From the Author
I wrote Teragaton during a year long period of experimentation with the language of the unconscious. I was searching for some true text, some hidden, profound and honest text, at the same time I was conscious of rhythm and form when poems were assembled on the page, respectful of poetry. My influences--cubist poetry, William Carlos Williams, Pound, the Beats, Ginsberg, Black Mountain poets like Olson, Wilson Harris, Monk, Bukowski, Baraka, Dorothea Brande, Negritude, and then I discovered surrealism. And it is this that shapes that text. The title was something my late mother whispered to me in a dream, whilst walking backwards up a hill.
Anthony Joseph,interviewed April 2005
About the Author
Poet and novelist Anthony Joseph was born in Trinidad and has lived in the UK since 1989. He is the author of two poetry collections, Desafinado, 1994 and Teragaton, 1997 and a spoken word CD Liquid Textology: Readings From The African Origins of UFOs. In September 2004, he was selected by the Arts Council of England as one of fifty writers for the historic photo 'A Great Day'in recognition of his contribution to experimental and literary writing and performance in British contemporary literature.
Excerpted from Teragaton by Anthony Joseph. Copyright © 1997. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Black&White Dark Shadows
used to stay up to watch
Dark Shadows
wt m’grandmother.1975
after 11 – de ol’man snorin –
me an she on de couch me
between she toes watchin
Barnabas Collins
white face sharp bone pointy collar
black coat&cape stiff devil teeth – dem fangs
- double incisors that sunk
into the flesh of de swooning neck
behind de straight black
bt the dagger had de villain f’Barnabas
lying in a coffin
all light off in de house
dogbark&fridgehum she dead&gone
me
in dark shadows
