Wayside Sang

by Cecily Nicholson

These poems explore the migratory histories of the black diaspora around the Windsor–Detroit border. Wayside Sang rolls out of factories and onto roads to return with a new understanding of home as the poet reimagines her father's migration.

Cecily Nicholson is the author of Triage (2011) and the award-winning From the Poplars (2014).

Genres: Poetry, Canada

128 pages, Paperback

Published November 28, 2017

Reviews

[Meg]

*read all the library's poetry project*

I should have read Nicholson's work earlier, when I was in Vancouver and had seen her speak. Glad the library had it, well worth rereading. Thoughtful, evocative, current.

[Gab · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[V · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really made me think. It's an ambitious, sweeping song of capitalist industry, infrastructure, and Black diaspora sung from the highway. Nicholson examines the psychology of the lone highway driver, considering the highway and border crossings as sites of Black labor exploitation and simultaneously a means to freedom (and the border crossing into Canada as a particularly loaded site for descendants of enslaved people). Three long poems examine the labor of waiting through observations at road shoulders, points of entry, and way stations, including some of the most elegant details in the book. One example I'm still thinking about is the way she describes wildflowers as "genetics grown/ wild along roadsides// escaped fields to ditches/ through schoolyards and parks," a metaphor for the pursuit of freedom. Her pacing captures the dualities of the long drive: labor and freedom; boredom and attention; a new relationship with the landscape and the violence of consuming fossil fuels.

Wayside Sang follows the life trajectory of Nicholson's father as an immigrant to Canada and an itinerant musician, but this meta-narrative (any narrative at all really) becomes hard to parse through the minute details and the expanse of the poems' scope of interest. In the last two poems, Nicholson returns to this meta-narrative, trying to synthesize all of the disparate threads through her father's life and her relationship with her daughter—but these sections ultimately feel unfocused and a bit jarring after half the book resisted an autobiographical impulse. There's an endnote where Nicholson consolidates her thoughts with greater clarity, but the sudden introduction of a narrative that had been latent perhaps, but largely absent, left me more unmoored than enlightened.

I would still recommend this book to anyone interested in industry and infrastructure and how they are built on the backs of Black laborers. Likewise, I would recommend it to anyone interested in the lyric, because it expanded my understanding of what a lyric poem can do.

[Ben Truong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wayside Sang is an anthology of poems written by Cecily Nicholson. The theme of this anthology is the exploration of the migratory histories of the African Diaspora around the Windsor–Detroit boarder – in particular, her biological father – a travelling musician.

Wayside Sang is a collection of six poems or songs, because it really reads rather lyrical – a tribute to her father. This anthology brings together a collection of poetry that retraces her biological father journey. These poems are deep, candid, and though provoking and were a joy to read. Like most anthologies, there are weaker contributions and this anthology is no exception. However, even those weaker poems – comparatively speaking, were constructed rather well.

All in all, Wayside Song is a wonderful exploration of geographic, historical and cultural space, and the attempt to discern something of a father.

[Ted Landrum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heard Cecily Nicholson read at a recent book-launch tour. 'Wayside Sang: poems' (2017) is a musical geopolitical riot/splice montage. The imagery candid, moving. Her voice, bluesy agitation for the fractured, storm brewing globe.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I had read the author’s notes before the poetry as it would have clarified the poems for me. Interesting concepts relating to borders and the Canadian landscape. I’m afraid to say I didn’t understand a lot of the poems, but appreciate the author’s perspective, and the challenging ideas.

[Zak]

I read it for school

[Jade Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Made me re-think how poetry works. How do you have a speaker without resorting to the lyric 'I' or a third person POV narrative poem? I still don't know for sure, but this book does. So good.