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The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion
In this collection, acclaimed Jamaican poet Kei Miller dramatizes 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, is gradually compelled to recognize—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.
72 pages, Paperback
First published May 29, 2014
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About the author
Kei Miller
24Ìýbooks416ÌýfollowersKei Miller was born in Jamaica in 1978. He completed an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and a PhD in English literature at the University of Glasgow. He works in multiple genres - poetry, fiction and non-fiction and has won major prizes across these genres. He won the Forward Prize for poetry and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. He has taught at the Universities of Glasgow, London, and Exeter. He is presently Professor of English at the University of Miami.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 reviews
September 11, 2021
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 â€Àá³¾³¾²¹±è±è²¹²Ô³¦²ââ€� of a world that neither the dominant European culture nor its science can chart. “Him work is to make thin and crushable,â€� 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:
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 â€Àá³¾³¾²¹±è±è²¹²Ô³¦²ââ€� of a world that neither the dominant European culture nor its science can chart. “Him work is to make thin and crushable,â€� 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:
April 24, 2022
I don't usually read poetry but one of my book clubs is reading only Jamaican literature in 2017. On Youtube, I've watched Kei Miller recite some of the poems of this little book and it was amazing. This little book would do so well as an audiobook since part of it is written in Jamaican patois. Even though it is considered "poetry," it felt like a dialogue between the cartographer and the rastaman. Like in his novel , Miller contemplates the clash of different cultures and different ways of thinking. The cartographer believes in science, cartography and wants to map a way to Zion. The rastaman disagrees and introduces the cartographer to a new way of thinking and looking at places. Entire stories of places can never be mapped on a one-dimensional piece of paper. For a weekend read, this was very enjoyable.
...And then again
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
...And then again
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
July 29, 2019
This was the perfect poetry collection to be reading in tandem with A Brief History of Seven Killings. Like Marlon James, Kei Miller is a Jamaican writer who uses island patois and slang, and Rastafarian images and language, alongside standard English. Here he sets up (especially with the long, multi-part title poem) a playful contrast between the cartographer, emblem of civilization and unbiased science, and the rastaman, who takes an altogether more laidback approach to mapping his homeland:
“My job is / to untangle the tangled, / to unworry the concerned, / to guide you out from cul-de-sacs / into which you may have wrongly turned,� the cartographer boasts.
Rastaman counters: “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.�
As Miller put it when I saw him give the annual lecture and a reading at Reading Poetry Festival (October 2015), this is all about maps as colonial discourse.
I especially loved this take on the creation story: “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.�
Most of the poetry is about Jamaica � its place names, its roads, its creatures � but one of my favorite individual poems is actually an unconnected one: “When Considering the Long, Long Journey of 28,000 Rubber Ducks� (on the same subject as Moby-Duck).
Here are two images I’ll take away to keep with me as I finish Seven Killings:
“My job is / to untangle the tangled, / to unworry the concerned, / to guide you out from cul-de-sacs / into which you may have wrongly turned,� the cartographer boasts.
Rastaman counters: “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.�
As Miller put it when I saw him give the annual lecture and a reading at Reading Poetry Festival (October 2015), this is all about maps as colonial discourse.
I especially loved this take on the creation story: “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.�
Most of the poetry is about Jamaica � its place names, its roads, its creatures � but one of my favorite individual poems is actually an unconnected one: “When Considering the Long, Long Journey of 28,000 Rubber Ducks� (on the same subject as Moby-Duck).
Here are two images I’ll take away to keep with me as I finish Seven Killings:
This is no paradise � / not yet � not this unfriendly, untamed island � // this unsanitised, unstructured island � this unmannered, unmeasured island; // this island: unwritten, unsettled, unmapped.
Welcome to de dread / circle of carnage � blade to blade, bullet / to bullet, body to body, this is our country.
June 5, 2023
What a marvel! This short collection poses a conversation between a European cartographer and a Jamaican rastaman about mapping the island, but also touches on the significance and stories behind place names, and the metaphysical landscapes in the Rastafari belief system: themes of the present Babylon, the hope of Zion.
