"For nearly half a century, Kamau Brathwaite has been doing nothing short of rewriting the relationship between Africa and the aging 'new world'--one exquisite and haunting syllable at a time. Elegguas, his newest book, is a tidalectic wave of remembrance and remonstrance. It is, as well, one of Brathwaite's most compassionate songs."--Mark Nowak, author of Coal Mountain Elementary "Kamau Brathwaite is the major Caribbean poet of his generation and one of the great poets of the second part of the 20C anywhere. While framed by elegiac writings of a personal nature, this volume remains profoundly political through a range of elegies for departed public & political figures, and includes what I consider one of the greatest and most poignant political poems of the era, namely Brathwaite's 'Poem for Walter Rodney.' The greatness of the work lies in the fact that the poet never falls into political rhetoric, but that his language, breathtakingly innovative & inventive at the formal level, always carries a lyrical and poetic charge of unequalled intensity."--Pierre Joris, author of Poasis and A Nomad Poetics "For nearly half a century, Kamau Brathwaite has been doing nothing short of rewriting the relationship between Africa and the aging 'new world'--one exquisite and haunting syllable at a time. Elegguas, his newest book, is a tidalectic wave of remembrance and remonstrance.

It is, as well, one of Brathwaite's most compassionate songs."--Mark Nowak, author of Coal Mountain Elementary.