Zahra Gordon

Professor Mervyn Morris has recently been named Jamaica’s poet laureate. He is the third laureate in the country’s history and the first in 61 years. This was definitely “good” news and I was introduced to a poet whom I only knew in name. Reading his poem, “Little Boy Crying” made me think a lot about my own father who died a little more than eight years ago. In the poem, a father refuses to waiver to his three-year-old son’s wants – although he would like to – in an attempt to instill discipline. The last line spoke to me especially and instead of using an article headline for today’s poem. I wrote a short response piece with last line of “Little Boy Crying” as my title. This is going to be the opening of a much longer piece to a series I’m working on. Poem, article, and link to Morris’ work below. 🙂 

You must not make a play thing of the rain 

The lesson I learned 

Death to a tolerable degree 

Water filled space lost 

Article: Mervyn Morris first poet laureate in 61 years 

“Little Boy Crying” by Mervyn Morris