A Light Song of Light

Hearing Kei Miller read is an unforgettable experience. The cadences of his Jamaican accent fit his exquisite words like a silken glove. He’s a fine performer, so it was with trepidation that I began reading A Light Song of Light – how would Miller’s writing stand up on the page alone?

I was not disappointed. A Light Song of Light is full of beautiful, graceful poems ruminating on Miller’s various identities: teacher, immigrant, gay man and, of course, poet. It’s no surprise to encounter myriad conflicts of identity here but there’s a lot of playfulness too. 

Using a number of different forms from praise songs to newly forged dictionary definitions, these poems chart the boundaries between poetry and song. The collection is split into two halves: Day Time and Night Time, exploring a range of Jamaican superstitions, phantoms and ghosts dwelling in the nocturnal world. Several poems refer to The Singerman, an almost mythical presence, who sang the songs that provided the rhythm for Jamaica's road gangs as they broke up stones. 

It’s a collection full of light and shade at once luxuriating in the temptations of the night and celebrating the songs we sing to keep out the dark. These are poems that sing from the page needing no performance.