Selected for my International Olympic Challenge for Vanuatu.
no isbn. Reading this book, I wanted to study the history of Vanuatu more. Her poems are angry about a wide variety of topics from politics to pregnacy but I don't think her emotions are unjustified, seeing prejudice were there is none. I wouldn't mind reading more of her work either which is amazing to me because I'm really not a poetry person.
Goes to hobbit next.

RELEASE NOTES:

Thanks for the trade, hendertuckian. This book of poetry looks quite interesting. I've looked through and read just a few poems, including the one you put a sticky note into for me. So far, they're very on topic for me at this stage in my life and I'm looking forward to reading the rest, and perhaps going back to a few of them several times to let them sink in.

I enjoyed some of these poems more than others, but there were definitely a few that resonated with me at the moment and I'm going to copy a couple to save in my journal.

Since Vanuatu is a bit difficult to find authors for, after I've copied a few favorites I will offer this book to someone else in the Olympic Challenge.

...
Edited to say that I've copied the poems I want, and I'm going to offer this to the first requester on the Olypic Challenge forum.

Sending to Piggledy, who will send to Alvhyttan.

Updated on Jan 16 to add that I finally got to the Post Office this morning. I sent it surface mail, so it could take 4-6 weeks.

Also, since I have this open, I'll mention that I shared a couple of the poems that I saved with a friend. One she liked and another she didn't.

The book arrived here safely, thank you very much!

Edit, March 19th: I haven't read all the poems yet, but so far, there were some quite good ones (though I think there is a lot of repetition...).

Got this book in my mail today.
Thanks Piggeldy for sending it to me!

I have just read some of the poems and I am looking forward to read more. Those poems are angry.
Having read other angry voices from the Oceania, I think I have to read more about the history of those islands.

I liked the three/four first poems very much, after that it got more and more angy and I lost some interest. Maybe those poems work best for people feeling thing like the author do.
I still feel like I need to learn more about Oceania and it's history.



This book is going to be sent to Finland as a prize for making a nice release in the May Flowers / Botanical release challenge.

Thanks for this nice surprise, Alvhyttan. After my first insight this book seems quite interesting and has made me curious, not least because of authors home country - had to find out right away where Vanuatu is. Maybe Mr. Cook has visited there, too.

EDIT 13-14.7
Poems show mostly feelings of frustration, blindness, bitterness... lot's of thoughts came into my mind through these poems, maybe awakening (or rather reminding me of) my own frustration towards political systems. Even though frustration does not help, there should be new solutions. Author first seemed to be great thinker and philosopher but it turned out opposite - I found some poems quite cynical or naive; and those new thoughts and solutions were missing.
But there were couple of quite different poems that I liked though, like "Pregnant Blues".
This thought/phrase lightens up the mood in poems: "Power like any force has to be moderated and controlled so it does not in its turn control and destroy."
I disagree that one, my version is: "Power like any force has to be focused and refocused, to serve good things, to get done what has to be done, with full energy, actively constructing, getting ready and clear."

EDIT 19.8
I've added this book to my Maailma haaste - World challenge (Vanuatu).

********
Selected books
produced by Grace Mera Molisa
and Blackstone Publications

Blackstone: a Collection of Poems (1987)
Colonised People: Collection of Poems on Women in Vanuatu (1987)
Blackstone II: Poems on General Topics (1989)
Raet Blong People: Wen Rod?: A Political Tract on Current Problems in Vanuatu (1991)
The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1992)

This will continue it's way as a ray.
Participants:
*dotdot
*Rakuna
*Annelis
...
*marja-leena
*katyan

Thank you for the book, Aspen. It feels great to hold in my hands a book from so small and distant country.

In Vanuatu population of 215 000 speaks more than hundred local languages. The biggest language Bislama (official language) is spoken by a quarter of population only. The nation of this young state hasn't got a common language. I, born and bread in a country where 92 % of population speaks Finnish and the rest at least understand it, can't imagine such a situation. Literacy rate in Vanuatu is quite high, 74 % of adults can read. Do they read only Bislama, English or French? Is there a Bislama literature?

On the other hand, is it necessary for a nation to have a common literature and written culture everybody can share? It isn't. In a culturally diverse country like Vanuatu whole ideas of nation and state must be very different from those us Finns are used to.

After writing the above I started reading.
Newspaper Mania:
"Newspaper mania / is the / cultural / heritage / of the privileged / literates / of industrialised / nations.
It is a means / and a channel / of communication / and a force / for social / manipulation / and control.
Newspaper mania / and Press media / are neo-colonisers / being imposed / on societies / where very different / centuries old / means and channels / of communication / tested by eons of time / already exist."

I'm sorry to say I didn't like these poems. They reminded me more of a political speeches or agitation than poetry, especially when read out loud. Political nature is very understandable, book was published in 1983, a couple of years after Vanuatu become an independent country.

Balck Stone is on it''s way to Rakuna.

I picked the book up yesterday and read it today. I have to agree with dotdot, I neither did like these poems. Maybe I''m oldfashioned poetry reader, put I want my poetry have some rythm and I felt these had none.

Even being not the book for me, I''ll use it as a part of my "Book from Every Country" Challenge as Vanuatu.

Thank you Aspen72 for organising the ring. I''ll pass the book on next week.

I got the book today at the BC-meeting in Helsinki. I read some poems on the train on my way home. Somehow I liked them. Maybe I would not like to read a thick book of poems like that, but surely 68 pages will not be too much. The best thing about this book is that it comes from such far away and small country. It makes it very interesting. And good for my
Book From Every Country Challenge.