The conversational poetic style reminded me of Calvino's , interestingly also related to geographies and landscapes...
Listened to this on audio - a superior experience thanks to Miller reading his own words.
From Twenty-One
...a question has wedged itself between his learning and awakening:
How does one map a place that is not quite a place?
How does one draw towards the heart?
The conversational poetic style reminded me of Calvino's , interestingly also related to geographies and landscapes...
Listened to this on audio - a superior experience thanks to Miller reading his own words.
June 23, 2021
"But there are maps
and then again, there are maps;
for what to call the haphazard
dance of bees returning
to their hives but maps
that lead to precise
hibiscuses, their soft
storehouses of pollen?
And what to call the blood
of hummingbirds but maps
that pulse the tiny bodies across
oceans and then back?
And what are turtles born with
if not maps that break
eggs and pull them up from sand
guide them towards ocean instead of land?"
// The Cartographer... vii.
This is perhaps one of the most conceptually unified poetry collections I have read. Even the poems that don't belong to the two running sequences, they're tangentially in thematic tandem with them. Through the 27–part titular sequence, Kei Miller explores two very different ways of looking at the world, the cool rationality of the cartographer and the warm sentimentality of the rastaman. The former represents the calculating gaze of the empire while the second stands for the disarming smile of the local. I see it as a historical clash between Enlightenment reason and Romantic emotion too.
Here as well as in the "Place Name" sequence, he examines the colonial nature of maps & the destructive spread of the empire. Highlighted by the use of Standard English & Patwa, he shows how places and people resist imposition in their own ways, how they rebel and revolt against the chains that seek to bind them. So these poems are a meeting point of the real and the mythical, a site of connection and synergy.
and then again, there are maps;
for what to call the haphazard
dance of bees returning
to their hives but maps
that lead to precise
hibiscuses, their soft
storehouses of pollen?
And what to call the blood
of hummingbirds but maps
that pulse the tiny bodies across
oceans and then back?
And what are turtles born with
if not maps that break
eggs and pull them up from sand
guide them towards ocean instead of land?"
// The Cartographer... vii.
This is perhaps one of the most conceptually unified poetry collections I have read. Even the poems that don't belong to the two running sequences, they're tangentially in thematic tandem with them. Through the 27–part titular sequence, Kei Miller explores two very different ways of looking at the world, the cool rationality of the cartographer and the warm sentimentality of the rastaman. The former represents the calculating gaze of the empire while the second stands for the disarming smile of the local. I see it as a historical clash between Enlightenment reason and Romantic emotion too.
Here as well as in the "Place Name" sequence, he examines the colonial nature of maps & the destructive spread of the empire. Highlighted by the use of Standard English & Patwa, he shows how places and people resist imposition in their own ways, how they rebel and revolt against the chains that seek to bind them. So these poems are a meeting point of the real and the mythical, a site of connection and synergy.
March 7, 2020
An intriguing personification and juxtaposition of two rival worldviews, each one with a different perspective on the nature of a place's identity and the function of objective cartography. It's interesting to follow the development of the character of the cartographer through the collection of poems; initially intent on mapping out the world as a guide to locating Zion, he eventually comes to align more with the philosophy of the rastaman (the other main character), who teaches him that Zion is less a physical place than an internal state of being. A characteristically Jamaican approach to epistemology and response to the question of Platonic dualism, but one that seems to contain at least some resemblance to the truth.
Also, it's a strange feeling to read poetry written partially in a Jamaican patois.
Also, it's a strange feeling to read poetry written partially in a Jamaican patois.
July 10, 2021
"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 👀
August 4, 2019
‘The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion� presents as a contrasting dialogue between a cartographer (mapmaker) and a Rasta; both using their own methods to ‘map a way to Zion�.
Using scientific methodologies the cartographer arbitrarily maps out the land in order �...to untangle the tangled...� (i.e. civilise). On the contrary the Rasta places emphasis on the importance of community; taking a more laidback approach to determining what and where Zion is.
Many of the poems add to colonial discourse, with the cartographer’s role being 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�.
