Poem
Kei Miller
WHAT THE MAPMAKER OUGHT TO KNOW
WHAT THE MAPMAKER OUGHT TO KNOW
WHAT THE MAPMAKER OUGHT TO KNOW
On this island things fidget.Even history.
The landscape does not sit
willingly
as if behind an easel
holding pose
waiting on
someone
to pencil
its lines, compose
its best features
or unruly contours.
Landmarks shift,
become unfixed
by earthquake
by landslide
by utter spite.
Whole places will slip
out from your grip.
© 2015, Kei Miller
From: The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion
Publisher: Carcanet, Manchester
From: The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion
Publisher: Carcanet, Manchester
Kei Miller
(Jamaica, 1978)
‘You might say
my job is not
to lose myself exactly
but to imagine
what loss might feel like –‘
Quick introduction
Kei Miller is a Jamaican poet who has been making an international furore on the poetry scene since his first collection Kingdom of empty bellies came out in 2006. His collections and novels have won numerous awards, up to and including his most recent collection Things I...
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Poems of Kei Miller
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WHAT THE MAPMAKER OUGHT TO KNOW
On this island things fidget.Even history.
The landscape does not sit
willingly
as if behind an easel
holding pose
waiting on
someone
to pencil
its lines, compose
its best features
or unruly contours.
Landmarks shift,
become unfixed
by earthquake
by landslide
by utter spite.
Whole places will slip
out from your grip.
From: The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion
WHAT THE MAPMAKER OUGHT TO KNOW
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