The Cachoeira Tales and Other Poems

Fiction & Literature, Poetry
Cover of the book The Cachoeira Tales and Other Poems by Marilyn Nelson, LSU Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Marilyn Nelson ISBN: 9780807143117
Publisher: LSU Press Publication: June 1, 2005
Imprint: LSU Press Language: English
Author: Marilyn Nelson
ISBN: 9780807143117
Publisher: LSU Press
Publication: June 1, 2005
Imprint: LSU Press
Language: English

Soaring images, rhythmic language, and wry humor come together in these three narrative poems that explore travel from an African American historical and social perspective. A cab ride turns into an amazing encounter with the driver, an amateur physicist whose ideas about space and time travel spark the poet's musings on chutzpah and artistic ambition. A trip to Triolet, a Creole village in the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius, leads the poet to ponder the past and present as she reflects on the ironic complexities of the slave trade and its legacy shared by so many peoples. And in "The Cachoeira Tales," longing to take her family on a journey to "some place sanctified by the Negro soul," the poet finds herself in Brazil's Bahia, along with a theater director, a jazz musician, a retired commercial pilot, an activist, a university student, and two mysterious African American women whom they meet along the way. In rhymed couplets, each pilgrim tells a story, and the result is a rollicking, sensual exploration of spirit and community, with a nod to Chaucer and to traditional Trickster tales.

Using her remarkable ability to educate and inspire, Marilyn Nelson demonstrates the power of travel to transform our imaginations. We have long known that travel broadens; in these poems, it also deepens and makes wiser.

Joined skin to skin, we moved like molecules
in the great, impossible miracle
of atmosphere, swaying to the music,
all eyes on the stage, all hearts attuning
themselves in beautiful polyrhythmy,
one shaking booty. On one side of me
a young man danced; I felt his muscled warmth
flow into mine, his pure, sexual strength.
On my other sides young women danced, whose curves
bumped me softly, dancing without reserve,
hands waving in the air, releasing scent
fragrant as nard. We danced in reverent,
silent assent to the praise-song of drums.
-- from "Olodum" of "The Cachoeira Tales"

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Soaring images, rhythmic language, and wry humor come together in these three narrative poems that explore travel from an African American historical and social perspective. A cab ride turns into an amazing encounter with the driver, an amateur physicist whose ideas about space and time travel spark the poet's musings on chutzpah and artistic ambition. A trip to Triolet, a Creole village in the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius, leads the poet to ponder the past and present as she reflects on the ironic complexities of the slave trade and its legacy shared by so many peoples. And in "The Cachoeira Tales," longing to take her family on a journey to "some place sanctified by the Negro soul," the poet finds herself in Brazil's Bahia, along with a theater director, a jazz musician, a retired commercial pilot, an activist, a university student, and two mysterious African American women whom they meet along the way. In rhymed couplets, each pilgrim tells a story, and the result is a rollicking, sensual exploration of spirit and community, with a nod to Chaucer and to traditional Trickster tales.

Using her remarkable ability to educate and inspire, Marilyn Nelson demonstrates the power of travel to transform our imaginations. We have long known that travel broadens; in these poems, it also deepens and makes wiser.

Joined skin to skin, we moved like molecules
in the great, impossible miracle
of atmosphere, swaying to the music,
all eyes on the stage, all hearts attuning
themselves in beautiful polyrhythmy,
one shaking booty. On one side of me
a young man danced; I felt his muscled warmth
flow into mine, his pure, sexual strength.
On my other sides young women danced, whose curves
bumped me softly, dancing without reserve,
hands waving in the air, releasing scent
fragrant as nard. We danced in reverent,
silent assent to the praise-song of drums.
-- from "Olodum" of "The Cachoeira Tales"

More books from LSU Press

Cover of the book Troubled Commemoration by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book The Mexican War Diary and Correspondence of George B. McClellan by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book Public Spaces, Private Gardens by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book Literary Modernism and Beyond by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book Modernist Women Writers and War by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book Raised to Rule by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book Small Mothers of Fright by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book Bleeding Borders by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book Loathing Lincoln by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book Two Civil Wars by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book An Unnatural Metropolis by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book The South and the Politics of Slavery, 1828--1856 by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book Selected Letters of Robert Penn Warren by Marilyn Nelson
Cover of the book Political Polling in the Digital Age by Marilyn Nelson
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy