A Light Song of Light
By Kei Miller
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About this ebook
Exploring the relationship between poetry and song, the pieces in this collection work to define the elemental human struggles of good versus evil andlight against darkness. The poems take different shapes—newly forged dictionary definitions; praise-songs celebrating the Singerman in a Jamaican road gang; and simple narratives of ghosts, bandits, and other night creatures—and present an accomplished and progressive voice from a new generation of Caribbean writers.
Kei Miller
Kei Miller was born in Jamaica in 1978 and has written several books across a range of genres. His 2014 collection, The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion, won the Forward Prize for Best Collection while his 2017 Novel, Augustown, won the Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the Prix Les Afriques, and the Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe et du Tout-Monde. He is also an award-winning essayist. In 2010, the Institute of Jamaica awarded him the Silver Musgrave medal for his contributions to Literature and in 2018 he was awarded the Anthony Sabga medal for Arts & Letters. Kei has an MA in Creative Writing from Manchester Metropolitan University and a PhD in English Literature from the University of Glasgow. He has taught at the Universities of Glasgow, Royal Holloway and Exeter. He is the 2019 Ida Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor to the University of Iowa and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
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A Light Song of Light - Kei Miller
KEI MILLER
A Light Song of Light
There is no night in Zion
There is no night there
Hallelujah, there is no night there
Jah Rastafari is I light
And we need no candlelight
Hallelujah there is no night there
Rastafarian hymn
Everybody must bring their own portion of Light in this particular time
Lorna Goodison
Contents
Title Page
Epigraph
Day Time
Twelve Notes for a Light Song of Light
This Zinc Roof
Some Definitions for Song
Until you too have journeyed
Some Definitions for Light (I)
If this short poem stretches
Notice to the Public, Please Observe
Some Definitions for Light (II)
The Longest Song
A Short Biography of the Singerman
Brochure
What Can Be Accommodated
The Singerman’s Papa
The Colour of the Singerman’s Songs
In Defence of Obeah
Questions for Martin Carter
Call this apocalyptic propaganda if you must
For Cornelius Eady
Thinkin Home
Some Definitions for Light (III)
Night Time
The Lost Prophecy of Alexander Bedward
Abracadabra
Unsung
Prologue
De True Story of Rolling Calf
De True Story of Nathaniel Morgan
De True Story of Coolie Duppy
De True Story of deLaurence
A Praise Song for Sudden Lights
A Creed
A Smaller Song
For the Pilots
A Short History of Beds We Have Slept in Together
The Law Concerning Mermaids
What We Thought Were Signs
On the Ninth Night
The Singerman’s Other Job
A Parting Song
A Nine Night Song
Noctiphobia
Some Definitions for Night
About the Author
Also by Kei Miller from Carcanet Press
Copyright
Day Time
Twelve Notes for a Light Song of Light
i
A light song of light is not sung
in the light; what would be the point?
A light song of light swells up in dark
times, in wolf time and knife time,
in knuckle and blood times; it hums
a small tune in daytime, but saves
its full voice for the midnight.
ii
A light song of light spits from its mouth
the things that occasionally gather:
the dull taste of morning and cobwebs
(you would not believe their thickness),
and the strangest word – caranapa –
so much larger than its letters, a Maroon
of a word and a word so silent
it is the opposite of song.
iii
A light song of light occasionally stutters.
This is par for the course.
There is no need for concern
no need for bed-rest or vitamins
no need to take your song in
to the song specialist for treatment.
iv
But were you to take your light song in
for a thorough checking-up, a blood screening,
you might discover your song has cancer,
HIV, diabetes, is going blind in its left eye.
You may not have strength to