To understand the creolising that colours Booker’s poetry, an alertness to the poet’s use of language is vital, especially attention to speech patterns drawn from languages that inform her heritage: mainstream English usage and Caribbean Creole mixtures. In effect, while all writing is dependent on language, creolised language draws on words and phrases that are invigorated through mixedness, shaped by colonial history. A close look at Booker’s writing soon reveals ways in which she deploys sayings, the oral voice and direct address in concert with the more heightened language usually associated with poetry. Additionally, Booker’s poetry should be contextualised within Black British women’s writing.
Pepper Seed, shortlisted for the prestigious Seamus Heaney Centre prize (2014), reflects on family, home, relationships, belief systems and life’s complex journey. Central to the collection is the poet’s distinctively female voicing. The paratextual framing (a selection of pithy quotes) introduces each of the five sections of the collection — ‘Testament’, ‘Crucial Times’, ‘Lamentations’, ‘Altars’ and ‘Epilogue’. These highlight a distinctive array of thinkers, from Caribbean Nobel Laureate poet and Queen’s Gold Medal award winner Derek Walcott (1930–2017) to reggae legend Bunny Wailer and celebrated women writers such as Edwidge Danticat, Lorna Goodison and Sharon Olds, which helps our understanding of Pepper Seed’s rich grounding.
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