I was so enchanted by today’s poem in The Heart’s Time that I learnt it by heart when I first came across it. Here’s a flavour of it:
I would ask him if he sees no meaning here
and if he never had the urge to grunt
an entirely new sound. The poem, always,
would like to do this, always wants to break
from its lines and let a strange language rise up.
and if he never had the urge to grunt
an entirely new sound. The poem, always,
would like to do this, always wants to break
from its lines and let a strange language rise up.
Kei Miller
You can read the whole poem, and hear the author reading it, here: poetryarchive.org/poem/speaking-tongues.
Kei Miller grew up in Jamaica and has spent most of his adult life in Britain. I don’t think he would call himself a Christian now, but he seems to have a deep understanding both of Caribbean pentecostalism and of Rastafari. And he’s very clear that you can’t rationalise away other people’s beliefs, or dismiss other people’s experiences.