INCREDIBLE BLUES!! - INCREDIBLE INDEED!! THE IMAGERY: FANTASTIC! YOU CAN FEEL, SMELL AND TASTE EVERY LINE OF THE POEMS - HUMOUR, PLAYFULNESS, WISDOM, PAIN, BITTERNESS, LOVE, TIREDNESS, BREEZE, RAIN, DUST..... ANDY, YOU MAKE GHANA PROUD. LOVE MAKEDA

This is a trip through conscious awareness of the way things are; an extended poem celebrating and at the same time regretting certain truths, but it is, always, told the way things are and completely honest. In his stance on people Mr. Parkes is most erudite when writing about his closest ties; he does not seek casual relationships; he wants to get inside the mind and soul of his partner and at the same time, open up his own mind and soul to her. Learning to Resonate is a slow blues trip complete with walking bass line and drum pulse, occasional blue saxophone interjections; the verse an indication of the process of learning to write, of adding and subtracting, and the inspiration that can come from the masters of jazz saxophone, trumpet, or just voice. Words and musical vignettes are blended skillfully here. It sounds pretty good and if the political intensity of most of the poems produces a searing awareness for the listener, that is as it should be; anyone who hears these poems and remains passive, unmoved or, perhaps worse, unconcerned, must be cold indeed. The Journeys are excursions to many far and distant places and spaces and are comprised of many different emotions. Singing the blues, living the blues but always noticing the silver lining at the end of each period of trial and tribulation. Nii Parkes tells it like it is and pulls no punches. Love, anger, pain and optimism appear to be mixed into his writing in almost equal measure. He is a rebel and an individualist and an idealist and certainly none the worse for it. Because one of the most important aspects of his writing indicates that he ‘cares’ and Cares with a capitol C. Perhaps best of all he will never be silenced. As he himself says towards the end of this collection: ‘my epitaph will be written in free verse.'