In his new collection, acclaimed Jamaican poet Kei Miller dramatises what happens when one system of knowledge, one method of understanding place and territory, comes up against another. We watch as the cartographer, used to the scientific methods of assuming control over a place by mapping it ('I never get involved / with the muddy affairs of land'), is gradually compelled to recognise - even to envy - a wholly different understanding of place, as he tries to map his way to the rastaman's eternal city of Zion. As the book unfolds the cartographer learns that, on this island of roads that 'constrict like throats', every place-name comes freighted with history, and not every place that can be named can be found.
Groundation The Shrug of Jah Establishing the Metre Quashie's Verse Unsettled What the Mapmaker Ought to Know The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zioni. in which the cartographer explains himself ii. in which the rastaman disagrees iii. iv. v. in which the rastaman offers an invitation vi. vii. viii. A Prayer for the Unflummoxed Beaver ix. in which the cartographer travels lengths and breadths Place Name: Me-No-Sen-You-No-Come x. in which the cartographer asks for directions xi. A Ghazal for the Tethered Goats Roads xii. in which the rastaman begins to feel uncomfortable xiii. xiv. Place Name: Swamp For the Croaking Lizards Place Name: Wait-A-Bit xv. xvi. in which every song is singing Zion xvii. Place Name: Shotover Place Name: Corn Puss Gap xviii. xix. xx. in which the cartographer tells off the rastaman Place Name: Half Way Tree Place Name: Edinburgh Castle Hymn to the Birds xxi. Filop Plays the Role of Papa Ghede (2010) Distance When Considering the Long, Long Journey of 28,000 Rubber Ducks xxii. xxiii. xxiv. in which the cartographer attends Reggae SumfestThe Blood Cloths Place Name: Bloody Bay For Pat Saunders, West Indian Literature Critic, after her Dream xxv. In Praise of Maps My Mother's Atlas of Dolls Place Name: Flog Man Place Name: Try See What River Mumma Knows xxvi. in which the rastaman gives a sermon xxvii. in which the rastaman says a benediction
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