Lightning of Your Eyes

New and selected Poems by Chris Searle

A selection of poems written during forty years of teaching in Britain, Africa and the Caribbean, celebrating language and education, cricket and revolution.

"He is that curious mix of guru, guerrilla and your favourite fast bowler." - A. Sivanandan

Chris Searle was born in Romford in 1944. He has worked as a teacher in Canada, Tobago, East London, Mozambique, Grenada and Sheffield. His books include Classrooms of Resistance, Words Unchained, This New Season, We''re Building the New School, The World in a Classroom, Grenada Morning and The Forsaken Lover (for which he was awarded the Martin Luther King Prize).

Dismissed in 1971 from a teaching post in Stepney when he published a book of his pupils'' poems, he was re-instated after his pupils went on strike in protest.

His previous books of poetry include Mainland (1973), Red Earth (1980) and Common Ground (1983). He was recently a Visiting Professor at York University, Toronto. At present he works for the Yemeni Community Association in Sheffield, teaching veteran ex-steelworkers and asylum seekers. He is a keen cricketer and author of a book about the game, Pitch of Life. He writes a weekly jazz column for the Morning Star.

"At his best Searle''s compassion, anger and sense of historical morality as a storyteller are reminiscent of the early Gorki. I can see no other writer in Britain with whom to compare him." - John Berger

"Searle... writes with a passion; political anger infused into his writings to provide most of the poems with energy and drive." — Other Poetry

"Searle''s poetry is characterised by a passionate political drive as a celebration of revolution that scans the continents of the world. Lightning of Your Eyes balances the energy and strident desire for change with poignant and personal recollections. Through Searle''s belief that by investing words with meaning, they become more than ink on the page, his poems themselves become vehicles for change." — The Institute of Race Relations