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Reading Time 4 mins
February 16, 2021
In the thought-provoking chapbook, “Corona Poems,” Mervyn Taylor ponders the emotional conditions of Covid-19 in Trinidad; New York;
Louisiana; Arizona; Cape Town, South Africa; and even Napoli, Italy, where impromptu celebrations of health care workers took flight. The collection addresses the adversities faced by all during the ever-changing effects of Covid-19. Even though the collection’s tone is somewhat melancholic, the poet, in the end, opts for hope and resilience amid overwhelming grief and sadness.
Within the last twelve months, we dealt with; a war scare, a global pandemic, a stock market crash, racial injustice, and an attack on the nation’s Capitol. We are left to make sense of this turmoil while keeping our sanity during all this turmoil. But it can be hard to describe how we genuinely feel during these times.
Taylor interprets our incommunicable feelings from the unforeseen pandemic and encapsulates them in this rumination. His poetry is that welcomed balm or, as his title suggests, the “News of The Living” that gives us hope and, in the words of Bob Marley’s ‘Positive Vibrations’: “Make way for a positive day. Cause it’s a new day…. Don’t give up the fight…“
The free-verse poem “The Year before the Virus” and the soliloquy-inspired poem “A Carnival of Viruses” capture the essence of the thoughts and feelings that run through our minds in today’s dismal world. It is also an excellent example of this book’s recurring theme: the adversities people face due to this pandemic. The poem “The Year before the virus” starts light-hearted with…
“On vacation in Guayaquil last year, you
wrote about having lunch in the square,
the iguanas coming down from trees,
how you feed them bits of melon.”
In these lines, Taylor uses foreshadowing to hint at the events yet to come. While doing this, he creates a relatable experience for the reader. Then the fourth stanza takes a sudden turn,
“…You
imagine one of the dead could be
the woman you purchased a treat from…”
We can relate to these two stanzas because we lived our regular lives this time last year. We had no idea that wearing a mask would be a matter of life and death.
The dramatic monologue-inspired poem “Carnival of Viruses” contemplates how we would experience Carnival if there were one this year. Taylor’s opening reads,
“We’re planning to have the parade,
anyway, so as not to lose the revenue,
to have the bodies keep a social distance.”
In these lines, the poet lets us know that much revenue is derived from Carnival. So, if the celebration were to happen, it would benefit the nation’s economic and social stability. Many have scheduled virtual celebrations in Carnival’s absence to create a sense of normality though it’s nothing like the real experience.
The stanza, “… We’ll lower the volume, of course, passing the hospital,” is such a powerful way of addressing that we are still dealing with a pandemic and must show some respect to the hospitalized people; however, we choose to celebrate Carnival. On the opposite side, if Carnival was happening, I could imagine the hospital patients looking out the window smiling, optimistic that a festive and joyful day would come soon.
Family is such an essential aspect of Caribbean culture and even more than ever during this pandemic. So, it is no surprise that Taylor has written a good portion of these poems based on family. One of my favorite poems, “News of the Living,” clearly describes the change in family dynamics during this time and how Caribbean people are coping with this pandemic. Many lines in this poem seize my attention, such as…
“…Ah Leta, I know you’re/holding them above water,
while the flood gates of the virus/ open all around us.
You’ll convert/ your house into a boat…”.
Taylor’s sensitive lines describe how much a mother would go to protect her children in troubling times while trying to remain healthy. The author uses nature metaphors to describe how much this mother, Leta, will help her children. Lines such as the above allow young people to reevaluate how much gratitude they show to their parents. It awakens that numbness we have gotten accustomed to during these troubling times and forces us to express more appreciation for our loved ones.
“Corona Poems” gives the reader a sense of awareness and validation of their indescribable feelings of numbness, melancholia, and coping with adversity. It touches on many subjects that we often suppress. The truth is we have to speak and share our experiences. This collection is the impetus to have those difficult conversations about the emotional impact of Covid-19.
Taylor ends the book fittingly with the poem “Epilogue,” in which he conflates Covid-19 and Racial injustice. In this powerful poem, he starts with…
“On an asteroid called Covid-19
came riding the figure of a man
named George.”
As we know, George Floyd was murdered around the same time Covid-19 started spreading rapidly. The asteroid is a symbol of how sudden and fast this happened. I can’t help but interpret that Taylor uses this image to address how much of an issue Covid-19 and racial injustice are. He uses this to let us know how to continue our lives this year of 2021 and the years to come. Overall, the message I got from this book was that we must speak about any adversity we are facing. It is imperative to stand up for what we believe. News of the Living starts the discussion to deal with the unexplainable numbness we feel.
Malik Brizan-Reed, Medgar Evers College (CUNY) Class of 2022, is an English major who is passionate about writing about topics concerning people of color worldwide. Currently, he’s an intern at Big Drum Nation.