Picasso, I Want My Face Back

By Grace Nichols

Art, landscape and memory are interwoven strands in the fabric of Grace Nichols' latest collection, Picasso, I Want My Face Back. The book opens with a long poem in the voice of Dora Maar, who, as Picasso's muse and mistress, was the inspiration for his iconic painting, The Weeping Woman. The poem's parts are almost interlocking reflections that echo the cubistic manner of the painting and allow us to enter the shifting surfaces of Dora Maar's mind and her journey of self reclamation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
• Release date: Mar 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781780370354

Grace Nichols

Grace Nichols is one of Britain's most highly-acclaimed poets. Born in Guyana, she moved to England in 1977. She has won many prizes, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Her A & C Black titles include Come on into My Tropical Garden and Give Yourself a Hug. Grace Nichols was born in Georgetown, Guyana, and has lived in England since 1977. She has written many books for both children and adults and has won, among other awards, the 1983 Commonwealth Poetry Prize. She was poet-in-residence at the Tate Gallery, London (1999-2000). Grace Nichols performs her work internationally and is one of the poets on the UK national curriculum.

Book preview

GRACE NICHOLS

PICASSO, I WANT MY FACE BACK

Art, landscape and memory are interwoven strands in the fabric of Grace Nichols’ latest collection, Picasso, I Want My Face Back. The book opens with a long poem in the voice of Dora Maar, who, as Picasso’s muse and mistress, was the inspiration for his iconic painting, The Weeping Woman. The poems are almost interlocking reflections that echo the cubistic manner of the painting and allow us to enter the shifting surfaces of Dora Maar’s mind and her journey of self reclamation.

‘Not only rich music, an easy lyricism, but also grit, and earthy honesty, a willingness to be vulnerable and clean’

– GWENDOLYN BROOKS

‘Grace Nichols has wit, acidity, tenderness, any number of gifts at her disposal’

– JEANETTE WINTERSON

‘Grace Nichols came to Britain from Guyana at the age of 27 and she has carried the warmth of her Caribbean sensibility through many a cold English winter. Her poems celebrate sensuality and generosity and attack petty mean-spiritedness… Deeply Caribbean in sensibility, she writes sensitively of other traditions, especially Africa and India’

– PETER FORBES, Contemporary Writers

‘From her first collection in 1983, I Is a Long Memoried Woman, she has been a strong presence in the linguistic interweave between the Caribbean and the UK. Her poetry and prose move easily between the poised world of Western culture, Old World history and myth, and the gritty rhythms of the Caribbean everyday… There is wit, irony and passion…real poise’

– MICHELENE WANDOR, Poetry Review

COVER PAINTING

Weeping Woman (1937) by Pablo Picasso

OIL ON CANVAS

© SUCCESSION PICASSO / DACS, 2009 / TATE, LONDON 2009

Grace Nichols

PICASSO, I WANT MY FACE BACK

For John

CONTENTS

Title Page

Dedication

Acknowledgements

PICASSO, I WANT MY FACE BACK

Preface

Weeping Woman

FRAMING THE LANDSCAPE

Guyana Dreaming

Into the Interior

Test Match High Mass

Framing the Landscape

Angel of the North

Outward from Hull

Seven Sisters

Van Gogh

Opening Your Book

Chalk

ECLIPSE

Eclipse

Moment in a