Book Review… A dramatic picture of life

Mar 19, 2017 Book Review…, Features / Columnists

Book: Teachers are human too
Author; Yaundeen Wright
Critic: Dr Glenville Ashby

At the outset Jamaican-born educator Yaundeen Wright gives her first lesson…and it an essential one. It is gratitude. Before she delivers some stirring poetic renditions, she names all the teachers that positively impacted her life.

The book cover of Teachers are Human too

The list is long, but she is mindful of their worth and they must be acknowledged.
Wright is an imaginative poet. Her material can be Davidic in tone. There is anguish and disappointment and the occasional tormentous cry for divine intervention. Her work is eclectic and provocative. She explores the multitudinous facets of life through an existentialist prism. She can be endearingly philosophical, self-deprecating, conservative, liberal, libidinous and downright raunchy. Surely, she has masterfully fused the sacred with the profane. There is that paradoxical thread that meanders through this interesting work.
Teachers are Human Too, is brilliantly written. Some of its themes are riveting and we are left reflecting on Providence and its hard-sell. Just about every poem confirms Wright’s pedagogical depth. There are many gems sealed with historicity and spiritual truths. Ironically, the eponymous “Teachers are Human too” is weak, pedestrian, and begs for attention. Wright can also be faulted for the somewhat erratic arrangement of her work.
The poem “Don’t be fooled,” is austere, a warning for many of us driven by lust. Such relationships are explosively destructive. They never end well.
“Love’s allure from the sideline…promises life but pays death,” she pens. “Sin fascinates before it assassinates.” And she well recognizes the web, the control weaved by our society. It’s the “New plantation,” a sophisticated plantation and she inveighs against it. “I told you it’s a sophisticated plantation where you know what takes place; we might wear stilettos while our ancestors wore shackles.” She continues, “but history hasn’t changed much, history is of such that the more things change the more they remain the same.”
While she is comfortable at the highest rung of intellectual thought, she is equally at ease with the lustful desires of the heart. Eroticism explodes in “Cunnilingus.” “I slithered and slid on the Corinthian leather on the backseat of the car like a pussycat on a Persian rug magic carpet ride.” And in like vein she writes in “Quickie,” “Stolen love is sweet, playing hookie is good for the soul, the menacing clock stands between us and a reverie of ecstasy.”
But in this theme of sexual vulnerability, Wright is at her creative best in “Jungle Fever,” and “Sex Talk.” Yet, she is stoic and self-preserving in “Stereotype.”
“Not me,” she vows. Unlike other women haggard, used by men, she writes, “I have signed an impenetrable contract with grace and style, elegance and class, dollish and darling I vow to remain fabulous forever.”
But there is a beatific side to Wright. She is reverential and eschatological, acknowledging that she must be gracious even in death. “You say well done my good and faithful servant, for it is to you I pledge my allegiance and dedicate my temple,” she intones…”Now is my jubilee, I bask in eternal bliss.”
And in “Love Letter to Jesus,” she raises the Christian saviour to the highest of ranks.
“My friend, my comfort, my joy, my peace – You, O God, are my confidence and beauty. You are my identity, the very essence of my being: It is you that I live, move and breathe. I need you Lord, more than the next breath that I take.”
In “Patriotism,” she extols Jamaica, the land of her birth. She is detailed and passionate. “I am proud to be Jamaican. Proud to be Jamaican for many reasons. My country, my homeland, my birthplace has carried many burdens, been through many struggles, yet remains tall and glorious, filled with the intricacies of life”
Her love for her country is insatiable and she continues her ode in “My Sweet Jamaica,” where she makes note of its natural resources, diverse culture and natural beauty.
Teachers are Human Too proves to be an intriguing, sometimes magical piece of literature worthy of multiple reads and study. Capturing the cacophony of human experiences, Wright rightly believes that the beauty of existence, painful or not, is a learning experience. In the end, we are sold. We recognize her worth as a teacher of men

Feedback: glenvilleashby@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby
Teachers are Human Too by Yaundeen Wright
Publisher XLIBRIS
ISBN: 978151449190-4
Available at Amazon
Ratings: Recommended

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