PHILIPSBURG:--- Tangle by Rochelle Ward (Faizah Tabasamu), a “haunting,” “sensual” poetry book, is now in St. Martin bookstores and online for everywhere, said Jacqueline Sample of House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP).
“Tangle is a living organism” with “Haunting poems that vibrate and explode in the eye and heart,” said Belizean author Sean Taegar.
“Ward draws together things that might not want to be drawn together; she tangles history, place, memory and a deeply sensual vision of human experience,” wrote Pace University professor Jane Collins in the book’s introduction.
Ward, who hails from Middle Region, writes about murder in her village with the same layering of calm and turbulence as she writes about her experience in New York City when the Twin Towers exploded.
In her poems, Ward’s joy about her father’s breakfast ritual is captured with the same ease as the strange familiarity of young people’s response in Trinidad to the threat of disaster in the poem “Earthquake.”
The visit to her grandmother’s house in Nevis is not disentangled from her defense of the Great Salt Pond as a daughter of “Soualigua.” Then there’s Ward’s society of hair grooming among women and the telling of the kingship stride of ordinary men, all take on mint meaning in Tangle.
The 132-page debut collection includes seven sections, entitled Spitfire, Birthstrings, Hills, Kings, Heirloom, Faces, and IG Snapshots. Ward’s poetry generally encompasses womanhood, Caribbean nostalgia and culture, and the urgency to preserve and engage in nature.
Tangle is available at Arnia’s bookstore, from the poet in person, and at Amazon, and SPDbooks https://bit.ly/3HwS4jW, said Sample.
Ward holds an MSc in Management Studies from The University of the West Indies. The English and Literature teacher at St. Maarten Academy high school has recited her poetry at demonstrations, slams, concerts, and literary festivals in Anguilla, Dominica, St. Martin, Nevis, Montserrat, and the USA.
Rochelle Ward (Faizah Tabasamu) is the curator at the saltfish & Lace blog. She is a recipient of the Catapult Lockdown Virtual Salon grant. Ward’s poetry also appears in the anthology Where I See the Sun – Contemporary Poetry in St. Martin (2013).
Caption1: Tangle by Rochelle Ward (Faizah Tabasamu), new book from House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP). Cover design by Sundiata Lake.
