Tanella Boni

It's incredible how a poet (together with, as in this case, a translator) can release a flow of beautiful words which go to depths of the worst things that people do to each other and themselves. There's nothing graphic here, not much that's polemical, but Boni captures the disorienting horror of corruption and violence, and how it sweeps people along.
The poems aren't all doom-laden, and she does also reflect on hope, and the possibility of a return to simpler, kinder, community-based living show more built on compassion and mutual understanding, though whether it's a realistic hope or wishful thinking is something not, I think, resolved in the poems, but maybe that's more about my own disposition.
The introduction (despite being USA-centric) and brief notes help interpretation, some internet research on Côte d'Ivoire history being useful, too. show less