Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
BEFORE READING the title poem from his most recently published book, A Poet's House, Earl McKenzie recalled for the audience the words of a friend who has since died. The friend told McKenzie, retired lecturer in the University of the West Indies, Mona's Department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy, that one day his poetry, painting and philosophy would come together.
"This book is the nearest I have come to it," McKenzie said, holding up the copy of the book he was about to read from. The cover is my painting, the writing is my poetry and a lot of the poems are very philosophical," he said to those gathered in the round of the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts on Wednesday evening.
Some of his paintings, among them 'Jackfruit With Bird', 'The Re-Writer', 'Women's Eyes', 'Sugar Cane Story' and 'Marley Contemplating a Bust of Garvey' were also on display, guest speaker Jean Small delving into the philosophy behind the artwork.
PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE
And McKenzie went back, came to the present and dipped into the future in reading at his official retirement function, put on by the Language, Linguistics and Philosophy Department and hosted by its head, Hubert Devonish. But before he began reading from Against Linearity, published some time ago, McKenzie went even further into his personal history. He related that as a child growing up in the hills of St. Andrew, his mother would take him to the river, put him to sit on a stone, and talk to him as she washed. He said he has forgotten much of what she said to him, but one thing that stuck was "son, when you grow up, never be ungrateful".
"I have taken that as my motto in life. I have tried to live a grateful life," McKenzie said, to applause.
There were some chuckles when he said, "I noticed that Jamaicans seem to dislike straightness," before reading Against Linearity, which commented "knotty is the way of Jah". A Tale of Two Tongues spoke of Miss Ida praying in English and doing all other communication in patois and ended "to Miss Ida it's no bother/to laugh and suffer in one language and worship in another".
DEDICATED TO HIS PARENTS
The Makers were about his parents, McKenzie noting that in one ancient language, maker meant poet. As he came to the present, McKenzie said The Poet's House was dedicated to his parents, starting the reading from that book with the title poem. Before reading a poem about a man who carried mangoes, McKenzie smiled as he commented that he writes a lot about mangoes and women. "I wonder what they have in common?" he asked.
The Almond Leaf, written at one staging of the Calabash International Literary Festival, proved prophetic about the writer, McKenzie said, the fallen leaf relating that its days on the tree are at an end and "there is no going back". Bird Singing ("this is the story of our lives, perched on things that can kill us we sing our mortal songs") and A Peace completed the set from A Poet's House, Under The Camera and Walking coming from a
collection to be published later this year or early next year.
