Sturge Town

The contemplative latest from Dawes (Nebraska) surveys a series of comings and goings both personal and historical. Taking its title from one of the first free villages founded by formerly enslaved people in Jamaica, the collection explores departures and returns from a postcolonial perspective, reflecting on a lifetime of forging a self through poetry. “I built my own myth/ of departure,” Dawes writes in the title poem as the speaker imagines visiting an abandoned family house in Jamaica that has fallen into ruin. “The Making of a Poet” ends on the lines “Call me a voyeur, call me a kind of slut,/ but I still carry the transgression of indulgent/ watching, spying, in the shelter of the night.” Throughout, storytelling serves as a powerful tool to grapple with the impossibility of return. In a poem about a deceased sister, he again ponders this layered theme: “I live in another country. The place where her bones rest/ is nostalgic for me. For too long, I have not visited/ that sun-beaten patch of earth to stand mute,/ then speak for want of doing something better.” Wise and generous, this illustrates a poetic journey toward self-understanding. (July)