In his fourth collection, a breakthrough volume, Major Jackson
appropriates the vernacular notion of "rolling deep" to capture the
spirit of aesthetic travel that defines these forceful new poems and
brazenly announces his steady accretion of literary and artistic
influences, both formal and experimental--his "crew." The confident and
radiant poems in Roll Deep address a range of topics, most prominently
human intimacy and war. And like his best work to date, these poems
create new experiences with language owed to Jackson's willingness to
once again seek a rhythmic sound that expresses the unique realities of
the twenty-first century with humor and understanding. Whether set in
Nairobi, Madrid, or Greece, the poems are sensuously evocative and
unapologetically with-it, in their effort to build community across
borders of language and style.
From Urban Renewal, "The Dadaab Suite"
I have come to Dadaab like an actor
on a press release, unprepared for the drained faces
of famine-fleeing refugees, my craft's glamour
dimmed by hundreds of infant graves, children
whose lolling heads' final drop landed on their mothers'
backs like soft stones. What beauty can I spell in
this swelter of dust?