---

In her new chapbook from Abode Press, Haitian American poet Jerrice Baptiste reveals a side of Haiti we would never encounter in the news. Baptiste’s lush and musical language brings into focus the beauty, strength and dignity of the people and their culture. She writes in the poem, “Gathering,” Godmother cuts fabric on the wooden table. I reach to grab fringe floating in air. Color of rose and green pastels. I live in the sound of her foot pushing pedal in cadence. From the first poem, “Island Girl,” that begins, “A baby girl is born with the crimson dawn,” the bonds of family are celebrated throughout the book. We meet grandfather who grated cacao “to a fine powder in early evening, right before the violet sky gave us last light.” There is grandmother who walks in the cornfields, “a maze of her own creation,” whose “index finger opens the mouth of each baby, looking for budding teeth.” And we witness – no, we experience, through Jerrice’s precise images – a community that comes together to support one another in every facet of life. In the prose poem, “The Sacred Wash,” she writes: The women stretch their clothes on the line in the circular sun, tied between two Grenadia trees. It’s noon, and the washing by hand is complete…Homemade Grenadia juice in a jug and water from a blessed well is shared. The two elders with gray hair drink first. They take three sips, the jugs are passed to the right on to the next woman, completing the circle of eight… I love how the author heightens the sense of community her lyrical narratives celebrate by naming many of her characters: Michel, Henna, Joel, farmer Sol, Sister Suzanne, baby boy Chelier, Orna, Jolie…Whether it’s the “movement of fabric” that “twists and turns like a curvy road” on the head of a woman, the “milky white treasure” of drinking from a coconut shell, or gorgeous descriptions of rainstorms where “some of the quiet drops fall on her lips and soothe her parched throat,” Baptiste immerses us in the beauty of everyday life. True to the title of the book, Baptiste also expresses some of the sadness and difficulties of her current experience of living in the diaspora, as she writes in “Trilogy”: I have a story to tell. The words are trapped in my native language. My grandmother spoon feeds me our language. The root vegetables, malanga, militon, I eat her cassava, drink passion fruit juice. Her spirit travels beyond pink skies. I found the spirit of Coral in the Diaspora traveled straight to my heart. ** Jerrice J. Baptiste, born in Haiti, is the founder and facilitator of Authentic Poetry Workshops, and a teaching artist for many other venues. She is the author of the poetry book, Wintry Mix, and seven children’s books. Her poems appear in The Yale Review, Braided Way, Pensive and numerous other journals. Her poetry and collaborative songwriting are featured on the nominated Grammy award album, Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti.