Asia & Haiti

by Will Alexander

Asia & Haiti presents two long poems by Los Angeles poet Will Alexander, which, in the broadest sense, are about the cultures, economics, politics, history, and social concerns of the title regions.
Alexander's poetry presents a remarkable re-writing of a history. Caught up in the vortex of a surrealist vision and tornadoes of language, his words call up an American equivalent of Aime Cesaire.

Genres: Poetry

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Born in 1948, Will Alexander is a poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, visual artist and pianist. He was the recipient of a Whiting Fellowship for Poetry in 2001 and a California Arts Council Fellowship in 2002. He was also the subject of a colloquium published in the prestigious African American cultural journal, Callaloo in 1999. Author of nine previous books, Alexander has taught at various colleges including University of California, San Diego, New College (San Francisco, CA), Hofstra University, and Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, in addition to being associated with the nonprofit organization Theatre of Hearts/Youth First, serving at-risk youth. He is a lifelong resident of Los Angeles.

Reviews

[S P · Rating 4 out of 5]

from Asia
it is we who send up smoke through the archives (25)
[...]
the subsumed & radical midnight of atoms (32)
[...]
so we ask
what is the fate of inherence?
what are its principles?
its lodges?
its perpetual rigidity & lack of unfoldment (41)
[...]
we of new migration cycles
we of salt & blank ambrosial growings
of the life of vastitude
of intermittent immensity & flying
are un-remitting
continuous
innumerable
undying” (70)

from Haiti
we the pressure & the cyclone of Haiti (71)
[...]
we exist
as other bodies of oxygen
like a collective force
of burning ink & kings (119)
[...]
here
we’ve shattered
inoperable plain song
therefore
we speak with the same incessant elusives
with riddling poltergeist connectives
with the maturated scarring
with the ceaseless untenable bone grafts
blurred between albescence & crow (129)

[Serena · Rating 5 out of 5]

"for we were snatched from our former existence
as absence & presence in a void of compound abrasions
drowning in murky cataracts & confusion
yet
our dauntless alabaster motives
ringing
in the beauty of Dahomean translucence
as Haitian lunar suns transpire
in lingering visual ignatics"

a difficult read--even for Alexander.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

also loaned this...