Poems of Migration from Guyana and the Anglophone Caribbean

Abstract

Fictions of migration from Guyana and the Caribbean hold space for migrants’ emotions. Some analyses have been done on longer works of migrant fiction. However, since poem forms are convenient to write when “on the move” it seems like poems of migration from the region should abound. This is sometimes true, especially as regards the volume of poems of departure. However, this is not the case when it comes to poems written by and about those remaining within the region, those who directly bear the effects of emigration. This chapter traces the chronological migratory narrative of Guyana and the Anglophone Caribbean through a selection of 32 poems, first by grouping these poems into four categories, and then by applying some aspects of Kevin Potter’s theory of kinopoetics to the analysis of these poems in order to examine the function of each category to the larger migration narrative of the region.