Black History Month Series: Poetry

Building a Nest from the Bones of My People

by Cara-Lyn Morgan

(Invisible Publishing)

Poems that consider motherhood and intergenerational patterns of abuse, this new collection from Cara-Lyn Morgan is a thoughtful and personal offering. This book is a reflection on becoming a mother and on building new and better from the pain and trauma handed down to us. A powerful look at how issues of historical trauma and cultural influence intersect and contribute to patterns of abuse within those families affected by colonization.

Find Building a Nest from the Bones of My People here on All Lit Up.

Bottom Rail on Top by D.M. Bradford (Brick Books)

In his newest collection, Montreal-based poet D.M. Bradford fragments and recomposes American histories of antebellum Black life and emancipation, in tandem with his own lived experiences. The result is a meditation on the complexities of lineage and legacy, where linear progress narratives are challenged, and stories are held together with paper trails, curiosities, and hooks.

Find Bottom Rail on Top here on All Lit Up.

Sargasso Sea Scrolls by Dannabang Kuwabong (Mawenzi House)

From Ghanaian Canadian poet and professor, Sargasso Sea Scrolls is a vivid collection of poems that explores Curaçao, an island in the Dutch Caribbean, evoking the experiences of slaves through historical artifacts, personal recollections, and the poet’s own connections to West Africa and current homes in Puerto Rico and Canada. The poems call on the voices of Kamau Brathwaite and M NourbeSe Phillip and concerns itself with ancestral sensibility culminating in a collection of interconnectedness.

Find Sargasso Sea Scrolls here on All Lit Up.

Canticles III (MMXXIII) by George Elliott Clarke

(Guernica Editions)

The sixth in George Elliot Clarke’s Canticles series, Canticles III (MMXXIII) centres the histories and perspectives of Black Nova Scotians. In 2008, George Elliott Clarke began to write “Canticles,” an epic poem looking at the Transatlantic Slave Trade and colonial conquest; in Canticles III (MMXXIII) his focus is narrower with the specific history associated with the creation of the African (“Africadian”) Baptist Association of Nova Scotia, while still considering the broader history of imperialism and oppression. This is a remarkable epic from one of Canada’s acclaimed and beloved poets.

Find Canticles III (MMXXIII) here on All Lit Up.

Gills by Ayomide Bayowa (Wolsak and Wynn)

Current Poet Laureate of Mississauga, Ontario, Ayomide Bayowa considers belonging, race, identity, and the diasporic struggle in his debut collection of poetry. His poems centre Black people and untangle the complexities of the immigrant experience. While the poetry originates from memories of his own life and circles, it is meant to speak to a wide audience, the immigrants trying to survive against the barriers of Western ideologies.

Find Gills here on All Lit Up.

* * *

Stay tuned next Thursday for our Black History Month kids & YA picks!