The poems journey from Jamaica to New York, to what it really means to be a Caribbean immigrant, and have to make do with unfulfilled or foiled dreams. Mostly, the poems are about love -- enduring, long-lasting, gifted -- written by one who bathes and dresses in love. So read these poems, and experience unconditional love.

-- Opal Palmer Adisa, author of Caribbean Passion

First Rain is part memoir through poetry, part mythological journey. Through vivid and haunting narratives,Weir-Soley alters the expected scheme of things, changing how her readers see the world. She gives us a creation fable through Criolla, the origin of the Creole language. She confronts Mawu, the supreme creator of the Ga. In addition, Weir-Soley’s storytelling includes family legends, those of home, emigration, and displacement. First Rain is an amazing and passionate book, with poems of nuanced meditation and engaging thought-provoking anecdote.

-- Denise Duhamel

Donna Weir-Soley is a poet of roots and rootlessness, of homecoming and exile. Her fine ear for nation language and the music of human speech is grounded in the soil of her native Jamaica, from which these poems emerge as vibrantly as jackfruit, ackee and soursop. First Rain is an important and delightful addition to the literature of the Caribbean-American experience.
-- Campbell McGrath

Poet and critic Donna Aza Weir-Soley was born and grew up in Jamaica. She currently teaches at Florida International University.