Reprise 168
Reunion 84
Riding Hood: Version 70
The Roaches 169
Satirist 214
Seen 97
Sentences for Heritage Week 170
Shadows 40
She 39
She Tells Her Analyst 104
She Tells Herself 103
Short Story 68
Simon of Cyrene 133
Sister 98
Snapshot 76
Soldiers 132
Sometimes 212
Soprano 231
Storyboard 83
Storypoem 32
Stripper 27
Swimmer 182
Teacher 186
A Temperate Love Poem 58
Terminal 226
Thank-You Note 19
There Was a Young Poet 16
They 10
Thomas 143
To a Crippled Schoolmaster 160
To an Expatriate Friend 203
To an Interviewer 181
To Tell the Truth 53
To the Unknown Non-Combatant 204
Toasting a Muse 36
Togetherness 62
Tournament 180
Transitions 150
Tunnel 35
Tutorial 29
University Study 183
Valley Prince 44
Version 66
A Voyage 63
Walk Good 3
Web 12
West Indian Love Song 57
Why, This is Hull 118
Windscreen 11
A Woman Named Mary 134
Womansong 64
A Word 217
Working Out 38
Workshop 67
Writing 37
Young Widow, Grave 223
Zoo Story 46
INDEX OF FIRST LINES
& here we are 219
A drum thumps, faraway; 197
a fellow in the madhouse cries 45
a giving 88
a left jab 38
‘A marvellous otaheite 66
A routine love that hangs its hat 109
A rush of boys reporting in. 162
A somewhat intellectual moth, 107
a stone’s throw 167
A wreath of mourners 223
a wrinkled head 69
after a shower 225
after a thorough 111
An unfamiliar bed 189
And then I tried to pass the buck; 129
Anodda year of love. 100
Another friend arraigns me: 196
Antennae register 82
as both were 74
At a sleazy club where strippers are on view 27
At every border stood a wall. 18
at home on stage 81
At home with his creative curse 201
Authenticity for you 48
Behind the curtain, when we knew 209
Bend, boy, bend: a dog’s 159
beneath the undulating 98
Bereavement singing 220
Between convivial 237
‘Beware, beware their evil song: 63
Beware: the following secular depiction 123
beyond the longing 97
bomb-disposal 75
brave woman 99
but further in 9
Charming, malicious, brilliant, 213
Clinton and Barbara, 120
Colour meant nothing. Anyone 203
Curtain. 156
De garage people 11
Dem beg him, beg him, till dem sick 194
Dem use to seh 7
Dilapidated room, 33
Discombobulated 105
Doan bodder widdim, Master; him 137
Down 35
England, autumn, dusk – 178
Everyone suddenly burst out screaming 191
eyes no longer 153
facts lie 50
Faraway eyes 26
Father, given a chance to be 112
first you say 19
Flaunting his gym-toned pectorals, 72
full tabernacle 152
Grandma, much younger 92
Greatness 181
Green fields 228
he basked in admiration 224
He came on like a navigator 184
he casually decodes 67
He didn’t spend six whole days on the world, 148
He lived 229
He loved her madly, 235
he planted plenty seed 31
he seemed a proper granny 70
He seemed forever full of fun – 149
he sits there 108
He’s off into the night 80
her laughter quivers 73
Her partner is a skeleton. 215
Hey! Boy! If you are God 132
His conversation flattered; she said yes 116
His early work was radiant 234
His mother told him of the king’s 163
Hoarfrost glimmering beyond 58
How carefully they walk 68
i am sinking 64
I am the man that build his house on shit 198
I dreamt 21
I dreamt us strolling, arm in loving arm, 128
I fished; but he was deep. 140
i press your eyes 76
I slam the door. ‘Dear, are you positive 240
i sleep & wake 79
i used to burn my poems 53
‘I’m strange,’ 29
I’m in a meeting 195
I’ve seen it often: 138
In 19-something X was born 192
In a dusty old crumbling building just fit for rats 165
In church triumphant 150
In love, and reverently inclined, 85
In spite of love 86
in the agonising 239
In the bookshop 190
in this 24
last night 207
last week a tripper 22
Life of the party, he’s 95
long long ago 84
Look that fellow how he staring 185
Lord of our diversity, 147
Love gave her eyes: 83
Lying in the dark together 62
Me, crying; just outside the tomb. 142
Me one, way out in the crowd, 44
Mine history 170
My ancestors 175
My father smoked 233
Negotiating strangers 6
No strangers here 93
Nostalgic devils ‘playing for fun’ 180
Not a cloud in sight: 77
Not long ago 179
november sunlight 52
O Father – if it be thy will – 124
O Jesus, you were right: 131
Ol’ plantation wither, 202
on a grey day 118
One evening in another town 216
One man who came to dinner 36
out of that pain 174
Out of the shadow an awkward figure 54
Peel-head john-crow circling 218
please to 217
Questions about meaning 65
Reaching out 41
resentfully awake 210
Satirical vision: 214
