Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $9.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Verandah Poems
    The Verandah Poems
    The Verandah Poems
    Ebook87 pages26 minutes

    The Verandah Poems

    By Jean 'Binta' Breeze

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The Verandah Poems is both a departure and a return for Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze, who left her village in Jamaica to become an internationally renowned Dub poet and storyteller. This is a book of coming home and coming to terms, of contemplation rather than contention - of mellow, musing, edgy poems drawn from the life and lives around her. It is Breeze's first new collection since Third World Girl: Selected Poems (2011), and is published on her 60th birthday. 'The third world girl, at home for a while, sets these attractive poems in rural Jamaica. Her verandah looks out on the sea, and she goes for a swim most mornings. The collection takes us well beyond the village, the bar across the road, and the men who proposition her. The easy-going voice talks of personal development, celebrates friends and family, comments on mortality, freedom, gender and class. The poet is examining, subtly, a more or less contented return to where her life began.' - Mervyn Morris ‘A major, perhaps even a great voice. For stature, Jean “Binta” Breeze invites a Caribbean comparison with Maya Angelou, except that her range is broader still. Her poetry shifts effortlessly through standard English to a native Jamaican which has no equal in its emotional depth.’ - Alexander Linklater, The Herald ‘Breeze sings of sisterhood and the private spirituality that keeps the head above water even when prejudice, and laundry, threaten to drag it down. Her work, and that of a great many other black women writers, affirms life in a way that the rest of the world might do well to emulate.’ - Tania Glyde, Independent
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloodaxe Books
    Release dateMar 11, 2016
    ISBN9781780372860
    The Verandah Poems

    Related to The Verandah Poems

    Related ebooks

    Poetry For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      selections from YOU ARE HERE: POETRY IN THE NATURAL WORLD

      May 1, 2024

      As part of her signature project, You Are Here, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón commissioned fifty-two contemporary American poets to observe and reflect on their place in the natural world. The volume was published by Milkweed Editions in April 2024. O

      5 min read

    • Article

      Where We Write

      Feb 9, 2017

      Where We Write
      9 min read

    • Article

      It’s Come to This

      Sep 1, 2021

      It’s Come to This
      16 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Poetry No. 106

      Dec 15, 2019

      The Art of Poetry No. 106
      30 min read

    • Article

      Body Language

      Aug 14, 2019

      Body Language
      5 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Dec 1, 2022

      You have to first Sit in the temple gloom In the mahogany chair & despair. The only glimmer In the temple (being the inlaid bits of The Mother-Of-Pearl shells On the tall, more than humanly tall Chair back, for these These too Are the reputed “Tears

      3 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Jan 1, 2024

      I’ve always been an easy crier (let it come, not ashamed, never held it back in joy or grief, and wherever … subway, teaching, grocery store, (oh the desolate grocery store during the height of Covid) but now, the welling up: that’s daily now. —Lia P

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Plague Legends

      Dec 1, 2021

      The Plague Legends
      12 min read

    • Article

      More Poetry, Please

      Oct 6, 2021

      I’LL never forget the first time I read Edward Thomas’s As the Team’s Head-Brass. I had been familiar with Adlestrop from school and, later, had been introduced to Old Man and The Manor Farm (all three beautiful, rural vignettes), but the gentle pace

      5 min read

    • Article

      ‘In the Country of Women’: Featured Nonfiction from Susan Straight

      Nov 19, 2019

      In our latest edition of featured nonfiction, we present an excerpt from National Book Award finalist Susan Straight’s new novel, In the Country of Women, out now from Catapult. The post ‘In the Country of Women’: Featured Nonfiction from Susan Strai

      8 min read

    • Article

      Winning Letter

      May 10, 2024

      Recently we visited a place of safety. At security, everyone must sign in. The stone building looks like an ordinary residence with large lawns and a nice playground. A group of laughing children catch my eye. One little one introduces himself. The l

      5 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Nov 1, 2022

      Five Poems
      3 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Mar 1, 2022

      Five Poems
      5 min read

    • Article

      As the World Collapses

      Jul 27, 2017

      As the World Collapses
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Damascus Journals

      Nov 29, 2017

      It's important that the memory of a place survives the horror that overcomes it. So I find my Syrian voice in the sweet memories of a grand city. The post The Damascus Journals appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Jun 1, 2021

      Table Talk
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Sung Land

      Aug 22, 2024

      The Sung Land
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Sung Land

      Aug 22, 2024

      The Sung Land
      9 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      Ciao Cetara!

      Mar 1, 2018

      Ciao Cetara!
      4 min read

    • Article

      Ben Okri

      Apr 25, 2022

      Ben Okri
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Littlest Wren

      May 31, 2018

      The Littlest Wren
      14 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Sep 1, 2021

      A type of hickory, it grows by water.So are we fools to drive to the riverthe day after our most savage stormshave finally stopped to seea tree we’ve never seen before?To hike in cold mud through a leafless forest,to behold clearings now clutteredby

      5 min read

    • Article

      Poetic Justice

      Sep 18, 2023

      Poetic Justice
      5 min read

    • Article

      Gutbucket

      Feb 27, 2024

      Gutbucket
      18 min read

    • Article

      A Little Love

      Apr 5, 2023

      A Little Love
      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Verandah Poems

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Verandah Poems - Jean 'Binta' Breeze

      JEAN ‘BINTA’ BREEZE

      THE VERANDAH POEMS

      Foreword by Kei Miller

      With photographs by Tehron Royes

      The Verandah Poems is both a departure and a return for Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze, who left her village in Jamaica to become an internationally renowned Dub poet and storyteller. This is a book of coming home and coming to terms, of contemplation rather than contention – of mellow, musing, edgy poems drawn from the life and lives around her. It is Breeze’s first new collection since Third World Girl: Selected Poems (2011), and is published on her 60th birthday.

      ‘The third world girl, at home for a while, sets these attractive poems in rural Jamaica. Her verandah looks out on the sea, and she goes for a swim most mornings. The collection takes us well beyond the village, the bar across the road, and the men who proposition her. The easy-going voice talks of personal development, celebrates friends and family, comments on mortality, freedom, gender and class. The poet is examining, subtly, a more or less contented return to where her life began.’ – Mervyn Morris

      ‘A major, perhaps even a great voice. For stature, Jean Binta Breeze invites a Caribbean comparison with Maya Angelou, except that her range is broader still. Her poetry shifts effortlessly through standard English to a native Jamaican which has no equal in its emotional depth.’ – Alexander Linklater, The Herald

      ‘Breeze sings of sisterhood and the private spirituality that keeps the head above water even when prejudice, and laundry, threaten to drag it down. Her work, and that of a great many other black women writers, affirms life in a way that the rest of the world might do well to emulate.’ – Tania Glyde, Independent.

      Cover photograph by Tehron Royes

      THE

      VERANDAH

      POEMS

      JEAN ‘BINTA’ BREEZE

      WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY

      TEHRON ROYES

      CONTENTS

      Title Page

      The Verandah Matters by

      KEI MILLER

      Priming

      Stranger

      Homework

      Evening

      Football on the Verandah

      The Casting of the Roof

      Departure of

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1