Women and their significant place in the life of poet Afaa M. Weaver is the terrain of Talisman. Black male/female relationships form the larger umbrella of this unique work. Talisman attempts to understand and recover the love that was there and which will always remain in a spiritual sense, long after the doors have slammed shut.
Women and their significant place in his life is the terrain covered by Afaa M. Weaver in these moving poems. Black male/female relationships form the larger umbrella of this unique work. Without rancor, Talisman attempts to understand and recover love that once existed, and which will always remain in a spiritual sense, long after the doors have slammed shut on relationships.
Born into a Southern family of sharecroppers, Black English was Weaver's first language and is the mode of this work because, as Weaver says, it is his "private language". Part of his poetic gift is his facility with translation and code-switching. With poems lovingly dedicated to Weaver's mother and her ancestral spirit, to the healing of their relationship and those of the other loves in his life, Talisman is a truly memorable work.
