books
The Way We Hold On is Abena Beloved Green's debut book of poetry. Her poems address cultural, social, and environmental issues, relationships, and reflect on everyday life as a small-town raised, semi-nomadic, first-generation Canadian. Here are poems about holding on and letting go—of ideas, opinions, beliefs, people, places, and things.
Insightful and experimental, Ode to the Unpraised explores the practical knowledge, life lessons, and personal essence of women in Canada and Ghana through conversation, prose, and poems. Those featured are located in Nova Scotia, Ontario and Ghana. This book was born out of Abena's curiosity about her late grandmother's humble yet textured life as a wife, homemaker, and respected community member.
After a missed opportunity to gather her grandmother's personal reflections, Abena extended her reach to elders, peers, and other relatives to collect their experiences. She discovered captivating figures, expressed through first-person reflection, second-person narration, and poetry in parallel.
Chelene Knight, author of Dear Current Occupant
“Through intimate conversation and vivid poetic language, Abena sails through memories, histories, pain, and love. The prose is nourishment, food for our hearts. The poetics are the dance—the movement our bodies need that help us rebuild our own unique histories. Within these pages we are inspired to revel in the possibility that our own histories can be snapped away in an instant leaving us sifting the rubble for remnants sturdy enough for a rebuild.”
Indira B. , Reader
“Slow and Steady... I think my favorite from all the other great poems I’ve read! A great reminder to take it slow and savour every God-given minute! "No one praises the sloth for its mastery of torpidity, for its dedication to living slowly... The sloth is the keeper of the lost art of living... in... the... moment"... I'm a fan!