Sign-In
Cart
Fire on the Tongue
Paperback
General PoetryGeneral World History
Publisher Price: $22.00
Publisher: Arrowsmith Press
Published: Apr 3 2026
Pages: 144
Weight: 0.44
Height: 0.34 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Expansive in scope and incisive in vision, Patrick Sylvain's Fire on the Tongue distills poetry from memory and experience as only this great poet can. Matching the richness of his legendary oeuvre in Kreyól, Sylvain's poetry carries us across time and region-Haiti, the Caribbean, the US-toward an elementary lyric fire.
John Keene
I use words, writes Patrick Sylvain, to speak for scorched tongues. What has scorched those tongues is the complex set of experiences that compose his Haitian-American identity. Sylvain's poetry carries within it many legacies of his native island's painful history. HIs poetry is also motivated in no small part by a sense of Haiti's resistance to that colonial oppression. Coming of age in contemporary America, especially with its racial hypocrisies, provides yet another scorching dimension to Sylvain's work. And there is also the broader story of an immigrant's questioning of where his true home actually is. What holds these complexities together is Sylvain's artful celebration of language itself. Sylvain has written in and translated extensively from Haitian-Creole, but for this collection, the poetry is in English. From metaphorical richness to precise, sensual imagery to intense, expressive musicality, Sylvain speaks a language here that is on fire with joy and sorrow, courage and love.
--Fred Marchant
Author of Said Not Said (Graywolf Press)
Also from
Sylvain, Patrick
Education Across Borders: Immigration, Race, and Identity in the Classroom
Sylvain, Patrick
Tamerat, Jalene
Cerat, Marie Lily
Audio Book
Education Across Borders: Immigration, Race, and Identity in the Classroom
Sylvain, Patrick
Tamerat, Jalene
Cerat, Marie Lily
Audio Book
A Critique of Haiti's Political Leadership: Scorched Pearl of the Antilles
Sylvain, Patrick
Hardcover
Also in
General Poetry
Dante's Vita Nuova, New Edition: A Translation and an Essay
Pitavy, Francois
Alighieri, Dante
Paperback
Sounding the Seasons Enlarged Edition: One Hundred and Ten Sonnets for the Christian Year
Guite, Malcolm
Paperback
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way
Lao Tzu
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Paperback
They Bloom Because of You: Poems on the Infinite Love, Growth, and Magic of Motherhood
Urlichs, Jessica
Paperback
Ariel: The Restored Edition: A Facsimile of Plath's Manuscript, Reinstating Her Original Selection and Arrangement
Plath, Sylvia
Paperback
This Is the Main Event: Discovering the Life You Long for in the Life You Have
Smith, Joshua Luke
Hardcover