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Border Zone
John Agard has been broadening the canvas of British poetry for the past 40 years with his mischievous, satirical fables which overturn all our expectations. His ninth Bloodaxe collection, Border Zone, explores a far-reaching canvas of British/Caribbean transatlantic connections, sweeping across centuries and continents. His border territory ranges from Love in a Sceptred Isle, a novella-like narrative poem of a romance between Barbados-born photographer, Victor, and Welsh librarian, Rhiannon, told with lyrical tenderness and thought-provoking wit, to Casanova the Philosopher, a sequence of sonnets in the voice of the legendary Venetian philosophically observing 18th-century English ways in a tongue-in-cheek memoir and travelogue. This is a diverse collection where the thought-provokingly mischievous, bawdy and elegiac rub shoulders alongside the sequence The Plants Are Staying Put – with the poet turning overnight lockdown gardener – as well as calypso poems, where the Guyana-born winner of the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry puts on his hat as ‘poetsonian’, a term he coined in the 80s in tribute to the inventive lyrics of the calypsonian, a crucial strand of Agard’s varied, innovative, and often satirical poetic output.
- GenresPoetry
144 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 28, 2022
1 person is currently reading
4 people want to read
About the author
John Agard
115 books37 followersJohn Agard was born in Guyana and emigrated to Britain in 1977. He has worked as an actor and a performer with a jazz group and spent several years as a lecturer for the Commonwealth Institute, travelling all over Britain giving talks, performances and workshops. He has visited literally thousands of schools and enjoys the live contact and the joy of children responding although it can be hard work.
John Agard started writing poems when he was about 16 - some of these early efforts were published in his school magazine. Many of his poems now are composed while looking out of train windows.
"Try the best with what you have right now
If you don't have horse, then ride cow."
It is in his poetry that John Agard makes his greatest contribution to children's literature. Like the best authors, he brings something unique to children's experience - a view of the world tempered by his own childhood, a feeling for the rhythms and cadences of its language, and a sophisticated understanding of the advantages and limitations of several forms of English. That he can make the "standard" forms work superbly is evident from many of his poems for adults. For children, with whom he communicates more directly, the lyrical Guyanese forms serve his purposes to perfection.
Agard is not a literary poet but also a performing poet and has a strong sense of his audience. When he writes for children, he seems to see them sitting at his feet. He is more interested in the ideas and words he is delivering to them than in the creation of complex fictional characters with whom his readers might engage. He lives in Sussex and is married to Grace Nichols, a respected Caribbean poet and co-author of a collection of Caribbean nursery rhymes, NO HICKORY, NO DICKORY, NO DOCK.
John Agard started writing poems when he was about 16 - some of these early efforts were published in his school magazine. Many of his poems now are composed while looking out of train windows.
"Try the best with what you have right now
If you don't have horse, then ride cow."
It is in his poetry that John Agard makes his greatest contribution to children's literature. Like the best authors, he brings something unique to children's experience - a view of the world tempered by his own childhood, a feeling for the rhythms and cadences of its language, and a sophisticated understanding of the advantages and limitations of several forms of English. That he can make the "standard" forms work superbly is evident from many of his poems for adults. For children, with whom he communicates more directly, the lyrical Guyanese forms serve his purposes to perfection.
Agard is not a literary poet but also a performing poet and has a strong sense of his audience. When he writes for children, he seems to see them sitting at his feet. He is more interested in the ideas and words he is delivering to them than in the creation of complex fictional characters with whom his readers might engage. He lives in Sussex and is married to Grace Nichols, a respected Caribbean poet and co-author of a collection of Caribbean nursery rhymes, NO HICKORY, NO DICKORY, NO DOCK.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 22, 2022
Absolutely Stellar!!! I gwine reread it right now.
I've come a long way
from ribbons
on spears
and garlands
of feathers
heading a fanfare
of tribal others.
...
for I too have heard of that feeling
called national pride
from the well-informed lips
of the transatlantic winds
that keep me flapping
as well as up-to-date
on history's shifting weight,
excerpt from Flag Speaks
🖋🖋🖋🖋🖋
Agard certainly has a way with rhythm and words and how to effectively use both to chat history, love, migration, reactions, and interactions. He is speaking with the voice of immigrant, Caribbean lover, fighter, and rebel, so it is difficult to not be swept up in the issues he raises, overturns and spins on their heads.