I really enjoyed the poems that delved into the hidden history of place names in Jamaica. In its totality this is a really good cohesive collection that I look forward to coming back to.
Using scientific methodologies the cartographer arbitrarily maps out the land in order �...to untangle the tangled...� (i.e. civilise). On the contrary the Rasta places emphasis on the importance of community; taking a more laidback approach to determining what and where Zion is.
Many of the poems add to colonial discourse, with the cartographer’s role being 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�.
I really enjoyed the poems that delved into the hidden history of place names in Jamaica. In its totality this is a really good cohesive collection that I look forward to coming back to.
August 3, 2020
enjoyed this immensely.. It was fun listening to Kei tell stories of Jamaican folklore and putting his own spin on things.. The cartographer's tale was told in a few poems with some poems that had nothing to do with his journey. Will be reading and listening to more of Kei's works
June 19, 2021
“Lady Musgrave’s Road was laid
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý in its serpentine way
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý so that Miss Musgrave
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý on her carriage ride home
would not have to see
a nayga man’s property
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý so much bigger than her husband’s
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý own, she did not want to feel
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý the carriage slow and know
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý her driver had just then turned
his face to Devon House,
a thing wet like pride in his eyes,
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý and nodding to himself yes,
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý is Missa Stiebel build dat. And to think
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý that such spite should pass
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý down even to the present
generation � should dictate
the thoughtless,
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý ungridded shape of our city,
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý the slowness of traffic each evening â€�
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý to think that one woman’s pride
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý should add so much to our daily
commute � this is something
the cartographer does not wish
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý to contemplate.â€�
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý in its serpentine way
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý so that Miss Musgrave
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý on her carriage ride home
would not have to see
a nayga man’s property
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý so much bigger than her husband’s
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý own, she did not want to feel
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý the carriage slow and know
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý her driver had just then turned
his face to Devon House,
a thing wet like pride in his eyes,
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý and nodding to himself yes,
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý is Missa Stiebel build dat. And to think
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý that such spite should pass
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý down even to the present
generation � should dictate
the thoughtless,
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý ungridded shape of our city,
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý the slowness of traffic each evening â€�
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý to think that one woman’s pride
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý should add so much to our daily
commute � this is something
the cartographer does not wish
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý to contemplate.â€�
February 8, 2017
This little collection of poems might seem odd when one first picks it up for reading. There seems a story within its pages; at the same time, other poems are worked through that story's form. The main story is about a cartographer who comes to map Jamaica in a scientific fashion. What he is unaware of is the cultural significance in the roads and places he's precisely measuring. At this point, he encounters a rastaman whose idea of Jamaica is historical and spiritual. The places and place names signify prior events and human situations, not immediately relevant to the cartographer's task. The rastaman's language is spoken in patois of the region. Eventually, the two characters see a little of each other's view: the mapped shape of countries can be imagined as something besides lines by the rastaman, and the idea of mapping Zion becomes the cartographer's aspiration.
July 27, 2020
The Cartographer says no
What I do is science
I show the earth as it is without bias
I never fall in love
I never get involved with the muddy affairs of land
Too much passion un-steadies the hand
I aim to show full of a place in just a glance.
Poetry is not my forte but I liked the concept of the book.
We live in a divided world and want to make it ideal. We do not want to see divisions that are made by people and want to consider the world to be a big colourless blob. But are you doing the correct thing?
Poetry can bring out various reactions and although I don't find the book great, it is a nice one.
What I do is science
I show the earth as it is without bias
I never fall in love
I never get involved with the muddy affairs of land
Too much passion un-steadies the hand
I aim to show full of a place in just a glance.
Poetry is not my forte but I liked the concept of the book.
We live in a divided world and want to make it ideal. We do not want to see divisions that are made by people and want to consider the world to be a big colourless blob. But are you doing the correct thing?
Poetry can bring out various reactions and although I don't find the book great, it is a nice one.
