The Weight of Things
Fire removes the weight of things. A church
snatched by flame climbs into cloud
as proud as the house where women fuck.
I have seen half a city removed by fire
and walked afterwards among the men.
Some looked only at their feet,
but others bounced with cheerful strides.
The weight of the city removed by fire
also made them weightless.
I am trying to understand fire
and all its uses,
and why some men
regard their feet so carefully
and some revel in clouds.
-- James Christopher Aboud
From his new book Lagahoo Poems, just published by Peepal Tree, eighteen years after The Stone Rose.
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Who is Nicholas Laughlin?
I am a writer (read some of my reviews, essays, etc. at Choosing My Confessions), editor of The Caribbean Review of Books and Caribbean Beat, and programme director of the Bocas Lit Fest. Visit my home page for more details. I’m a bit more active on Twitter: @nplaughlin.
I’m a co-director of Alice Yard, an experimental creative space and network in Port of Spain.
I co-edit Town, a modest literary magazine published in two formats: broadsides posted in public locations around Port of Spain, and online.
See photos at my Flickr page.
See my collaboration with artist Christopher Cozier, Tropical Night.
Amours de voyage; or, notes from an occasional traveller.
Some poems.
Email me at:
nicholaslaughlin[at]gmail[dot]com
My second book of poems, Enemy Luck, was published in 2019 by Peepal Tree Press.
My first book of poems, The Strange Years of My Life, was published in 2015 by Peepal Tree Press.
I’m a co-director of Alice Yard, an experimental creative space and network in Port of Spain.
I co-edit Town, a modest literary magazine published in two formats: broadsides posted in public locations around Port of Spain, and online.
See photos at my Flickr page.
See my collaboration with artist Christopher Cozier, Tropical Night.
Amours de voyage; or, notes from an occasional traveller.
Some poems.
Email me at:
nicholaslaughlin[at]gmail[dot]com
Blogs I read oftenish
Caribbean magazines, journals, newspapers
Literary magazines, websites, and blogs around the world
Other people, places, things that interest me (in no particular order)
Blog Archive
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2004
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October
(12)
- Finally, a ">review of Derek Walcott's new book, T...
- Ron Silliman today: From my perspective, the most...
- The Weight of Things Fire removes the weight of t...
- The early socialist writers and thinkers, great me...
- My copy of Walcott's Collected Poems: The spine h...
- I really am quite old now. Books require an immens...
- Mark Rothko: For art is always the final generaliz...
- I can Google him for you if you are having difficu...
- Nello gets a blue plaque on Railton Road.
- I would rather be Falstaff or Sancho than a versio...
- The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into ...
- Granta is 25 years old in its current incarnation,...
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October
(12)
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