Imaginary origins

by Cyril Dabydeen

"From his roots as an Asian whose grandparents migrated as indentured labourers from 19th century India, from his shaping as a Guyanese growing up during a period of intense national ferment, and his life as an adult in Canada, Cyril Dabydeen has shaped a vision that makes an enlightening virtue of heterogeneity. Not merely a Guyanese exile, though Guyanese memories and concerns are vivid in his work, but a writer who has immersed himself in the landscapes, history and lived experience of Canada, Dabydeen's poetry shows the possibilities inherent in combining immigrant and diasporic selves. His work ranges across the confessional, the narrative and the mythic but always with an unwavering integrity in seeking the interior truth of the poem."--BOOK JACKET.