Three Leaves, Three Roots: Poems on the Haiti-Congo Story

Haitian-born Georges (emerita, creative writing, Lesley Univ.; Letters from Congo) illuminates a less-known chapter in the history of Pan-Africanism through her book of poems inspired by the recollections and letters of people who left Haiti in the 1960s to assist in the development of the newly decolonized Congo, including Georges’s parents, professionals who emigrated under the auspices of the United Nations. Georges couples lyrical delicacy with the quiet strength of precision with prose poetry lines such as “the mind honed with its vision of unity” in the poem titled “In This Poem, Do Not Use the Word Revolution.” In “Because,” the former poet laureate of Boston enlivens the personal stories of sacrifice and sharing that “made Blackness / the mouth of freedom” and echo beyond the impersonal geopolitical narratives in which they’re embedded. The final poem is especially noteworthy.