July 18, 2022
A satisfying short reflection on Jamaican history and landscape, and Rasta cosmology and philosophy (especially as contrasted to the mindset of the colonial cartographer). Miller mainly abides by the charming, the whimsical, and the poetical; but some of the poems are subtly sharp in their anti-racist critique:
You see, the rastaman
has always felt uneasy
in the glistening white splendour
of Great Houses; uneasy
with the way others
seem easy inside them,
their eyes that smoothly scan the green canefields
like sonnets,
as if they'd found
a measure of peace
in the brutal
architecture of history. (p. 33)
February 5, 2017
A century after McKay's Songs of Jamaica first used Jamaican dialect in serious poetry, Kei Miller's short book of poetry alternates dialect and "standard" English in a dialogue between a "cartographer" and a "rastaman". The poems in the book form a single argument, contrasting two ways of knowing, one by abstract concepts and words, the other by the small details that escape conceptual expression; two ways of reaching "Zion", here not a place but an ideal of liberation and retributive justice. A very interesting book.
February 13, 2020
This was such an enjoyable series of interconnected poems by the Jamaican author Kei Miller.
Structured as a dialogue between a rastaman speaking in Jamaican patois and a (probably not Jamaican) cartographer speaking in standard English, the poems address issues of political maps, language maps, immappability, colonialism, units of measure (distance, meter), and much more.
Structured as a dialogue between a rastaman speaking in Jamaican patois and a (probably not Jamaican) cartographer speaking in standard English, the poems address issues of political maps, language maps, immappability, colonialism, units of measure (distance, meter), and much more.
October 10, 2021
There are some original poems, but too often I felt that this volume was mapping familiar territory. Rather like Pilgrim's Progress the journey was intriguing, but not exactly unknown. Maps are symbols of questing and identity. I expected a deep probing of the psyche, but found a rather flat terrain.
March 15, 2018
kei miller made me love poetry
August 13, 2021
Brilliant. Video review
July 10, 2021
its fucking great
June 18, 2017
Jamaican poetry by Kei Miller. Pretty impressive and you find yourself reciting it in your head in a Jamaican patois in no time whatsoever! Kei pivots his poems across a theme of a cartographer trying to map out an area of land. The poem has got lots of references to race and racism and Rastafarianism. Here were some of my favourite bits:
-------------------------------------------------
The cartographer sucks his teeth
and says � every language, even yours,
is a partial map of this world � it is
the man who never learnt the word
‘scrupe� � sound of silk or chiffon moving
against a floor � such a man would not know
how to listen for the scrupe of his bride’s dress.
And how much life is land to which
we have no access? How much
have we not seen or felt or heard
because there was no word
for it � at least no word we knew?
We speak to navigate ourselves
away from dark corners and we become,
each one of us, cartographers.
----------------------------------------------------
“the unkindness of ravens,
the descents of woodpeckers,
the murders of crows,
a hymn then not to birds but to words
which themselves feel like feather and wing and light
as if it were of the delicacy of such sweet syllables
that flocks take flight.�
------------------------------------------------------
Distance is always reduced at night
The drive from Kingston to Montego Bay is not so far
Nor the distance between ourselves and the stars
And at night there is almost nothing between
The things we say, and the things we mean.
-------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
The cartographer sucks his teeth
and says � every language, even yours,
is a partial map of this world � it is
the man who never learnt the word
‘scrupe� � sound of silk or chiffon moving
against a floor � such a man would not know
how to listen for the scrupe of his bride’s dress.
And how much life is land to which
we have no access? How much
have we not seen or felt or heard
because there was no word
for it � at least no word we knew?
We speak to navigate ourselves
away from dark corners and we become,
each one of us, cartographers.
----------------------------------------------------
“the unkindness of ravens,
the descents of woodpeckers,
the murders of crows,
a hymn then not to birds but to words
which themselves feel like feather and wing and light
as if it were of the delicacy of such sweet syllables
that flocks take flight.�
------------------------------------------------------
Distance is always reduced at night
The drive from Kingston to Montego Bay is not so far
Nor the distance between ourselves and the stars
And at night there is almost nothing between
The things we say, and the things we mean.
