Selected Poems

by Linton Kwesi Johnson

Overview

A reissue of revolutionary poems from the last three decades by cultural icon Linton Kwesi Johnson—a dub poet and activist, and only the second living poet to be published in the Penguin Modern Classics series

A selection of Linton Kwesi Johnson's best poems over three decades. Ranging from protests against police brutality to eulogies for departed friends and playful celebrations of urban life, Johnson's use of Jamaican dialect to tackle distinctly British subjects contributed to a revolution in the notion of literary English. This Selected Poems charts the unique literary talent of one of Britain's most influential poets and social critics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780241994115
Publisher:	Penguin Random House UK
Publication date:	12/01/2022
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Linton Kwesi Johnson is known and revered as the world's first dub poet. Born in Chapelton, a small town in the parish of Clarendon, Jamaica, he moved to England in 1963. He gained a sociology degree in the mid-1970s from Goldsmiths' College, London, and had poems, inspired by politics and the Black movement, published in the journal Race Today. He is an Associate Fellow of Warwick University, an Honorary Fellow of Wolverhampton Polytechnic and received an award at the 13th Premo Internazionale Ultimo Novecento for his contribution to poetry and popular music. He has toured the world from Japan to South Africa, Europe to Brazil, and is only the second living poet to have been published by Penguin Classics.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Introduction to the 2022 Edition xv

I Five Nights of Bleeding - Seventies Verse

Yout Scene 3

Dread Beat an Blood 4

Five Nights of Bleeding 5

Street 66 8

All Wi Doin is Defendtn 10

Bass Culture 13

Reggae Sounds 16

Come Wi Goh Dung Deh 17

Yout Rebels 19

Time Come 20

It Dread inna Inglan 22

Sonny's Lettah 24

It Noh Funny 27

Want fi Goh Rave 30

Reality Poem 32

Forces of Victri 34

Inglan is a Bitch 36

II Mi Revalueshanary Fren - Eighties Verse

Story 41

Reggae fi Radni 43

Reggae fi Dada 46

New Craas Massakah 50

Di Great Insohreckshan 56

Beacon of Hope 58

Mekin Histri 60

Mi Revalueshanary Fren 63

Sense Outta Nansense 67

Di Good Life 69

Tings an Times 71

III New Word Hawdah - Nineties Verse

Seasons of the Heart 79

Hurricane Blues 80

More Time 82

Reggae fi Bernard 84

Reggae fi May Ayim 87

If I Woz a Tap Natch Poet 90

Liesense fi Kill 94

New Word Hawdah 98

BG (for Bernie Grant in memoriam 1934-2000) 100

Di Anfinish Revalueshan 103

IV Reggae fi Mama

Di First Lackdoun 109

Reggae fi Mama (Goodnite) 112

Towards Closure 114

Afterword 115