Sound and Vision: Interview with Aunt Lorna

Abstract

Gifts of Sound and Vision:An Interview with Poet Lorna Goodison Camille Goodison (bio) and Lorna Goodison (bio) Over the course of her writing career, Lorna Goodison has published more than fifteen collections of poetry. These include I Am Becoming My Mother, her second book, which nabbed a Commonwealth Poetry Prize for the Americas in 1986. I Am Becoming My Mother celebrates the strength and character of women like Goodison's mother, women both ordinary and extraordinary, a strong theme found in much of her writing. Other titles that will be familiar to fans of Caribbean poetry are Guinea Woman (2000), Travelling Mercies (2001), Controlling the Silver (2005), Supplying Salt and Light (2013), and Oracabessa (2013). Oracabessa, Goodison's twelfth book of poems—recognized by the Caribbean's Bocas Prize in 2014—featured poems about the places, cities and countries that have inspired the poet on her many and various world travels. Her most recent poetry collection is Mother Muse (Carcanet Press, 2021). Other awards Lorna Goodison has received for her body of work include Yale's Windham-Campbell Literature Prize (2018); a Jamaican Order of Distinction (2013) for lifetime achievement; and Jamaica's Musgrave Gold Medal (1999). She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry (2019). Her Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry puts her in the company of past winners such as famed Anglo-American poet, W. H. Auden, and Nobel laureate Derek Walcott. Judging from a list of past winners, from 1934 to the present, it appears Lorna Goodison may be the first black woman ever awarded that prize. As with her poetry, Goodison's books of prose have likewise received much critical acclaim, in particular, her family memoir, From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her People. From Harvey River earned the commendation of critics worldwide, including the National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction in 2009. [End Page 130] One could say Lorna Goodison's official writing life began in 1969 with the publishing of her poem, "New York Is a Subway Stop." She wrote it while enrolled as an art student at the Art Students League in New York. Through five decades of writing, Goodison has managed to establish a literary career that is as prolific as it is distinguished. Within those five decades, she has earned her reputation as one of the Caribbean's most prominent and respected poets. Lorna Goodison was named Poet Laureate of Jamaica from 2017 until 2020 when she relinquished the title for a more conventional retirement. She has questioned her listing as only the second person named to this position, following distinguished writer and professor, Mervyn Morris. She includes Jamaican literary legends Tom Redcam, J.E. Clare McFarlane and Claude McKay as some of the notables who may have occupied the poet laureate position officially or in a similar capacity. Goodison's work is widely anthologized and can be found in the Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, and Longman Masters of British Literature. For me, Lorna Goodison's poetic vision is breathtakingly wide. Her poetry displays a sincere and deep love for life; her words, a feast for the senses. In her work, she remains completely loyal to Jamaica, the island nation of her birth. Wherever in the world she finds herself, the Caribbean Sea is not far away. Certain topics and themes recur: observations about womanhood, national identity, family, geography, race and culture. She plays with what some may consider high and low brow language (let's say academic and folk), unselfconsciously mingling the two and everything else in between. With her characteristic playfulness and lyricism, her poems capture the incongruencies of Caribbean history, while the still vibrant worlds of Caribbean life and culture are felt. Whether she's describing a particular person or place in Jamaica, or elsewhere in the world, she makes skillful use of her knowledge of music, art, history, folklore, language, and popular culture. Her insightful observations reflect the curiosity of someone who is at home anywhere in the world. Even when her poetic sights are set on life in her native...