Sharing Spaces: Poems of the Heart - Paperback

by Gemma G. Stemley (Author)

Sharing Spaces: Poems of the Heart explores the themes of migration and relocation, from Trinidad and Tobago to the USA. Many whose journey corresponds to a similar experience of migration might find the collection useful. The occurrence of a changing landscape and language (Patois), within a short space of time, and the loss of contact with childhood friends, and family features prominently in this equation. As a backdrop to migration, the collection weaves some common motifs through an exploration of landscape, culture, and history. In comparing the place where one can only receive a birth certificate, and where one's ancestors are buried, to the place where one has established residency, this poetic tapestry has been grouped into five categories. Juxtaposed in this way, the poems speak to feelings of emotion and angst that follow through from settling into a new place.

Poems grouped under Laudation pay tribute to family and friends, some of whom have passed on, and who have had an impact on the life of the poet.

Those under Landscape are nostalgic, reflective and a bid to fence in the past as the phenomenon of change manifests itself in no uncertain terms. Mindscape endeavors to decipher the undertaking of acculturation and settlement towards a better interpretation of the world in which we live. Each poem is an encounter, a beacon which it is hoped will bring clarity to the many aspects of relocation.

The poems under CultureScape are the oldest within the collection, many have been written during the early years of migration to America. They attempted to find solace at a time when the poet was most beset by loneliness. The Historic Landscape presents a mosaic infused with the rendering of history, past and in the making.

Sharing Spaces: Poems of the Heart lends credence to the many faces of migration and relocation. It is a poetic exegesis dedicated to the emigrant who, every day, negotiates and unravels the difficult terrain of a new space that has become home.