Measures of Expatriation

by Vahni Capildeo

Overview

Vahni Capildeo is known for the experimental edge in her work and her love of collaborating on live performances with fellow poets. In this compelling new collection from the Trinidadian-born poet and Rhodes scholar, her uninhibited style invites us to delve deep between the lines and experience for ourselves the heartaches and emotional challenges that come from separation; both from a testing relationship and one's motherland.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781784101688
Publisher:	Carcanet Press, Limited
Publication date:	02/01/2016
Edition description:	None
Pages:	95
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Vahni Capildeo has lived in the UK since 1991, where she has published four poetry collections including Undraining Sea (2009), Dark & Unaccustomed Words (2012) – longlisted for the 2013 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature – and Utter (2013). She is also the author of No Traveller Returns (2003) and Person Animal Figure (2005). A long-time contributing editor to the Caribbean Review of Books, she is also contributing advisor to Black Box Manifold. Excerpts from her book-length work One Skattered Skeleton have been published in various places, including Ian Sinclair’s London: City of Disappearances (2006).

Table of Contents

I

Handfast 11

Slaughterer 12

Fire & Darkness: And Also / No join / Like 13

To Stand Before 15

Mercy and Estrangement 18

A Personal Dog 19

Too Solid Flesh 20

II

The Prolongation of the Spine and the Stretched Neck Approximate the French Philosopher Only to His Own, and Airy, Beast 35

Investigation of Past Shoes 36

'I Love You' 38

Chloe on the Jubilee 39

Laptop Blue Screen Rationalization 40

Maria Lloró / Blue Sky Tears 42

Inhuman Triumphs 44

III

Neomarica Sky Jet 49

Cities in Step 52

'I Wish to Be Speaking to You until Death' 55

IV

Kassandra #memoryandtrauma #livingilionstyle 59

The Book of Dreams / Livre de Cauchemars 60

Louise Bourgeois: Insomnia Drawings 67

V

Far from Rome 81

Marginal 82

Snake in the Grass 83

Disposal of a Weapon 84

In 2190, Albion's Civil Conflicts Finally Divided Along Norman-Saxon Lines 85

To London 86

Seven Nights in Transit 87

VI

Five Measures of Expatriation 93

All Your Houses 104

VII

Syllable of Dolour 119

Pobrecillo Tarn 120

Sycorax Whoops 121

Un Furl 122

Stalker 124

Acknowledgements 126

Editorial Reviews

"Capildeo is both Trinidadian and universal. The reader is taken on an inventive and linguistically fresh journey." —Tears in the Fence

From the Publisher