Quotes from Grace Nichols

I have crossed an ocean I have lost my tongue from the root of the old one a new one has sprung

Not every skin-teeth is a smile 'Massa' if you see me smiling when you pass if you see me bending when you ask Know that I smile know that I bend only the better to rise and strike again

whatever tongue we speak the old ghost asserts itself in dusky echoes

One of the things we do as poets, is to try to preserve experiences, people, places important to us, in an effort to save them from time's erasure.