In a Boston Night

Shortlisted for the Guyana Prize, Best Book of Poetry, 2010

From the very first piece in this collection, the title poem “In a Boston Night,” Sasenarine Persaud signals a return to the passionate and sensuous.

Boston, the focal point, is like a needle hole though which the poet deftly threads his reflections about places, events, and histories: a conflict between Anglo- and Franco-Canadians at a Brookline art exhibition; Georgetown and Mumbai; Tampa and Toronto; the “Boston Tea Party” as a symbol of resistance to American English, subtly underlined by the description of a Walcott reading in an overflowing university hall.

This is a fine, multilayered collection of poems by an important and accomplished contemporary poet.

AUTHOR

Sasenarine Persaud

Sasenarine Persaud is a Guyana-born Canadian American author of Indian ancestry and originator of the term “Yogic Realism.” He has published essays in Critical Practice (New Delhi), World Literature Today (Oklahoma), and Brick (Toronto) on this subject. His lifelong engagement with Indian philosophies, art, and languages and an awareness of his community’s 184 years domicile in the Americas, clearly distinguishes his craft.

Persaud is the author of 15 books of prose and poetry, including Canada Geese and Apple Chatney (stories), the title story of which is anthologized on both sides of the Atlantic and included in The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories, An Anthology of Colonial and Postcolonial Short Fiction, and the Journey Prize Anthology: Short Fiction from the Best of Canada’s New Writers; two ground-breaking novels, Dear Death and The Ghost of Bellow’s Man, and his signature, raga-infused poetry collection, A Surf of Sparrows’ Songs, which alternates between Miami, Toronto, Guyana’s Atlantic coast and India. His poetry has appeared in several anthologies including The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse.

Reviews

“[Persaud’s] poetry [is] timeless in nature in its discussions of sensuality, love and mourning, but also modern for its interspersion of technology and discussion of contemporary politics. . . refreshingly sensual and realistic.” –Kavita Ramdia, News India Times

“Each poem, held on the tongue, tastes true–he’s one of those rare poets who gets the recipe of humanness exactly right” —Canadian Literature

“[A] richly nuanced, multilayered collection of voices” —Confluence