🖋🖋🖋🖋🖋
He takes us from city to countryside, to manor and bridge, from legacy to discrepancy, using the markets, streets, biscuits, and even the river Thames to trace the morphing face of Britain. He speaks to colonialism and its remnants, to the empire, to former poets and persons of letters, allowing us to share in his thoughts on their legacy.
🖋🖋🖋🖋🖋
I could feel the vibrations of dub and the smooth flow and cadence of spoken word as I read these poems and it just swept me up in a cascade of feeling. What I absolutely enjoyed is the sensual rudeness that some poems exuded that just resonated with Caribbean flare and style. His wit shines through brilliantly and if you love poetry this is a collection for you.
I've come a long way
from ribbons
on spears
and garlands
of feathers
heading a fanfare
of tribal others.
...
for I too have heard of that feeling
called national pride
from the well-informed lips
of the transatlantic winds
that keep me flapping
as well as up-to-date
on history's shifting weight,
excerpt from Flag Speaks
🖋🖋🖋🖋🖋
Agard certainly has a way with rhythm and words and how to effectively use both to chat history, love, migration, reactions, and interactions. He is speaking with the voice of immigrant, Caribbean lover, fighter, and rebel, so it is difficult to not be swept up in the issues he raises, overturns and spins on their heads.
🖋🖋🖋🖋🖋
He takes us from city to countryside, to manor and bridge, from legacy to discrepancy, using the markets, streets, biscuits, and even the river Thames to trace the morphing face of Britain. He speaks to colonialism and its remnants, to the empire, to former poets and persons of letters, allowing us to share in his thoughts on their legacy.
🖋🖋🖋🖋🖋
I could feel the vibrations of dub and the smooth flow and cadence of spoken word as I read these poems and it just swept me up in a cascade of feeling. What I absolutely enjoyed is the sensual rudeness that some poems exuded that just resonated with Caribbean flare and style. His wit shines through brilliantly and if you love poetry this is a collection for you.
July 15, 2022
This amusing collection of poems combines autobiography with biography. It’s autobiographical in that it shines light on the poet’s experience growing up in the Caribbean and then living as an expat in the United Kingdom. It’s biographical in that it reflects the author’s interests in people and history, interests that are most boldly combined in the book’s final poem, “Casanova the Philosopher,” a long poem (though broken in to forty bite-sized chunks) that riffs on the life and legend of Casanova. The poems draw on literature, historical events, and mythology, and also include a few elegies.
The lighthearted tone -- even when dealing with evocative subjects such as racism, censorship, and death – makes for a read that is at once pleasant and thought-provoking. A couple of my favorites were “The Migration of Coconut Water,” which plays with the panacea-like qualities that people attribute to their local favorite consumables, and “We Mosquitoes” which is from the perspective of the annoying little malaria-vectors.
Much of the collection is rhymed verse, often featuring the lyrical qualities that come of short lines. If you enjoy poetry with and international flavor and no shortage of humor, this collection is well worth checking out.
The lighthearted tone -- even when dealing with evocative subjects such as racism, censorship, and death – makes for a read that is at once pleasant and thought-provoking. A couple of my favorites were “The Migration of Coconut Water,” which plays with the panacea-like qualities that people attribute to their local favorite consumables, and “We Mosquitoes” which is from the perspective of the annoying little malaria-vectors.
Much of the collection is rhymed verse, often featuring the lyrical qualities that come of short lines. If you enjoy poetry with and international flavor and no shortage of humor, this collection is well worth checking out.
December 29, 2022
Marvellous collection of poems that serve as a certificate of Agard's excellence. Brimming with his trademark rhythm and rhyme a poignant, endearing and comedic commentary is provided on topical issues like the Windrush scandal whilst retaining a cheekiness and light-heartedness thay provides a soft hum of optimism. Technically Agard remains as astounding as ever with no doubt that only the countless assured rereads can provide. Already a firm favourite!
September 12, 2022
Day 11 Choice
The Sealey Challenge 2022 (Poetry)
The Sealey Challenge 2022 (Poetry)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews