Kwame Dawes

Sep 9, 2024 | yalereview.org | Kwame Dawes

Kwame Dawes My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. —1 Cor 4:4i. He stands before the mountain and confesses, “I do not know the woman I love. I know her less than I ever did; and I knowthat there was a time when she wantedto be known. But now she is content to offer me only the bland and inscrutable face of a landscape that punishesneglect and betrayal; that turns itsbeauty into a wall of brutal silence. How does she do this?

Sep 9, 2024 | yalereview.org | Kwame Dawes

Kwame Dawes It has been eight years,and I’ve yet to learnthe dialect of this land,though I know nowthe texture of snow,the fine drift, the water-thickflakes, the dart and dizzyof ice caught in the deepfreeze, this is earth. What I can’t speakis the language of birds,and my eyes,growing dimmer each year,have given upon following the dartand leap of the birds. I do not know their names;I will leave these winter dayswith a grand illiteracy.

Aug 21, 2024 | lithub.com | Kwame Dawes

The Prodigal Converses with the LandArticle continues after advertisementICape Coast:I am a city in translation. What I say to you is not in the languageI carry. You will never understand the pidgin of my soilbecause you, poet, are always a foreigner. It is truethat your grandmother’s bones are interred in me,Article continues after advertisementand I know you hoped that by returning to meyou would hear her speaking.

Jun 20, 2024 | poetryfoundation.org | Kwame Dawes

It was the prophets and the seers, they were the ones who anointed my city holy—Kingston of dust and stone, Kingston haunted by the ghosts loitering in the pens, the enslaved and the enslavers, the homeless and lost, the flesh and stench of people who have not learned the language of futures of  hope.

May 2, 2024 | peepaltreepress.com | Kwame Dawes |John Kinsella

Kwame Dawes, distinguished writer and Peepal Tree's Associate Poetry Editor, has been announced as the next Poet Laureate of Jamaica. He follows Mervyn Morris, Lorna Goodison and Olive Senior. The post lasts for three years and the laureate is charged with both developing poets and a love for poetry in Jamaica. Kwame is the author of over 20 books of poetry and numerous other books of fiction, criticism, and essays. He is Glenna Luschei Editor-in-Chief of Prairie Schooner and George W.