Winds of Change/Vientos de Cambio
Bilingual Poems Tomás Gayton
Poetic Matrix Press,
PO Box 1223
Madera, Ca. 93639
ISBN 0-9714003-6-9
114 pages, Price $15.00
www.poeticmatrix.com
also Amazon.com
From a letter to the author
By Richard Lemm
Dear Tomás...
I tremendously enjoyed Winds of Change/. It is, I think, your strongest book thus far. I have many
favorite poems, and sections of poems, and to list them all would be most of the Table of Contents, but I
do want to single out some that seized hold of me and wouldn't let go for hours
or days...and, looking ahead, months, years.......
"My Blood Runs Deep" reminded me of some of my favorite Caribbean poets: Dennis Scott, Lorna
Goodison, John Agard, Victor Questel, Mikey Smith, David Dabydeen, and Kamu Brathwaite. Do you
know the great work of Louise Bennett (Miss Lou), who died recently (in Toronto, where she'd moved
from London)? Also, if you haven't read Olive Senior, I highly recommend her. Her poetry is fine, but her
stories are exquisite, especially “Summer Lightning and Other Stories“. She moved from Jamaica to
Toronto some years ago, and I hosted her on PEI in the late 90s. And what about Dionne Brand, from
Trinidad, and living in Toronto and teaching at the University of Guelph? She's a first-rate poet, novelist,
essayist, and memoirist. I recommend her novel “At the Full and Change of Moon“, her poetry collection
“no language is neutral“, and her non-fiction book “The Map of No Return“.
"Death Comes Too Soon" is moving, of course, because of your mother's role in my own life.
"Bonfires of Belfast" is a powerful political vision. The Bobby Sands reference flashed me back to a
good friend in Nova Scotia, who was a "communications officer" for the IRA (and a fine musician/singer),
and who had to flee Ireland...and was prevented by friends from returning
during Sands' hunger fast. Bicycling in Ireland in 1975, I met a Ph.D. student from India, studying in
London, who'd just hitch-hiked through Northern Ireland, and was beautifully treated by everyone. That
was the year of some serious IRA bombings in London and Birmingham. This student, who was from
southern India and dark-skinned, said that the Irish (unlike the English) didn't care about his colour, only
that he was neither Protestant or Catholic, therefore welcome everywhere!
"Isla Negra" is a gorgeous poem. I absolutely love the opening three stanzas and stanza six of
"Valparaiso" -- some of the finest writing in the book. I very much like the rest of the poem, too,
especially the lines "When they sing their spirituals / they seem like sad angels / singing
with sweet voices." Your writing is sublime, too, in section ii of "Cabo Virgenes," the opening stanza of
"Iguazu," and stanzas one, six, and seven of "Havana (May Day 1995). These are lovely poems,
Tomás, throughout, and I'm just highlighting my favourite passages.
Among my very favourites are "Havana Heat," "Cuba Libra" (section ii is amazing), the "Pinar Del Rio"
section of "Cubop," and "Killing Hope." The Cuban section is very strong.
If I had the chance to anthologize a few poems, I'd definitely choose "San Felipe."
And I also love "The Frontier." The Chilean, Cuban, and Mexico-California borderlands poems are right
up there with your ancestral Yazoo County poems. Perhaps even richer, as your descriptive language,
imagery and metaphors, command of rhythms, and narrative lines have grown. The emotional
resonance is as deep and lingering as in the Yazoo poems. The weaving of politics gains even more
intricacy, and finesse, and strength.
Thank you for this moving, evocative, admirable gift...the gift of your newest poems.
Peace and justice,
Ricardo