Sudeep Sen
Reviews
Kwame Dawes. Impossible Flying.
Leeds: Peepal Tree, Price £8.99, Pages 88, ISBN 1-84523039-6.
Impossible Flying is Kwame Dawes’s most intimate collection to date. The poems are a conversation with his familial past, present and the impending future — of good and sad memories, of births, deaths, and illnesses, of loneliness and intimacies. But above all, it is poetry about relationships of all kinds — not just between family members, but variant selves, identities, and masks. The evocative birth of his son emerges beautifully as a “brown body covered in the soft film of clay”, couched ambitions “whispered about being superheroes and flying” flutter in a Hounslow basement, and reflections on “the way fat weighs us and heart swells” are just a few examples of Dawes’s phrase-making that is always honest, sharp, and deeply resonant.
Impossible Flying flies through territories most poets are not willing to visit — it makes what might be impossible for many, possible for some. Ultimately, the strength of this book lies not only in its exactitude of language and tonality, but also in the way vulnerability is presented in an unapologetic, convincing, and moving manner. The over-coolness of contemporary English poetry can learn a lot from Dawes’s lyrical bass-tuned pitch, sermonic narrative style, and intelligent range.
Page(s) 389
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