Andre Bagoo's Trick Vessels (Shearsman, 2012)

Thanks to Vahni Capildeo for recommending this book to me--I've enjoyed it. Here are some favourite passages.


Hear this: the ocean is not meant to be lit at night
Instead of going to water I go to light

*

Your mother cannot name her great grandmother
Your father does not know where his village was

But I have such knowledge, I ensure these erasures
I follow the stop, I do not leak

from "The Unnamed Creature Said to Come From Water"

it was easy to imagine your island

a furniture wed to agile spies

        a stable is where they keep me

wrecked forever on memory

the last stanza of "Visa"

...I linger to the surface.

*

Small rooms are the best places for windows, they are so grateful.

*

But when the hermit finds a new shell, there is always a moment when the creature is vulnerable. In between rooms, there is oblivion. A risk of freedom.

*

Evidence is the foundation of everything. But it is a field wrought with dispute.

from "To the Centre of the Earth"

Each question begets violence.

It begs on behalf of its recipient.

from "And This Note Was Not an Answer"

Links to reviews, video, and online purchasing from numerous outlets are available on Shearsman's page for the book.