I finished the book today. Yes, the poems are angry and give a feeling of frustration. Maybe I have some reason to feel in the same way - every now and then. But luckily there are other things in life, too. I hope the poet also experiences them in her life.
It is very hard to be angry all the time.

Many things the poet writes about are unfortunately true. What can I do to change that?

I liked the way Molisa used words. Somehow the short lines and many related words one after another reminded me of poems for children.

Marja-Leena is the next person in this ring. I'll send the book on its way as soon as I get her address.

I happened to read newspaper Metro last Friday and what did I see: a columnist was telling us things she had heard about Vanuatu: There are no toilets in Vanuatu. Not because they could not build them but because things coming from the other end of human beings are a tabu. Toilets would make those things too real. But as they are no more closed at that end than we are they take care of things together in a ritual. Every morning the women walk together to sea shore to a certain area reserved for this purpose and do what they must do. Men are protecting the ritual of the women and shooing all the turists away without telling why. The columnist does not tell how the men are doing their emptying - are the women protecting the men in their turn? Then the columnist speculates about the results of the ritual: are they floating on the water or what. Well, maybe this is enough. I did not check the facts anywhere.

This book is my #69 in Keep Them Moving Challenge by Guinaveve

The book arrived to me today. I will read it soon.Thank you.

This book arrived here today! Thank you!

The book is already at katyan's but I write some lines about my reading experience anyhow. I tried getting into the book several times but I couldn't really like it. It was too political and angry, using too much foreign (French?) vocabulary.But I understand that there are problems in Vanuatu and the book gave some insight view into the society. It was mostly about the difficult relationship between locals and colonialists or neo-colonialists.I was reading Paul Theroux's The Happy Isles of Oceania side by side with this book. It helped me to understand Black Stone better but not to like it.

After reading all the comments on this book they made me really curious about it and so I read it this weekend. For me this was a 2-faced book: some poems I really liked, some I couldn't read until the end. But it was definately an interesting book and I'm really happy I could read it. I also love reading poems so sometimes I felt these could have been better as really short novels or stories, the author could have just written the poems in sentences instead. Maybe some of the poems would have made more sense then.

But as this is such a treasure, I'll surprise someone I know by giving this book to her as a Christmas RABCK. I hope this book will help her in her Olympic challenge!
So this book will represent my book for Vanuatu in my Book from every country in the world-challenge, and be part of the Finnish bookcrossers challenge to send at least 10 Christmas surprise RABCKs, and part of my Advent Calendar 2007 - Joulukalenteri 2007 !!!!!

I got this as a surprise RABCK with another book - thank you so much!

PS I'm sorry, I couldn't wait until Christmas to open it....

I wasn't a huge fan of this either. I didn't think the poetry was that great and it needed a better editor too (sorry to be petty, but spelling errors / typos really annoy me). I agree with Katyan that some of the poems could be better in sentence form as an essay or story than as a poem.

I agree with other journalers though - I feel I know nothing of the history of this part of the world and should make an effort to learn more!

Counts as Vanuatu for the Olympic Challenge.

On its way to another BookCrosser.

Wow - the book must have been stuck in the christmas post. Almost four weeks from GB to Germany as it arrive only two days ago. Thanks for sending, blackwidow1971.

I already read the book this morning, before decorating our christmas tree.
The poems are very angry and touch a lot of different topics. I definitely would like to know more about Vanuatu's history and current situation.
Some of the poems seem unfinished, I think, but as written on the back cover, this was Molisa's first poetry project.

I'll offer the book again in the Olympic Challenge thread and on the German forum, where some BCer started a similar international reading project.

---

The book travels on as a ray to:

1. juli312
2. Konjunktiv
3. Aldawen
...
X. taunusdrache

Yesterday, I received the book, thanks to sheepseeker and to hendertuckian for the ring.

I've already started with some poems and I agree with many of the other readers: I like some of them, but others are toô angry and I really would love some further explanations about the history of Vanuatu.

Now it's traveling to Konjunktiv.

Got it today. Looks like a pretty hard read. Will see...

RELEASE NOTES:

geht an den nächsten Teilnehmer.
Ich fand den Einblick ganz interessant, leider wenig inspirierend. Trotzdem Danke.
---
Quite interesting but not very inspirering. Still a good read. Thank you for sending it around.

Arrived safely today, thanks! I'm quite curious :-)

As many of the readers before me I have to admit that I'm not convinced. I'll admit I don't know to much about the British-French condominium over Vanuatu but I've worked enough on colonialism to doubt such a simple black-and-white picture. This moaning tone is somewhat typical for fresh decolonised people but e. g. younger African intellectuals by now don't want to hear anymore that colonialism is the source of all evil in their countries and point to the homemade problems instead. But this requires longer intervals from the events. Additionally, in my opinion a poem deserves more than writing words underneath each other instead of placing them side by side. So all in all it was a weak presentation, but it fits well into my international reading goals and I'm glad the booklet passed along. Thanks for sharing!

Heute ist das Büchlein angekommen. Vielen Dank. Ich freue mich schon sehr darauf.

Ob es allerdings für eure Challenge taugt? Es wurde von einer Frau aus Vanuatu geschrieben, ja, aber: das Buch selbst ist aus Fiji .
Entscheidet selbst, zu welchem Land es zählt :-)