Ode to the Unpraised

In the author’s debut collection, The Way We Hold On, she writes: “This life can be a poem if you let it.” Ode to the Unpraised, is a demonstration of that those words. It is an invitation and reminder to readers to see their own lives as treasure troves based on real people with whom they rub shoulders in present time. It is a reminder to revel in the note-worthiness of those among them and a call to see the fortitude of their own lived and explored lives.

Informative, insightful and experimental, Ode to the Unpraised explores the practical knowledge, life lessons, and personal essence of women in Canada and Ghana through conversation, prose, and poem. Those featured are located in Nova Scotia- Antigonish and Halifax; and Ontario- Toronto, Hamilton, Belleville. In Ghana they are in Kumasi, Yonso, Abedwum, and Accra. This book was born out of the author’s curiosity about her late grandmother’s humble, yet textured life as a young wife, homemaker, and respected community member.

Following the pain of a missed opportunity to gather her grandmother’s personal reflections, the author extended her reach to across from elders, peers, and other relatives to gather the gems from their lived experiences. The result is the discovery of captivating and curious figures from among one’s intimate network expressed through first person reflection, second person narration and poetry in parallel. The poems composed are either based on the women’s words, written in response to their words, or written independently and placed in alignment with subject matter. Ode to the Unpraised is a concoction of multigenerational missteps, wisdom, pleasures. It is the lament of a Ghanaian returnee about the overwhelm of plastic waste on Accra’s streets, the conviction of a mother regarding preserving local languages, a resilient teen mother’s realization that boys are not in fact, gods; and a farmer’s humble collaboration with both heaven and earth.