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    A Light Song of Light
    A Light Song of Light
    A Light Song of Light
    Ebook74 pages34 minutes

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIndependent Publishers Group
    Release dateAug 1, 2010
    ISBN9781847779236
    A Light Song of Light
    Author

    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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      Book preview

      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

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