Professor Mervyn Morris makes a point during the post-reading discussion at Bookophilia, Hope Road, St Andrew, last Tuesday evening. - Photo by Mel Cooke
Before he read his well-known collection On Holy Week - all of it - at Bookophilia, Hope Road, St Andrew, last Tuesday evening, Professor Mervyn Morris explained that it is a "sequence of poems related to the events of Holy Week".
The reading was, of course, appropriate for the time period, although it pulled in few of poetry's disciples. And Morris also pointed out that "now and again some religious people quote bits of it, but they avoid quoting certain bits".
Bookophilia provides an intimate setting for a reading, chairs and comfortable padded seating arranged before the reader's high-backed white wicker chair, shelves of books framing the reader on three sides and appropriately gentle lighting illuminating all. Last Tuesday, though, Morris chose to stand to read and sit for the audience engagement after.
After reading the preface, Morris said that On Holy Week "takes about 15 minutes to read, so I'll read it all".
And he did, with appropriate timing and inflection, for a rapt audience, Jesus in Gethsemane (1 and 2) coming before Judas ("I would not sell the master/He's for free"), then Pilate's Wife and Pilate.
In the last, Pilate muses "and then I tried to pass the buck" and, in the post-reading discussion, Morris said that On Holy Week really started with Pilate. He said when he wrote the initial poems "I was an administrator and it occurred to me that he (Pilate) had not been understood". Morris pointed out that there are situations where "any choice you make is a bad choice ... I thought many of the sermons I had heard were not fair to Pilate. He was trying to manoeuvre Jesus' freedom".
Peter pleaded "forgive me Lord and I will feed your flock", Soldiers is in Jamaican English and (even by Morris' succinct standards, short), while Simon of Syrene muttered under his burden "King of the Jews the sign said/Rubbish...".
'This man was God'
Malefactor left and Malefactor right take On Holy Week on to the cross (the one on the left doubts Jesus' powers, but the one on the right of the Christ asks "when you kingdom come, remember I"), while below the Centurion muses "Never nailed a man like this before/Surely this man was God".
John and Mary Magdeline speak before Thomas has the final word and Morris sat, smiling slightly, to appreciative applause.
In the discussion, Morris said that he had read various versions of the Bible in preparing On Holy Week, learning in the process that Judas was the only one of the disciples not from Galilee. "He was kind of the outsider figure," Morris said.
He pointed out that Mary Magdeline, which is "all about timing", is one of his favourite poems in the collection. "It's about the gaps," Morris said, referring to a discussion with musician Pape who said that one of the things a musician listens for in a piece of music are the notes which are not played.
Pure faith
And he said that the church folk tend to quote Peter which is "pure faith and nicely Catholic as well". He added "It is quite churchical," to laughter. "They wouldn't quote Judas, which is respectable, but it would not fit the church people very well," he said. Pilate is among the poems which the church people would avoid as well.
He agreed that John is a bit sensual, members of the audience chuckling as he added "if you read it too closely".
And the discussion ended as On Holy Week does, with Thomas, which Morris counts among the poems in the collection which would not suit the church folk.
"I've always liked Thomas and felt the way people preach about him tends not to have the emphasis I would like. I think he is a kind of honest man who should be respected for his honesty," Morris said.