| Collection: The Best Rastafari Poems of Nigel Daring Contributor(s): Daring, Nigel (Author) |
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ISBN: ISBN-13: 9798622250835 Publisher: Independently Published OUR PRICE: $17.58 Product Type: Paperback Published: March 2020 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Religion | Ethnic & Tribal |
| Physical Information: 0.92" H x 5" W x 8" (0.99 lbs) 456 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: "Collection: The Best Rastafari Poems of Nigel Daring" represents a fairly organized grouping of poems that Nigel Daring wrote about Rastafari. They tend to be the ones that sparked the most interest and which communicated a powerful message. The book mainly consists of previously published poems. It also includes a few unpublished poems that Nigel Daring recently wrote. Unlike all of Nigel Daring's previous books, except one ("Existence: God, Man, Society, and Nature"), this book has been divided into chapters. The separation of poems into different categories isn't exact. Many poems could quite well be suitable under other chapter headings. The poems were after all originally written in free flow form without obligation to some strict group. But with this collection of poems, it seems right to package them in some organized way. The need to explain some of the more ambiguous categories or to distinguish them from others now becomes apparent. The chapter titled "Ises" pertains to faith and worship. "Ites & Ilebration" contains poems dealing with rituals and celebration. "Rights & Advocacy" deals with defending Rastafari rights and identity, efforts at restoration, or securing proper and respectable place within norms of society. It might be distinguished from "Fight", which speaks more to rebellion, revolution, and antagonistic activism. "Sight (Insight/Reasoning) captures miscellaneous topics on which Nigel Daring provides perspective. "Heights (of righteousness)" has poems of righteous thinking within a Rastafari context. "I" has material of first-person perspective, especially pertaining to identity. "I an I" projects collective views of Rastafari along with values. "Pride" describes a category of poems relating to uncompromising love of Rastafari, often in the face of antagonism. Poems in this category could well fit in "I", "I an I", "fight", or possibly others. "Ital" contains poems dealing with diet. "Livity" has works that describe Rasta lifestyle. Some poems here could fit "I an I" or other chapters. Indeed they all could fit under "Ital" and vice versa because "Ital" really means natural, which is Rastafari lifestyle. It has been more thought of with respect to diet, but the proper Rasta translation of diet is livity. DIEt is offensive to Rasta because of the resonance of the word "die" in it. For Rasta, food you eat shouldn't be contributing to your death. As such, Rasta food is part of their livity. But livity itself has come to mean more than diet. It refers to the lifestyle and culture of Rastafari, mainly because of the near sound of the word "live" or "living" in there. The Ital (food) Rasta eat forms part of their healthy lifestyle. The categories of "Race" and "African Consciousness" are fairly similar. "Race" possesses more general descriptions and facets of race, Rastafari perspectives on race, and pride in race. "African Consciousness" speaks directly to the African diaspora in a way to heighten consciousness and remind it of its plight and fight. It's also an awakening call to the world at large. "Repatriation" deals with both Rastafari repatriation and Black repatriation. "Advice" contains poems that encourage people towards better both personally and collectively. As explained before, the categories are fairly flexible. One shouldn't get hooked on whether a particular poem suits one or the other. Nor should one obsess about restructuring. Rather, read and appreciate each poem on its merits. In completing the book in its entirety, one gets a real sense of Rastafari, its history, growth, faith, and culture. |