Get Down Ye Angels 
Get down ye angels from the heights.
Try a few of earth’s numinous delights:
the orgiastic rustlings of the grass.
The wind’s brazen feather tickling your arse.
Exchange your robe, even for a day
with the raiment of one made of clay.
Lay down your harp and dig these pipes I play
I’ll put my lips to the weeping reeds
till temptation thrills the heart of every hill
and the very stones begin the dance of leaves
as if stones had gained a fluttering will.
Welcome ye cherubs to the carnal hubbub.
Take a break from heaven’s eternal montone.
Inhabit the splendid risk of flesh and bone.
– John Agard
Guyana celebrated nationhood on Republic Day, February 23, last week. Such an anniversary always invites critical review of the state of the nation, and its political, social and cultural achievements since assuming that postcolonial status. A look at the national poetry is a significant part of that review, considering the place of poetry in cultural sovereignty and its role in defining the nation.
It is thus fitting to consider some of these achievements in the field of poetry and to revisit the work of one whose prolific output and acclaim have transcended national boundaries. Guyanese born poet and literary genius John Agard was recently in the news again for achievements that define his work as belonging to two nations: Great Britain and Guyana.
He has once again been recognised and decorated in the United Kingdom for his contribution to poetry and the education system there. This most recent award specifically focused on children’s literature in the British education system, but Agard has been long acclaimed for his craftsmanship and dramatic use of language in Caribbean and Guyanese poetry. His verse has been marked by his linguistic dexterity and an inexhaustible grounding in Caribbean cultural roots. The poetry he has published and performed has made significant contributions to a definition of Guyanese nationhood.
Agard’s most recent honour was bestowed in November, 2021, when he became the first poet to win the Book Trust Lifetime Achievement Award in London. Such honours seem to run in the family, because it was not a year before that when his wife, Guyanese born novelist and poet Grace Nichols won the Queen’s Gold Medal for Literature for her contribution to English literature. Her work, like her husband’s, is also significant for the statement it makes about Guyanese literature.
Agard, himself was a previous recipient of Her Majesty’s Gold Medal for Poetry, which was awarded to him in 2012. Before that, his achievements included the Guyana Prize for Literature for Best Book of Poetry in 1998 with his collection From the Devil’s Pulpit, and again in 2000 with Weblines.
The Book Trust Lifetime Achievement Award is given to a writer or an illustrator who has made an outstanding contribution to children’s literature. It is the first time that it has gone to a poet. The judges for 2021 were Diana Gerald, chief executive of the reading charity, and authors Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Pierre Torday. Gerald articulated the citation, which reads,
“John’s incredible words have caught the imagination of a whole generation of children. . . . (we mark) his persistence and creativity in championing and challenging the language norms that too often dominate literature and the curriculum as well as his ability to connect with children today and inspire them to reach for their goals and aspirations whatever they may be.
“I’m particularly thrilled that this year’s award is going to someone who explores and experiments with different ideas and genres, showing children and adults everywhere just what language can do and demonstrating the power of an authentic voice when it comes to storytelling – important messages that children today, whatever their background, need to see, experience, and have access to.
“Agard’s writing has challenged and changed how poetry is studied and enjoyed in the classroom and demonstrated that it is a modern and relevant medium with the ability to connect with children.”
Alison Flood, writing in The Guardian of November 9, 2021, recorded Agard’s response on his acceptance of the prize.
“I’m so happy that I have stuck with this craft since I was a 16-year-old boy writing in a classroom in a Caribbean ex-colony. It’s not just me receiving this award but all the people who inspired me,” he said. “People like my teacher Father Maxwell, the people who published my books, those who contributed to my journey, way back in the Caribbean, and John Arlott, the legendary cricket commentator who inspired me with his words.
“Very often poetry is marginalised and fiction gets a high profile. By being the first poet, I’m excited, because I see it also as a mark of recognition for poetry. Because, let us not forget that going back in our evolutionary DNA, poetry was the medium of utterance ecstasy, a lullaby, an incantation, so before you had things written down, there was poetry. But somewhere along the line, particularly in the western tradition, the oral was cut off from the written, and then poetry began to be perceived as something abstract and airy fairy and not about the concrete fact. But let us face it, do we want to dwell in a world of concrete facts?
“I was a teacher for a year, but I never dreamed I was going to be a teacher; a librarian, but I didn’t plan to be a librarian. But that was a good grounding and a lovely experience. My mum felt poetry was a hobby, so I hesitated for a while to say I was a poet, but as time went by I took a delight in saying I was a poet – especially when I’d arrived at immigration and they’d say ‘what do you do?’ I’d enjoy, in a secretive, quietly humorous way, saying poet, because people respond differently to you then.
“[I] still get excitement from language [and find] joy in standing in front of people and reading a poem. . . I know this thing connects. This thing could teach a soul. This thing doesn’t have to be didactic; I don’t have to preach to people. My whole brain is on a tidal wave of delight.”
The poem “Get Down Ye Angels” first appeared in the collection, From the Devil’s Pulpit, published by Bloodaxe Books, London, in 1997.
