"When all of a sudden a police van pull up" (Linton Kwesi Johnson, 1979)

[blitzen]

This song, "Sonny's Lettah," could have been written this week, but it's from 1979.

[malaise]

1. Love it

Know it well and remember this was about Brixton. England - a classic.

[blitzen]

2. I used to listen to the album back in college...

a couple years after it came out. I'm happy to see that LKJ has gone on to be recognized as a major modern poet, published in the Penguin Modern Classics series.

[malaise]

3. LKJ is a genius

Interesting that both Claude McKay (If We Must Die) and Linton were born in Clarendon and migrated -one to the USA and the other to England - two of Jamaica's great poets. Bet you didn't know Claude was a cop for a short time in JA.

If We Must Die
BY CLAUDE MCKAY
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!