Roger Robinson’s range is wide: the joys and pains of family life; the ubiquitous presence of racism; observations on the threatening edge of violence below the surface energies of Black British territories in London; emblematic poems on the beauty and often bizarre strangeness of the world of animals; quizzical responses to the strange, the heartening, and the appalling in incidents encountered in daily life; and reflections on the purposes and costs of making art. Not least, in the sequence of poems that reflect on the meanings of the Grenfell Tower fire, Roger Robinson finds ways to move beyond a just indignation to uncover the undertones of experience that bring us nearer to the human reality of that event. The collection’s title points to the underlying philosophy expressed in these poems: that earthly joy is, or ought to be, just within, but is often just beyond our reach, denied by racism, misogyny, physical cruelty, and those with the class power to deny others their share of worldly goods and pleasures. A Portable Paradise is not the emptiness of material accumulation, but joy in an openness to people, places, the sensual pleasures of food, and the rewards to be had from the arts of word, sound, and visual enticement—in short an “insatiable hunger” for life. The poems express a fierce anger against injustice, but also convey the irrepressible sense that Roger Robinson cannot help but love people for their humour, oddity, and generosity of spirit.These finely crafted poems reveal Roger Robinson’s capacity to tell involving stories and capture the essence of a character in a few words, to move the emotions with the force of verbal expression, and to engage our thoughts. A Portable Paradise is a feast to be carried by lovers of poetry wherever they go.
ISBN-13: 9781845234331
Media Type: Paperback
Publisher: Peepal Tree Press Ltd.
Publication Date: 05-19-2020
Pages: 84
Product Dimensions: 5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Roger Robinson is the winner of the 2020 TS Eliot Prize for poetry. His first full poetry collection, The Butterfly Hotel, was shortlisted for The OCM Bocas Poetry Prize.
Table of Contents
I
The Missing 9
Haibun for the Lookers 11
Fourteen to One 12
The Portrait Museum 13
Blame 14
The Father 15
Ghosts 16
Doppelganger 17
Dolls 18
The Boys Light Fireworks on the Ground Floor 19
The Job of Paradise 20
II
(Some) Sweat 23
Woke 24
Black Anthurium 25
Slavery Limerick 26
Windrush 27
Black Olive 28
Bob Marley in Brixton 29
Bottles Flying in Slow Motion at the Police 30
Beware 31
It Soon Come 32
Walk With Me 33
Ashes to Fire 34
The Darkening Red of Your Blood 36
Therapy 37
Day Moon 38
A Journalist Repeatedly Asks Me About Race 39
And If I Speak of Paradise 40
III
Citizen I 43
Citizen II 45
Citizen III 47
IV
On Sade 51
There's Nothing Like This: Facts about Omar 52
Ascension 53
The Human Canvas 54
Stubb's Whistlejacket 55
The Champion's Final Rubbing Down 56
Portrait of My Great Grandmother as the Subject of Gericault's Monomie L'envie 57
A Young Girl with a Dog and a Page 58
The Ever Changing Dot 59
Corbeaux 60
Midwinter 61
The Crow Palinode 62
Giant Macajuel 63
Complexity 64
Paradise 65
V
Grace 69
On Nurses 70
Prayer 71
Repast 72
On Whistling 73
Noah 74
Saints 75
Liver 76
Shandilay Bush 78
Maracas Beach Prayer 80
A Portable Paradise 81
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