The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion E-Book

Kei Miller

• Herausgeber: Carcanet Poetry
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Seitenzahl: 42

Beschreibung

In his new collection, acclaimed Jamaican poet Kei Miller dramatises what happens when one system of knowledge, one method of understanding place and territory, comes up against another. We watch as the cartographer, used to the scientific methods of assuming control over a place by mapping it ( I never get involved / with the muddy affairs of land'), is gradually compelled to recognise - even to envy - a wholly different understanding of place, as he tries to map his way to the rastaman's eternal city of Zion. As the book unfolds the cartographer learns that, on this island of roads that constrict like throats', every place-name comes freighted with history, and not every place that can be named can be found.

Leseprobe

KEI MILLER

The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion

Acknowledgements

Versions of some of these poems have previously appeared in Caribbean Beat, The Dark Horse and Draconian Switch. The poem ‘Place Name: Edinburgh Castle’ was written as a commission for the Empire Café for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, 2014.

 

The writing of this collection was largely made possible thanks to the Caribbean Rhodes Trust and, specifically, the Rex Nettleford Fellowship in Cultural Studies which the trust awarded me.

 

I livicate these poems to the bredrens and sistrens of ‘Occupy Pinnacle’, still fighting for Zion, still fighting for a rightful portion of land.

She hope dem caution worl-map

Fi stop draw Jamaica small

For de lickle speck cyaan show

We independantness at all!

 

Moresomever we must tell map dat

We don’t like we position –

Please kindly tek we out a sea

An draw we in de ocean

 

          – Louise Bennett

 

Any any where Rastafari trod

Any any where Rastafari trod

Any any where Rastafari trod

Babylon a follow

 

Only one place him cannot trod

Only one place him cannot trod

Only one place him cannot trod

Holy Mount Zion

 

          – Rastafari chant

Contents

Title PageAcknowledgementsEpigraphGroundationThe Shrug of JahEstablishing the MetreQuashie’s VerseUnsettledWhat the Mapmaker Ought to KnowThe Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion i. in which the cartographer explains himselfii. in which the rastaman disagreesiii.iv.v. in which the rastaman offers an invitationvi.vii.viii.A Prayer for the Unflummoxed Beaverix. in which the cartographer travels lengths and breadthsPlace Name: Me-No-Sen-You-No-Comex. in which the cartographer asks for directionsxi.A Ghazal for the Tethered GoatsRoadsxii. in which the rastaman begins to feel uncomfortablexiii.xiv.Place Name: SwampFor the Croaking LizardsPlace Name: Wait-A-Bitxv.xvi. in which every song is singing Zionxvii.Place Name: ShotoverPlace Name: Corn Puss Gapxviii.xix.xx. in which the cartographer tells off the rastamanPlace Name: Half Way TreePlace Name: Edinburgh CastleHymn to the Birdsxxi.Filop Plays the Role of Papa Ghede (2010)DistanceWhen Considering the Long, Long Journey of 28,000 Rubber Ducksxxii.xxiii.xxiv. in which the cartographer attends Reggae SumfestThe Blood ClothsPlace Name: Bloody BayFor Pat Saunders, West Indian Literature Critic, after her Dreamxxv.In Praise of MapsMy Mother’s Atlas of DollsPlace Name: Flog ManPlace Name: Try SeeWhat River Mumma Knowsxxvi. in which the rastaman gives a sermonxxvii. in which the rastaman says a benediction NotesAbout the AuthorAlso by Kei Miller from Carcanet PressCopyright

Groundation

So begin this thing

with an Abu ye! Abu ye! Abu ye!

A heartbless. Step out

from the case of your sandals,

stand shoeless. Allow your knees

and then your forehead an intimacy

with stone; know your ground.

The emperor that landed here

in 1966 was led down his ites

and gold and green plane

by a rastaman. And tell me,

was it all for show –

the way he scorned

the red rolled out for him?

He walked, instead, on common

ground – the hem of Selassie’s trousers

brushed the dust of Babylon.

Reach through history; touch

this kneeling crowd – the tarmac

soft against the substance of its faith.

The Shrug of Jah

                                                     In the long ago beginning

                                                     the world was unmapped.

It was nothing really –

                     just a shrug of Jah

something he hadn’t thought    all the way through

Our world was neither here          nor there

                                        with him

and neither                                here nor there

                              with itself.

          A world

                    which did not know

                                        if it would stay

                                        or go.

                             No.

                                        or go.

                                        if it would stay

                    which did not know

          A world

                             with itself.

and neither                                 here nor there

                                         with him

Our world was neither here        nor there

something he hadn’t thought        all the way through

                    just a shrug of Jah.

It was nothing really –

                                                     the world was unmapped.

                                                     In the long ago beginning

Establishing the Metre

Like tailors who must know their clients’ girths

     two men set out to find the sprawling measure of the earth.

        They walked the curve from Rodez to Barcelona,

           and Barcelona to Dunkirk. Such a pilgrimage!

             They did not call it inches, miles or chains –