"One need not be fluent in the language of cricket to enjoy the swift, percussive rhythms of Roger Bonair-Agard’s second opus calypso. He has refined his line, composed a pulse upon which he conjures, with a sort of astonishing and tender obligation, the fantasies and pathos of adolescence as well as the complexities of mature reflection. These are love poems for Trinidad and America, love poems for their histories, which are tragic, hilarious, wistful and unfinished."
Patrick Rosal
"Roger Bonair-Agard is a poet of blue lightning and white hot passions--even if the the subject (or metaphor) is the game of cricket. Gully means a lot of things, but in Bonair-Agard’s masterful, musical hands, the word means a lot more!"
Thomas Lux
"In Gully, Roger Bonair-Agard presents the phenomena of muscle memory with such wit and lyricism that the body comes alive. The reader finds his or her own limbs twitching in response to the poems’ infectious groove. [...] and the aftershocks of history are revealed under that lens in all their vivid contradiction and verve. While the sidelines of history are theorizing 'postcolonial,' 'post-racial,' 'postmodern,' Bonair-Agard is in the game, 'all feint and dip sharp/ left jab-step and full sprint right/ split knuckle and the rust of blood in the cheek.' This collection is the pin that weaves together our disparate world. Why shouldn’t it prick the thumb to show us what we’re made of?"
Gregory Pardlo
Roger Bonair-Agard is a native of Trinidad & Tobago. He is the author of Tarnish and Masquerade and co-author of Burning Down the House. He teaches at Fordham University. He splits his time between Chicago and Brooklyn.
Patrick Rosal
"Roger Bonair-Agard is a poet of blue lightning and white hot passions--even if the the subject (or metaphor) is the game of cricket. Gully means a lot of things, but in Bonair-Agard’s masterful, musical hands, the word means a lot more!"
Thomas Lux
"In Gully, Roger Bonair-Agard presents the phenomena of muscle memory with such wit and lyricism that the body comes alive. The reader finds his or her own limbs twitching in response to the poems’ infectious groove. [...] and the aftershocks of history are revealed under that lens in all their vivid contradiction and verve. While the sidelines of history are theorizing 'postcolonial,' 'post-racial,' 'postmodern,' Bonair-Agard is in the game, 'all feint and dip sharp/ left jab-step and full sprint right/ split knuckle and the rust of blood in the cheek.' This collection is the pin that weaves together our disparate world. Why shouldn’t it prick the thumb to show us what we’re made of?"
Gregory Pardlo
Roger Bonair-Agard is a native of Trinidad & Tobago. He is the author of Tarnish and Masquerade and co-author of Burning Down the House. He teaches at Fordham University. He splits his time between Chicago and Brooklyn.