Saturday is pictures evening, 157
say family 227
She knew 71
She smiled and smiled and seemed to be 78
She’s black 101
She’s withering 226
skeins of 12
Something like love 103
Sometimes 94
sometimes a poem 15
Sometimes, avoiding trouble, we accept defeat. 141
‘Sometimes,’ he said, ‘when it was hot as hell 212
So they all had tea on the ceiling, 49
So you is God? 136
Stay away she told me 115
stuck in there 34
Stumbling down his own oesophagus 8
Sure, I’m lacking faith. It’s just 143
susceptible 117
tangling 39
Teck time 3
That boy who love
d you 106
That evening, not so long ago, 126
That powerful swimmer 182
That world I knew was all too plain: 51
The blind man led by a little boy 188
The chap’s a madman rather than a liar: 125
The day my father died 221
The game is metaphor. 13
the garden 154
The gentlemen were rough 187
The Great Majumboes 208
The grey beast, smiling, 211
the lady dreams 59
The language they’re conducted in 176
the lovely pregnant lady 89
The lovers kissing 110
The moon begat our love 57
the old man 151
The pressure of the public made it smart 205
The ritual is well-known: 113
The thing had wings 42
the vaulted building 4
The window opened 183
The young man, 114
Then shall the poet say: 30
There is a place inside me 104
There was a young poet 16
There was this pond in the village 25
They charged him with a lack of guts 173
They praise you for commitment, 200
They said, concerning Richard Dadd, 43
they say 231
they tapped and tapped on the shell 10
they’re grappling for you 46
They’re lying; lying, all of them: 206
Time and the changing passions played them tricks, 171
To see him 139
to you 5
Until the fascinating snake 155
Unusually perceptive human being, 230
Viewing the body endlessly 232
was into painting 172
Watching you swell 90
Weep not for me but for yourselves 135
We get a good view here. 134
We had a home. The roaches came 169
We hear you 199
We try to smother 20
well 32
What now if honesty should choose 168
When Granny died 236
When in some solitary hour 37
When I was stumbling 47
When, my sweet, 60
When the battle started 204
When the man taps out 40
when the wild guitarist 238
When you woo her 28
whispering ancestors 164
who are 23
Why me? It’s 133
You have been Jamaica’s 177
You’re here. 119
Your dark eye is a prism 193
your eyes 96
Your foreign intervention helped 186
Your mouth contorting in brief spite and hurt, 91
Your study doubled as a Common Room, 160
‘Yours, but only partly 14
About the Author
MERVYN MORRIS (b. 1937 in Kingston, Jamaica) studied at the University College of the West Indies and, as a Rhodes Scholar, at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He taught at the University of the West Indies, retiring in 2002 as Professor of Creative Writing and West Indian Literature.
He is the author of ‘Is English We Speaking’ and Other Essays (1999), Making West Indian Literature (2005) and Miss Lou: Louise Bennett and Jamaican Culture (2014). His collections of poetry are The Pond (1973, revised 1997), Shadowboxing (1979), Examination Centre (1992), Vestiges (a limited edition, 1996), On Holy Week (1976, 1993, 2016), and I been there, sort of: New and Selected Poems (2006). A Poetry Archive recording of him reading became available in 2011. He received Jamaica’s Order of Merit in 2009, and was appointed Poet Laureate in 2014.
Also by Mervyn Morris
POETRY
The Pond
Shadowboxing
Examination Centre
Vestiges
On Holy Week
I been there, sort of
CRITICISM & BIOGRAPHY
‘Is English We Speaking’ and Other Essays
Making West Indian Literature
Miss Lou: Louise Bennett and Jamaican Culture
Copyright
Every effort has been made by the publisher to reproduce the formatting of the original print edition in electronic format. However, poem formatting may change according to reading device and font size.
First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Carcanet Press Ltd, Alliance House, 30 Cross Street, Manchester M2 7AQ.
This eBook edition first published in 2017.
Text copyright © Mervyn Morris, 2017, all rights reserved. The right of Mervyn Morris to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publisher, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Epub ISBN 9781784104597
Mobi ISBN 9781784104603
PDF ISBN 9781784104610
The publisher acknowledges financial assistance from Arts Council England.
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