To Us, All Flowers Are Roses: POEMS (Illinois Poetry

by Lorna Goodison

Writing in The Hudson Review,
        David Mason has characterized Lorna Goodison's work as a "revelation
        to me, much of it beautiful for its simple negotiation of the line between
        life and art."
      One of the most distinguished
        contemporary poets of the Caribbean, Goodison draws on both African and
        European inheritances in her finely crafted poems, which often carry a
        sense of language's healing power in the face of the pain of the past.
        She deals thematically with the struggle of Caribbean women and writes
        in a fashion that has developed from conversational to more ritualistic.
      From reviews of Goodison's
        earlier
      "The evocative power
        of Lorna Goodison's poetry derives its urgency and appeal from the heart-and-mind
        concerns she has for language, history, racial identity, and gender."
        Andrew Salkey -- World Literature Today
      "A marvelous poet, one
        to savor and to chant aloud."
        -- Pat Monaghan, Booklist
 

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Lorna Goodison was born in Jamaica, and has won numerous awards for her writing in both poetry and prose, including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Musgrave Gold Medal from Jamaica, the Henry Russel Award for Exceptional Creative Work from the University of Michigan, and one of Canada’s largest literary prizes, the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction for From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her People (2007). Her work has been included in the major anthologies and collections of contemporary poetry over the past twenty-five years, such as the Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, the Harper Collins World Reader, the Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry, the Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, and Longman Masters of British Literature.

Along with her award winning memoir, she has published three collections of short stories (including By Love Possessed, 2011) and nine collections of poetry.

Her work has been translated into many languages, and she has been a central figure at literary festivals throughout the world. Lorna Goodison teaches at the University of Michigan, where she is the Lemuel A. Johnson Professor of English and African and Afro American Studies.

Reviews

[Keith Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lorna Goodison, Poet Laureate of Jamaica, celebrated her island and her people long before she was poet laureate! It is so refreshing to read a poet so full of celebration. Sure, she doesn't disguise the costs of poverty or of racism, but she loves her place and the people who live there. She loves the language they speak and the food they eat. She knows and loves the music they make. Some of this might come from the inevitable nostalgia that comes from living abroad, but who cares! She celebrates all the people of the African diaspora even as she gives hints of a deep Christianity. Near the end, she writes, "I recite these names in a rosary, speak them/when I pray, for Heartease, my Mecca, aye Jamaica." It is difficult to learn to write poetry like this, the celebration, the monumentalism of it -- but Goodison has learned those lessons. What a joy this work is!

[Jessica]

Lines from the poem “Deep-Sea Diving”:

“...even your eyes
Will get used to the sting of strong salt in deep water,
then you will begin to notice the blessed order there.
The government of grace which provides camouflage rocks
as sanctuaries for chosen fish.”