Selected Poems

by Lorna Goodison

A selection of poems by Lorna Goodison, who in 2017 was named Poet Laureate of Jamaica.

Genres: Poetry

152 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Lorna Goodison was born in Jamaica, and has won numerous awards for her writing in both poetry and prose, including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Musgrave Gold Medal from Jamaica, the Henry Russel Award for Exceptional Creative Work from the University of Michigan, and one of Canada’s largest literary prizes, the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction for From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her People (2007). Her work has been included in the major anthologies and collections of contemporary poetry over the past twenty-five years, such as the Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, the Harper Collins World Reader, the Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry, the Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, and Longman Masters of British Literature.

Along with her award winning memoir, she has published three collections of short stories (including By Love Possessed, 2011) and nine collections of poetry.

Her work has been translated into many languages, and she has been a central figure at literary festivals throughout the world. Lorna Goodison teaches at the University of Michigan, where she is the Lemuel A. Johnson Professor of English and African and Afro American Studies.

Reviews

[whatbreeread]

lorna goodison is an amazing writer and that is all. her pen >>😙🤌🏾

my favs:
- to us, all flowers are roses (word play on 10)
- new york is a subway stop (the line “new york is love and lonely” got me)
- the road of the dread (love the storytelling)
- in anxiety valley (cause i can relate)
- the woman speaks to the man who has employed her son (it provides commentary on so many things and i’ve loved it since high school)

[bookblast official]

Lorna Goodison is a poet alive to places, from the loved and lived-in world of Jamaica where she began and started a family, to the United States and Canada where she has made her teaching career, but always re-connecting with her Caribbean roots.

Reviewed on The BookBlast® Diary 2017

[Arnie Kahn]

I started at the beginning and I couldn't understand many of the poems with Jamaican and Caribbean references. However, I enjoyed poems from the middle of the book. I'm going to set this aside and read more some other time.

[Nnyeka Collette]

★Length
★Plot/Themes
★Characters
★Enjoyment
★Repeatability

[Eugenia O'Neal]

Beautiful poems!

[Husayn]

good but a bit preachy and religious.