Song for Anninho

by Gayl Jones

This exquisite book-length poem is set in colonial Brazil, following the destruction of Palmares, the last of seven fugitive slave enclaves beset by the Portuguese. Amid the flight and reenslavement of its inhabitants emerges the love story of Anninho and Almeyda, former African slaves. Song for Anninho offers readers some of Gayl Jones's very best verse.

Genres: Poetry

119 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1981

About the author

Gayl Jones is an African-American writer from Lexington, Kentucky. Her most famous works are Corregidora, Eva's Man, and The Healing.

Jones is a 1971 graduate of Connecticut College, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English. While attending the college she also earned the Frances Steloff Award for Fiction. She then began a graduate program in creative writing at Brown University, studying under poet Michael Harper and earning a Master of Arts in 1973 and a Doctor of Arts in 1975.

Harper introduced Jones's work to Toni Morrison, who was an editor at the time, and in 1975, Jones published her first novel Corregidora at the age of 26. That same year she was a visiting lecturer at the University of Michigan, which hired her the following year as an assistant professor. She left her faculty position in 1983 and moved to Europe, where she wrote and published Die Vogelfaengerin (The Birdwatcher) in Germany and a poetry collection, Xarque and Other Poems. Jones's 1998 novel The Healing was a finalist for the National Book Award, although the media attention surrounding her novel's release focused more on the controversy in her personal life than on the work itself. Her papers are currently housed at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University. Jones currently lives in Lexington, Kentucky, where she continues to write.

Jones has described herself as an improvisor, and her work bears out that statement: like a jazz or blues musician, Jones plays upon a specific set of themes, varying them and exploring their possible permutations. Though her fiction has been called “Gothic” in its exploration of madness, violence, and sexuality, musical metaphors might make for a more apt categorization.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Gregory Duke]

I'm sorry, but this is boring and apoetic. Her novels and stories have more poetry to share than her dedicated verse.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I very much wanted to like Song for Anninho especially after reading the acclaim surrounding it, but once I was in the midst of it I found it both confusing and hard to follow. Had I not read the description on the book sleeve beforehand, I don't think I would've even known the poem's premise or surrounding circumstances.

The poem itself felt like a distorted hallucination since speaking sequences jumped between past and present, with Almeyda concurrently conversing with Anninho and her rescuer. In addition, some passages were also Almeyda's own thoughts and flashbacks to her time in Palmares, interacting with her grandmother, etc. Because this was the nature of the poem's construct, a lot of it was repetitive and the poem itself had no semblance of a climax (since the reader knew from the onset what had happened to Almeyda and the fate of Palmares). In the end, Jones' work of verse in Song for Anninho was definitely lackluster for me but I appreciated the undoubtable effort involved in its execution.

[Tara Betts]

Reviewed for Mosaic Magazine

[Isaiah Holbrook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gayl Jones’ SONG FOR ANNINHO is a book-length poem about an enslaved couple who escaped enslavement and moved to a settlement named Palmares. But when their safe haven is under sieged by Portuguese soldiers, Almeyda and Anninho are separated, forcing Almeyda to find her lover.

I have mix feelings about this book as I found it both compelling/beautifully-moving and confusing to follow. I loved the moments of tenderness in this book, specifically the moments of flashbacks with Almeyda and Anninho and the “you” that Almeyda refers to throughout the poem. There’s a stanza where Jones speaks on the hardness of men and masculinity due to men not being allowed to show their softness, which really resonated with me and got me thinking about Anninho and the way in which he’s protecting his hardness by means of survival.

However, there are some parts where I was confused about the timeline and setting as the story jumps from three different time periods. The abstraction of the language blurred even more of the setting and the narrative arc of the piece, though I have the feeling that Jones wasn’t too concerned about plot but rather the emotional resonance of Almeyda and Anninho, which I can definitely appreciate.

Overall, I think this works as a really great and interesting abstract to a larger story of this world. Speaking of which, I just received Jones’ latest novel PALMARES, which takes a more in depth look at Almeyda’s story and her journey of finding Anninho, so I’m super excited to read it.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

“That was the question, Almeyda, how we could sustain our love at a time of cruelty. How we could keep loving at such a time. How we could look at each other with tenderness. And keep it, even with everything.”

A gentle, mesmerizing story-length poem about Almeyda, an Afro-Brazilian woman who is separated from her lover Anninho after the all Black city of Palmarés is attacked by Portuguese forces. As she recounts her story to medicine woman Zibatra, the narrative voices blend together, the timeline blurs, but what is important is repeated, and offers deeply sensitive thoughts on nature, womanhood, love, and liberation in the midst of persecution.

[Josie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up from the National Poetry Month display at the library. I don’t read poetry often and usually feel out of my depth. I was pleasantly surprised by the way this pulled me in, but I seem to have lost the thread in the last few pages and ended up a bit confused. Overall, a quick and worthwhile read that I’m glad caught my eye.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

“All time is raw.” (73)

[counter-hegemonicon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Startling in its form, Song for Anninho is something of an ode/epic that chronicles the "decolonial" love of Almeyda and Anninho, two quilombos (escaped Brazilian slaves who established safe enclaves.) With lines such as "I wanted to tell him it was as easy to be with him as it was to eat food or drink water," the poem becomes so highly emotive it is difficult to tell whether it crosses the line into the sentimental. However, against the backdrop of the violence of colonialism, the love story becomes even more impressive.