-------------------------------------------------------
Read
May 26, 2020So 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
October 11, 2017
An expertly crafted book of poetry, full of heartfelt knowledge of a place that the author has left to reside elsewhere. The cartographer and the rastaman represent two different ways of knowledge, one rational and calculating, representing an imperialistic perspective, the other mystical and musical, representing a local resistance. If--even in the evidently sincere clash of views, perhaps expressing the conflict in the author--some of the poems feel overly explanatory (the Place Names poems, for instance, even though the explanations may be more invented than real), conceding too much to the ignorant curiosity of Western minds, the collection is still suffused with a strong sense of self-discovery and self-making, which asserts the autonomy of the post-colonial subject. My favorite poem, which does not explain too much, is the extremely moving "My Mother's Atlas of Dolls." Here, the author is not trying to justify himself, but attempting to do justice to one who has never left.
October 26, 2015
Heard Kei on the radio a couple of weeks ago, and was struck by the lyricism and musicality of his poetry. I love the interplay between cultured academic and the cartographer (yes, you find out half way that the Rastaman is the academic, with PhD ( from Glasgow, like Kei himself ).
Setting a limit on what empirical truth can discover, and like the Poem xi, seeing how our prejudices can cause our route to swerve from places we feel threatened, the cartographer embraces spiritual truth alongside his own 2 D representation of 3d space.
This a lovely, challenging, and a pleasure to read. So pleased I bought it on impulse :)
So
"...Know then that every heartbless
given is collected by Jah like mickle and muckle,
or like a basketful of cocoa, and comes back to you
like a dividend."
Setting a limit on what empirical truth can discover, and like the Poem xi, seeing how our prejudices can cause our route to swerve from places we feel threatened, the cartographer embraces spiritual truth alongside his own 2 D representation of 3d space.
This a lovely, challenging, and a pleasure to read. So pleased I bought it on impulse :)
So
"...Know then that every heartbless
given is collected by Jah like mickle and muckle,
or like a basketful of cocoa, and comes back to you
like a dividend."
October 13, 2014
This is easily one of the best poetry collections that I have read for the year. I simply could not put it down. An ambitious, yet fresh approach to colonialism.it most certainly uses a novel way of interlacing Jamaican language with the 'standard' English. Miller establishes a Rasta poetics, employing the musicality and 'I' ness of the language with the mythology of Zion. This is a great development of the work Miss Lou started in her poetry and she would have been proud to see the way Miller is pushing/ playing / experimenting with the Jamaican language.
June 25, 2016
I really enjoyed this collection of poetry.
I've not read a collection that told a story in the way this one does.
In poetic form it tracks the journey and discussion of the narrator and the cartographer, looking at issues of language, maps, colonialism and imperialism. The structure of some of the poems was not in a typical fashion and that seemed in fitting with the message about maps wiping out the actual features of the island, compared to spoken poetry and the written forms it is supposed to adopt. I can see why this won the Forward Prize.
I've not read a collection that told a story in the way this one does.
In poetic form it tracks the journey and discussion of the narrator and the cartographer, looking at issues of language, maps, colonialism and imperialism. The structure of some of the poems was not in a typical fashion and that seemed in fitting with the message about maps wiping out the actual features of the island, compared to spoken poetry and the written forms it is supposed to adopt. I can see why this won the Forward Prize.
April 10, 2020
“you cyaa climb into zion on anansy web�
i loved everything about this. the dialogue between the rasta and the cartographer; the lyrical way in which the collection was written; seeing jamaica from both the same and different perspectives� truly great work"
i loved everything about this. the dialogue between the rasta and the cartographer; the lyrical way in which the collection was written; seeing jamaica from both the same and different perspectives� truly great work"
May 8, 2019
“Know this, that lions who trod don’t worry bout reaching Zion. In time is Zion that reach to the lions.�
June 29, 2019
Calming, spiritual, lively read out loud poetry with a Jamaican accent.
November 2, 2019
Set text for university
May 17, 2021
This was beautiful. Highly recommend the audio version read by the author.
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