JESUS TAKES LEAVE OF MARY AND GOES INTO THE DESERTPlenty hard to believe my son turnthirty dis winter season just gone!Not dat me never watchevery minute, each day, as him grow.But is like you see and you don’t notice,and den, all of a sudden dis bigsomebody hold you face in him handkiss you on you forehead,say, “Mums, I going now.”Never mind how much timeI protest and ask why him must gooff alone to a place wid no water, no food,not a green thing to lift him spirit...“Mums,” him say “why I wouldleave dis house, you and Gran, best cook foodin dis town, my sistren and bredren,and de whole family, plus de woodworking, too,all I love, if it was up to me?”I breathe deep, gaze on himfrom him head to him toe, one last time.“See three loaf of new bread I just bakein dat bag, and a wineskin your gransend wid Judith daughter dis morning.She say, send, tell her when you going.“I going stop by de yardas I leaving, to tell Gran goodbye.Big thanks for de eats and de drink,but you know my food in de wildgoing be fasting and prayer, my Mums.I sure you don’t want my Papa up so...”and him turn him eye up to de sky,“to vex wid me right as I start out?”“Why you can’t pray here, son?I will keep food and drink far from you.I will honour your fast. Is a thing I do forJoseph plenty times when him was still wid us.”Him bend down and kiss me,say, “Mums, dis not de worst.Me must get ready for some dread things.”When I go to answer, him put one finger onmy lip. “Hush, Mums,” him repeat,“believe me, if de choosing was mineI would stay.”And him look round de room,touch de big water jug, scuff de rugwid him foot, take him staffand walk through de door –never turn him head round to look back.
From de book of Mary
About Pamela Mordecai
Pamela ('Pam') Mordecai’s previous collections of poetry include Journey Poem (1989); de Man, a performance poem (1995); Certifiable (2001); The True Blue of Islands (2005), and Subversive Sonnets (2012). de book of Mary, from which “Jesus Takes Leave of Mary and Goes into the Desert” comes, will appear in fall, 2015. In 2006 she published Pink Icing, a collection of short stories; her first novel, Red Jacket, appeared in February, 2015. She has edited and co-edited ground-breaking anthologies of Caribbean writing including Jamaica Woman (1980, 1985, with Mervyn Morris); From Our Yard: Jamaican Poetry since Independence (1987); Her True-True Name: An Anthology of Women's Writing from the Caribbean (1989, with Betty Wilson) and Calling Cards: New Poetry from Caribbean/ Canadian Women (2005). Her play, El Numero Uno had its world premiere at the Loraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People in Toronto in 2010. In spring 2014, she was a fellow at the prestigious Yaddo artists' community in upstate New York yaddo.org. Pam and her family immigrated to Canada in 1994. She lives with her husband, Martin, in Kitchener, Ontario.
By Kwame Dawes
After my survey of Jamaican poetry appeared last week, I received many calls from people about how to get hold of some of the key titles by Jamaican poets. Of course, many of the works of these poets are long out of print, but there is a rich range and body of poetry that is still in print and that would reward the time and resources spent to acquire them. Needless to say, this list is an edited list - meaning it is selective and somewhat, though guardedly, subjective. It is, in other words, hardly comprehensive in the same way that the survey was not. It will reflect embarrassing omissions, and for those I apologise in advance.
There are a number of anthologies that feature Jamaican poetry that will offer an even broader range of work to supplement what I have listed here. And for those who are interested in watching some of the poets in action, I strongly encourage you to search out names on YouTube, where most of these poets do appear performing their work. Of special interest in that regard would be anything by Mikey Smith, Jean Binta Breeze, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Owen Blakka Ellis, Lillian Allen, Michael St George, and Staceyann Chin, to name just a few. Finally, a great resource would be The Poetry Archive in the UK, where some of our major poets are featured: (http://www.poetryarchive.org/poet [2]).
JAMAICAN POETRY BOOK SAMPLER
Olive Senior Gardening in the Tropics (Idiomatic, Canada, 2009)
Tony McNeill Chinese Lanterns from the Blue Child (Peepal Tree, UK, 1998)
Lorna Goodison Controlling the Silver (University of Michigan Press, 2006)
George Campbell First Poems (Peepal Tree Press, UK, 2011)
LKJ - Selected Poems (Penguin, UK, 2006)
Geoffrey Philp Florida Bound (Peepal Tree UK, 1998)
Tanya Shirley She Who Sleeps with Bones (Peepal Tree, UK, 2009)
Mervyn Morris - I Been There Sort Of: New and Selected Poems (Carcanet, UK, 2006)
Dennis Scott - Uncle Time (University of Pittsburg Press, US, 1973)
Ishion Hutchison - Far District (Peepal Tree, UK, 2010)
Ann Margaret Lim - Festival of Wild Orchid (Peepal Tree UK, 2013)
Edward Baugh - It Was the Singing (Sandberry Press, JA, 2000)
Velma Pollard - Shame Trees Don't Grow Here (Peepal Tree UK, 1992)
SharaMacallum - The Face of Water: New and Selected Poems (Peepal Tree, UK, 2011)
Jean Binta Breeze - Spring Cleaning (Virago, UK, 1992)
Donna Aza Weir Soley - First Rain (Peepal Tree, 2006)
Millicent Graham - The Damp in Things (Peepal Tree, 2009)
Colin Channer - Providential (Akashic Books, US/ Peepal Tree, UK, 2015)
Kei Miller - Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion (Carcanet, UK 2014)
Mutabaruka - The Next Poems/The First Poems (Paul Issa Publications, 2005)
Neville Dawes - Fugue and Other Writings (Peepal Tree, 2012)
Louise Bennet - Aunty Roachy Seh: Selected Poems (Sangster, 1993
Claude McKay - Complete Poems (University of Illinois, US, 2014)
Mark McMorris - Entrepot (Coffee House Press, US, 2010)
Benjamin Zephaniah Too Black, Too Strong (Bloodaxe Books, UK, 2001)
Pamela Mordecai - Subversive Sonnets (TSAR Publications, Canada, 2012)
Louis Simpson - Struggling Times (BOA US, 2009)
Marcia Douglas - Electricity Cone to Cocoa Bottom (Peepal Tree, UK, 1999)
Opal Palmer Adisa - 4-Headed Woman (Tia Chucha Press, US, 2013)
Ralph Thompson - View from Mount Diablo (Peepal Tree, UK, 2003)
Claudia Rankine - Citizen: An American Lyric (Graywolf Press, US, 2014)
Poetry books by Jamaican authors
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/art-leisure/20150809/poetry-books-jamaican-authors#.VckNg38ZinY.mailto
