Michael Ondaatje proves himself as my favourite author time and time again. His writing is so real you can taste it on your tongue! Especially if you’ve ever been to Sri Lanka/are Sri Lankan - all six senses experience this. And I don’t even think I’m that well versed in poetry at all - I know so little about it in a critical sense, but this did everything I’d expect good poetry to do.

“There was no book of the forest,
no book of the sea, but these
are the places people died.

Handwriting occurred on waves,
on leaves, the scripts of smoke
a sign on a bridge along the Mahaweli River.

A gradual acceptance of this new language.”
- From “The Distance of a Shout”

it is "the memory of a woman walking down stairs".

Gorgeous.

Beautiful, haunting. Many pieces that hurt due to subject matter (wars of Sri Lanka, political and social tensions, some sexually explicit poems), overall a gorgeous collection. Definitely a book I'd love to add to my own collection.

Poems about Sri Lanka, myth, and survival.

from The Distance of a Shout: "Handwriting occurred on waves, / on leaves, the scripts of smoke, / a sign on a bridge along the Mahaweli River. // A gradual acceptance of this new language."'

from The Brother Thief: "Beyond this pupil o heat / all geography is burned // No mountain or star / no river noise, / nothing / to give him course."

from The Great Tree: "The great 14th-century poet calligrapher / mourns the death of his friend // Language attacks the paper from the air // There is only a path of blossoms // no flamboyant movement"

Ondaatje uses the symbolism of burials and of digging up the dead in returning to his native land of Sri Lanka in this fine collection of poems.

Fans of Ondaatje's novels will be familiar with the themes here--love that's lost or only a fading memory due to clashes of culture, racism, classism.

But these poems are strongest when Ondaatje digs up the past to better understand the present. He describes this horrifically in "Buried" a cycle of poems about genocide in Sri Lanka and how the monks buried statues of the Buddha to preserve their heritage.


"Above ground, massacre and race.
A heart silenced.
The tongue removed.
The human body merged into burning tire.
Mud glaring back
into a stare."

This was the first thing I'd ever read by award winning writer Michael Ondaatje, and I was blown away. I read the entire collection in a single sitting, while still reflecting on the work as I read, and was captured by every word.

The collection focuses on Ondaatje's childhood, growing up in Sri Lanka; his memories of the history, traditions, smells, sights, etc. I've never been there, physically, and yet through these poems I felt that I could get a sense of the place. I loved this book.

A very nice collection of poems drawing on memories of Sri Lanka. I liked these but I prefer the poetry in his prose to the poetry itself. The poems read like fragments from a larger collection. They're sensous and rich but slightly peripheral.

Meh.

Beautiful. Freakin' beautiful. Maybe a little too beautiful...

I liked this book but agree with Amy's review that the Cinnamon Peeler was better.

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