[Many thanks to poet Geoffrey Philp for bringing this item to our attention.] Last Reel (Ian Randle Publishers, 2024) is the latest collection of poetry by Mervyn Morris, who was Poet Laureate of Jamaica (2014–2017). This is his eighth book of poetry. As Michael Reckord (The Gleaner) writes, the book was launched in April 2024, at the National Library of Jamaica (NLJ) along with an unveiling of a bust of the poet, created by Jamaican artist Kay Sullivan.
Description: This new collection offers tightly constructed poems in Morris’s characteristically brief style in which he displays a range of attitudes to creativity, love, sex, time, death, and other realities. The work includes dramatic monologues, satirical pieces, hymns, haikus, as well as lyric poems exemplifying what a reviewer in Wasafiri deemed ‘Morris’s powers of poetic compression, his combination of verbal economy and stylistic complexity.’ Last Reel will be welcomed by readers who have enjoyed Morris’s work. It may also attract some new admirers of his focused brevity.
Mervyn Morris is the author of seven previous collections of poetry including Peelin Orange (2017) and the author of three books of criticism including Miss Lou: Louise Bennett and Jamaican Culture (2014). He was Professor of Creative Writing and West Indian Literature, at The University of the West Indies, Mona.
For purchasing information, see https://ianrandlepublishers.com/product/last-reel/
Also see https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20240424/mervyn-morris-publishes-eighth-book-poetry and https://petchary.substack.com/p/a-poetry-book-and-a-bust
[Many thanks to poet Geoffrey Philp for bringing this item to our attention.] Last Reel (Ian Randle Publishers, 2024) is the latest collection of poetry by Mervyn Morris, who was Poet Laureate of Jamaica (2014–2017). This is his eighth book of poetry. As Michael Reckord (The Gleaner) writes, the book was launched in April 2024,
