| Read what critics are saying about 'Dance of the Peacock' |
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These are some of the advance reviews received ahead of the official release of Cheryl Antao-Xavier's collection of poems, Dance of the Peacock.
The peacock is a bird of masculine beauty that often represents narcissism and the obvious foolishness of vanity and pride. In the first full book of poems published by Cheryl Antao-Xavier, there are several poems in which peacocks figure importantly. In one poem, the peacock is portrayed with all the energy and passion of a great dancer. In another he is foolish and vulgar and vain. Unlike those of us who use such symbols in a merely figurative way, Antao-Xavier knows the nature of this bird. She thrills the reader at first with the terpsichorean passion of an avian dance. Later she shows us the dull-witted pea-brained truth of this fan-tailed noisy often-irritating sex-crazed bird. And that is something of the paradox of a poet’s hubris. We must be sufficiently vain to raise our voice in song, and yet the sad reality of our predicament involves the fragility of dreamers and of dream. In poems ranging from celebration of a life of light and beauty and of passionate existence, to those of lamentation and loss, of disappointment and bitter regret of failed relationships and tragic experience she acknowledges the twin realities of human wisdom. This commingling of joy and sadness is the lot of life. She’s lived her childhood in what to Canadian readers is an exotic and distant world of Pakistan and the Middle East. She came to Canada, the country of her choice, and yet she learned that this her chosen home would often disappoint by falling short of its own ideals. What blazes out from this iridescent turquoise fan-tailed language-rich poetry is an energetic hope. The softer tones go deep. The gentle narratives, the elegies, the sweet ghazals, the imagistic brevity of haiku give variety of voice to the work. In her introduction she concludes in an intimate address to the reader, "My own dance has been a long time in rehearsal and now begins in earnest." This dance within this book is mature and well worth the wait. Reviewed by John B. Lee, Poet Laureate of Brantford
Cheryl Antao-Xavier is one of Canada's rising stars in poetry. Dance of The Peacock is her first full collection, comprising beautifully crafted melodies which will carry you away on the wings of the wind to exotic and faraway places. Her lucid, reflective poems on human relationships, placed within a fascinating landscape of colourful proportions, evoke the emotional climate and backdrop of the poet's life. The variety of sections make the book an easy read, and you will be entertained by the masterful and subliminal messages which are portrayed with wit and wisdom.
I.B. (Bunny) Iskov, Founder, The Ontario Poetry Society
Dance of the Peacock is a beautifully crafted display of scintillating poetry in a divine layout that is delicious to the senses. It is a gracious voyage through a lifetime of experiences and observations. Cheryl Antao-Xavier conquers any topic and extracts gifts that you may not be conscious of, but are now immediately aware. She uses all elements of creativity to provide not just a reading adventure, but a destination of enlightenment. Tracy Repchuk, President/Founder of the Canadian Federation of Poets,
Founder Editor of Poetry Canada magazine
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