues (Pottersfield, 1983); Whylah Falls (Polestar, 1990, 2000); Provencal Songs (Magnum Book Store, 1993); Lush Dreams, Blue Exile: Fugitive Poems, 1978-1993 (Pottersfield, 1994); Provencal Songs II (Above/ground, 1997); Whylah Falls: The Play (Playwrights Canada, 1999, 2000); Beatrice Chancy (Polstar Books, 1999); Gold Indigoes (Carolina Wren, 2000); Execution Poems (Gaspereau, 2001); Blue (Raincoat, 2001); Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature (UofT Press, 2002)

Reviews

[Margaryta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather torn over this one. I have no doubt that Clarke is not only a skillful poet but also well-read, well-traveled, and well-connected - his poems convey all of these things. Although I understand, and even appreciate, poems that have depth to them to the extent that one reading isn't enough to fully unpack and appreciate them, the poems in "Gold" are a bit heavy-handed at times. These very allusions and notes are sometimes unable to strike a balance with the writing itself, in a way that would allow an uninformed reader such as myself to navigate through them without feeling like I'm sinking occasionally. The structure and arrangement of the collection was brilliant, and the various takes on the theme were fitting. However, another issue I had were the poems in the "Gold Heart" section. Meant to be Sapphics, they read more like lustful clusters on a page, and the way women were referenced to, as "sluts" and "wenches", among other images, made me uncomfortable. I wonder if Clarke did this on purpose, to strike a point across, or if that is simply his understanding and opinion being presented. The poems in "Gold" are certainly of high caliber, but the collection is not without its problems, even from such a respected and reputable poet.

[Mark Sunflower · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, a bit overly intellectual, like he was trying to show everyone how aware and culturally literate he is. I couldn't get into the poems.

[Jacob Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoroughly mediocre, with some pieces that radiate, resplendent, like this collection's namesake.