Dancing in the Rain

John Lyons provides an insight into his Trinidadian childhood in this collection. He describes the climate, dancing in the warm rain after recognising the signs of a gathering storm in the title poem, contrasting with the cold in England in ‘Monica’s Winter’ and ‘Happy Snowman’. Nature comes to life in the words and the pictures drawn by the poet, whether it’s the happy hummingbird, the marsupial Trini ‘manicou with its pouchy tum’, ‘Tobago land crabs with a mangrove smell’, ‘wild and swift’ ‘nervous and shy agoutis’ or the iguana ‘this big lizard at large’ who ‘is talented with camouflage.’

There are some striking encounters with ghosts and ghouls from Caribbean folklore such as ‘Setting a Trap for Soucouyant’, ‘Looking for Douennes’ and ‘The Climbing Skeleton’, shown in suitable scary fashion shinning up a tree. Sharing food brings out relationships with family and friends, especially between generations, and is where the poet often writes in the nation language of Trinidad, saying ‘How ah love de sugarcake/meh Granny does mek’ and ‘At home wid meh sticky-mango-juice face,/meh grandma gimmeh ah good lickin/wid ah tamarind switch.’