This Thing That Is not a Thing

Paulette A. Ramsay is Senior Lecturer in Spanish, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. She is an interdisciplinary academic who has published widely in the areas of Afro- Hispanic literature and culture.

• This Thing That Is Not a ThingI Know I'm Not Supposed to Tell YouWhen Women Don't SpeakI Do Not Want to Do ItThornbirdIf You Couldputting brakes on meYou Disturbed My Dreamsguilty loveThe LibraryThe Mother of an Addict SpeaksHuman RightsJamaican Ugly Man SyndromeMarcus Garvey in CubaIf Nicolás Guillén Came to Cuba TodayYou are Not a Bright SocialistMemories of My GirlhoodYour Planwhen ooman badmindedTek Back Yuh Ole BrukQuestions for a Departed Loved OneMy Uncle Said Goodbye TodayThis Thing That Is a ThingThings Black and BeautifulSelf-LiberationPrayer for Our WorldDaily PrayerThe Love of GodRequiem for a VictorAcknowledgements

The collection demonstrates how both speech and silence function as limited articulations of a woman's being. Taking rites of passages as important tropes of loss and recollection, Ramsay exposes the tensions and risks of being both outspoken and silent. The poems invite the reader to experience the absence of any safe ground of being."" - Lisa Brown, Lecturer, Department of Literatures in English, the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica