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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
read for class, so no rating, but wow, i really loved this.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
This collection is so good and a cohesive telling of Jamaican history.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence
emotional
informative
medium-paced
Jah’s Map Is Not Babylon’s Map
An intellectually and emotionally profound exposition about being Jamaican. Rastafarianism is a creative response to a history of enslaved dislocation, imposed religion, and the continuing degradation of colonialism. Kei Miller’s poetry treats the movement with respect, wit, and humour. He knows about the “Immappancy” of a world that neither the dominant European culture nor its science can chart. “Him work is to make thin and crushable,” he says about those who think they can analyse and measure their way to truth:
Quite apart from the joy of following Miller as he flows in and out of dialect and poetic forms is the discovery of whole new worlds of words like quashie, tegareg, and macka. I suggest this as a handy guide: https://jamaicans.com/speak-jamaican/
An intellectually and emotionally profound exposition about being Jamaican. Rastafarianism is a creative response to a history of enslaved dislocation, imposed religion, and the continuing degradation of colonialism. Kei Miller’s poetry treats the movement with respect, wit, and humour. He knows about the “Immappancy” of a world that neither the dominant European culture nor its science can chart. “Him work is to make thin and crushable,” he says about those who think they can analyse and measure their way to truth:
“the mapmaker’s work is to make visible
all them things that shoulda never exist in the first place
like the conquest of pirates, like borders,
like the viral spread of governments”
[so says the rastaman]
“The rastaman thinks, draw me a map of what you see
then I will draw a map of what you never see
and guess me whose map will be bigger than whose?
Guess me whose map will tell the larger truth?”
“For the rastaman – it is true – dismisses
too easily the cartographic view;
believes himself slighted
by its imperial gaze. And the ras says
it’s all a Babylon conspiracy
de bloodclawt immappancy of dis world –
maps which throughout time have gripped like girdles
to make his people smaller than they were.”
Quite apart from the joy of following Miller as he flows in and out of dialect and poetic forms is the discovery of whole new worlds of words like quashie, tegareg, and macka. I suggest this as a handy guide: https://jamaicans.com/speak-jamaican/
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
So far, this poetry collection is what I hope poetry can do and can make me feel. To be fair, I have read little poetry, so saying this, is based on just a few works. This format however, was amazing. Poems that work together to partly tell a story - a story of a Cartographer and a Rastaman having a conversation, which goes deep, that goes through many places. Here I have to insert another kind of 'warning'. I feel that many poems often had more meaning to them than I could grasp. This might be just my impression, or me being too harsh on myself. However, it may have been just because of that that reading this was an experience that left me brimming with energy.
I hope the following lines help to illustrate a bit of the beautiful language Kei Miller uses, even though out of context:
"...And what to call the blood
of hummingbirds but maps
that pulse the tiny bodies across
oceans and then back?..."
Part of poem vii p. 22
I hope the following lines help to illustrate a bit of the beautiful language Kei Miller uses, even though out of context:
"...And what to call the blood
of hummingbirds but maps
that pulse the tiny bodies across
oceans and then back?..."
Part of poem vii p. 22
Je commence un plus à l'apprécier (c'est un livre que j'étudie en littérature anglaise) car certains poèmes sont pas mal (What the Mapmaker Ought to Know; i. in which the cartographer explains himself; xx. in which the cartographer tells off the rastaman; Distance) et puis certains qui m'énervaient car je comprenais rien (il y a du patois Jamaïcain) que je comprends maintenant.
"The rastaman thinks, draw me a map of what you see
then I will draw a map of what you never see
and guess me whose map will be bigger than whose?
Guess me whose map will tell the larger truth?"
This was pure beauty, I don't know what to say... Really recommend you to have a friend who has annotated the poems
then I will draw a map of what you never see
and guess me whose map will be bigger than whose?
Guess me whose map will tell the larger truth?"
This was pure beauty, I don't know what to say... Really recommend you to have a friend who has annotated the poems
