An engraver in short, sharp slashes that go deep. Andrew Salkey

...the popular music of Jamaica, the music of the people, is an essentially experiential music... the music reflects the historical experience. - Linton Kwesi Johnson

I would have words as tenacious as mules/ to bear us, sure-footed/ up the mountain of night... from 'Elemental' by Edward Baugh

Poetry matters because it is a tool for helping us to discover who we are. As individuals, as Caribbean peoples, as citizens of the world. Olive Senior

Good poetry is like effective prayer, it feeds the human spirit, it nourishes, it puts us in touch with forces far greater than ourselves. Lorna Goodison

I defy anyone to listen to a performance of his poetry and not come away uplifted - Poetry Review

...and the poem will not care that some walk past/afraid of the words we try out on our tongues/ hoping this finally is the language of God, /that he might hear it and respond. Kei Miller, from 'Speaking in Tongues'.

Markham is tireless in his resistance to orthodoxy, whether artistic, cultural or political. He speaks as he finds, in multiple, unpredictable voices. (Sean O'Brien)

wen yuh see she walk//holdin freedom water//balance pon she head - 'caribbean woman', Jean 'Binta' Breeze

Poems come from your more secret mind. A poem will want to ask deeper questions, higher questions, more puzzling questions, and often too, more satisfying questions than the everyday obvious questions... - James Berry