I Been There, Sort of: New and Selected Poems

Description

Mervyn Morris is one of the most distinctive West Indian poets, his work characterised by economy, wit and humane seriousness. He makes elegant use of Jamaica's linguistic range, with poems in international standard English, Jamaican Creole and mixtures in between. These variations inflect his treatment of love, lust, time, memory, death, religion, politics, commitment, identity, history, art and other concerns. His poems frequently suggest the tension inherent in moments of choice. I Been There, Sort Of: New and Selected Poems continues the poet's exploration of self and society, 'reality' and the imagination. It brings together poems from three of Mervyn Morris's previous collections, Shadowboxing, The Pond and Examination Centre, alongside new work.

Mervyn Morris was born in Jamaica in 1937 and studied at the University College of the West Indies and St Edmund Hall, Oxford. In 1992 he was a UK Arts Council Visiting Writer-in-Residence at the South Bank Centre. His previous collections include The Pond, Shadowboxing and In Holy Week; he also edited The Faber Book of Contemporary Caribbean Short Stories, Jamaican Women (Caribbean Writers) and published Is English We Speaking: And Other Essays. He lives in Kingston, Jamaica, where he is Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing at the University of the West Indies.