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Ossuaries by Dionne Brand
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Ossuaries (edition 2010)

by Dionne Brand

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451558,523 (4)3
Dionne Brand's hypnotic, urgent long poem - her first book of poetry in four years, is about the bones of fading cultures and ideas, about the living museums of spectacle where these bones are found. At the centre of Ossuaries is the narrative of Yasmine, a woman living an underground life, fleeing from past actions and regrets, in a perpetual state of movement. This is a work of deep engagement, sensuality, and ultimate craft from an essential observer of our time and one of the most accomplished poets writing today.… (more)
Member:CaseyStepaniuk
Title:Ossuaries
Authors:Dionne Brand
Info:McClelland & Stewart (2010), Paperback, 128 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:unread, Black, lesbian, Canadian, Caribbean, poetry, queer

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Ossuaries by Dionne Brand

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» See also 3 mentions

Ossuaries is a dense poetic narrative about Yasmine, an underground fugitive, who lives on the edges of "momentous times...full of prisons." She opens her tale on 9/11 -- unshocked by the horror that is merely the culmination of horror that has seemingly followed her throughout her adult life. The narrative voice shifts back and forth from 1st to 3rd person as in each of the 15 Ossuaries composed of triplets, Brand reveals the skeletal remains of a life lost in the dark areas of late 20th century North America. Her evocative and densely imagistic poetry alludes variously to jazz and leftist philosophers to the World War II series of paintings by Jacob Lawrence (http://whitney.org/Collection/JacobLawrence)

this genealogy she's made by hand, this good silk lace,
Engels plaited to Bird, Claudia Jones edgestitched
to Monk, Rosa Luxemburg braids Coltrane

as far as she's concerned these names reshaped time
itself though time seems somehow set itself,
in time

in so few rooms that Yasmine herself is caught
and trapped in its coarse drenched net,
a blue crab angling and articulating

sideways, these names would help
here, but
such, such did not create the world or fix time

in that bulbous concentration,
of what matters,
what appears

Yasmine knows in her hardest heart,
that truth is worked and organized by some,
and she's on the wrong side always


This is a poem that warrants rereading and rereading, and I'm sure I shall return to it often. ( )
1 vote janeajones | Jul 13, 2012 |
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Dionne Brand's hypnotic, urgent long poem - her first book of poetry in four years, is about the bones of fading cultures and ideas, about the living museums of spectacle where these bones are found. At the centre of Ossuaries is the narrative of Yasmine, a woman living an underground life, fleeing from past actions and regrets, in a perpetual state of movement. This is a work of deep engagement, sensuality, and ultimate craft from an essential observer of our time and one of the most accomplished poets writing today.

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