Praise for Love in a Time of Technology:

 

"[T]he poet's mastery of the English language is underwritten by ancestral histories and myths. Love is age-old and universal . . . Persaud is a poet of precise language, of the finely-honed meaning . . ."

—Wasafiri (London)

 

"Persaud's poems are spiced with the imagery of his ancestral India—Hindu gods, rituals, lavish epics, and seductive flowers . . . Persaud seems both haunted and inspired by the notion that America shelters so few who have any true ancestral claim to the place . . . Reading Persaud's verse, it's hard not to feel, and in any way be heartened by, the sense that each one of us is, in one way or another, an exile."

—Bostonia (Boston)

 

 

 

 

Praise for Lantana Strangling Ixora:

 

“A diverse and wide-ranging collection of poems . . . explored with his signature wit and skillful mastery of language . . . powerful images of nature are to be found in his accomplished use of metaphor and simile, which often renders the ordinary into something quite extraordinary . . . a finely balanced collection of work which carefully mixes the past with the present without ever resorting to sentimentality or pathos.”

—Wasafiri

 

“Beguiling . . . masterly control”

—Muse India 

 

“In this collection, Persaud’s elegant poems, though they linger heavily on loss, are quietly reassuring.”

—Bostonia 

 

“Do not look for meaning and logic or even sense in these poems. Just submit yourself to enjoying the craft and the magic that results . . . Lines and stanzas break at seemingly unexpected times as only the accomplished can risk.”

—Guyana Times 

 

 “Persaud is dauntlessly brainy . . . a bit like reading T.S. Eliot mixed up with Rabindranath Tagore . . . Persaud’s poems are unapologetically learned.”

—The Halifax Chronicle Herald

 

“Scottish poet Kenneth White calls poetry the shortest form of the short story. This is certainly true of this fine collection…both fascinating and challenging, the same way . . . Rabindranath Tagore [was] fascinating and challenging . . . so many years ago: poems that challenge and make one think . . .”

—Asiatic    

 

 

Praise for In a Boston Night:

 

"[Persaud's] poetry [is] timeless in nature in its discussions of sensuality, love and mourning, but also modern for its interspersion of technology and discussion of contemporary politics . . . refreshingly sensual and realistic."

— News India Times

 

"Each poem, held on the tongue, tastes true--he's one of those rare poets who gets the recipe of humanness exactly right"

—Canadian Literature

 

"A richly nuanced, multilayered collection of voices"

—Confluence