Jamaican poet Velma Pollard, whose melodious writing paid homage to the Patwa language, passes on

Velma Pollard (L) with Jamaica's most recent Poet Laureate Olive Senior (R) at the launch of a book of poetry by Professor Mervyn Morris at the National Library of Jamaica, April 2024. Photo by Emma Lewis, used with permission.

Beloved educator, linguist, writer and poet Velma Pollard, known for her passion for Jamaica's Patwa language, passed away at her Kingston home on February 1 at the age of 87, leaving the regional literary community bereft.

Born in 1937 in the rural village of Woodside in St. Mary, a place with deep historical roots dating back to the Taíno period, Pollard's father was a farmer and his mother a school teacher. Along with her sister Erna Brodber — who later became a literary icon and folk historian — she developed a love for the creative arts, having been raised in an environment steeped in tradition and folk knowledge.

Pollard started early, winning her first poetry prize at primary school at the age of seven. She attended Excelsior High School in Kingston before pursuing higher education at the then-University College of the West Indies, now University of the West Indies (UWI), where she studied languages. She later earned a master’s degree in English from Columbia University, a master’s in education from McGill University, and a Ph.D. in language education at UWI. For decades, she was a senior lecturer in language education in the Faculty of Arts and Education at UWI's Mona campus.

Pollard began to write fiction and poetry seriously in the mid-1970s, with published poems and stories in regional and international journals and anthologies. Her novella “Karl” won the Casa de las Americas Prize. Her other creative publications include “The Best Philosophers I Know Can't Read and Write” (2001), “Homestretch” (1994), “Considering Woman” (1989) and “Crown Point and Other Poems” — her first book of poetry, published in 1988. She has published five poetry collections and three short story collections.

Pollard's key research interests were Creole languages of the Anglophone Caribbean, the language of Caribbean literature and Caribbean women’s writing. She published “From Jamaican Creole to Standard English: A Handbook for Teachers” (1994) and a monograph, “Dread Talk: The Language of Rastafari” (1994), which became a classic; a revised edition published in 2000 included a chapter on “Dread Talk in the Diaspora.”

A particularly poignant passage from her poem “Cut Language! (for Stephen)” underscores the reverence Pollard had for Jamaican Patwa and other Creole languages of the region:

how many learn to spell
but never practise
words
my grandson

you will be
wordsman
claiming this English
language
other people’s
anguish

claiming our
patwa […]

switching easy
when reason calls […]

Children across the wall
offend
and you defend
with ‘gwe bwai
no bada wi’

didn’t I tell them
everytime
bilingual is the lick?

In August 2022, Pollard was elected as an honorary member of the Society for Caribbean Linguistics (SCL) which she served with distinction as an SCL Executive Officer and SCL Financial Officer. However, she was more than an academic. After retirement, she continued to energetically share her knowledge and support for Caribbean writers and writing through public workshops and educational events of all kinds.

Via WhatsApp, Jamaican poet Ann-Margaret Lim shared her deep appreciation for Pollard:

For me as a younger writer I see Dr. Pollard as quietly, but very physically supportive. She never taught me…but she knows I'm a writer. Knowing that she supported you, and was rooting for you…as a fellow writer, mentor figure. A support, a rock. She was like behind the scenes, watching over me still. When I saw her at events, her support was visible…something I always felt. I see in her that quiet, strong confidence.

Jamaican dramatist and playwright Dahlia Harris also stressed Pollard's support for younger writers on X (formerly Twitter):

In her introduction to Pollard's “Monologue,” included in her anthology of Caribbean women's writing, “Her True-True Name,” Canada-based Jamaican writer and poet Pamela Mordecai observed, “Velma Pollard is concerned with gender-related issues in a Caribbean still defined by its history, so that race, class and colour continue to complicate the attempt to secure psychic wholeness, personal quiet, a self. Hers is a wry use of language, humour lurking always beside/beneath the perceptions, however painful.”

Upon learning of her death, Mordecai said via WhatsApp, “She lived a very full life and enjoyed it thoroughly. Much to celebrate…She travelled widely and knew many other writers and academics, so a broad community of folks will miss her. She was a good friend and I will miss her.”

On Facebook, Jamaican poet Opal Palmer Adisa posted:

Velma was a friend, fellow poet and about 2 years ago we were on a panel and she reminded me how we first met over 40 years ago, when as she put it, ‘you was just a little girl, up and coming then.’ Kind and generous, whenever I requested a poem…or her participation in an event she never said no. She was one of the panelists in the Louise Bennett symposium, October 2024…She's in my forthcoming documentary on Mervyn Morris, down to earth, solid and clear, that was Velma Pollard…Will miss you my sister. Sit with the ancestors. Asè.

A younger academic noted Pollard's down-to-earth humour, upright stance and energetic physical presence:

She was always our old-age ‘goals!’ We used to say ‘walk out young girl’ whereupon she would stop, turn her head and remind us quite matter-of-factly that she was an accomplished athlete and formidable hurdler! We were witnesses in the later years. We can testify that Lady V's whole frame stood at attention ‘as upright as post’ as they say. She and her pickaxe sharp wit never failed to win admiration and amidst the firm exterior was the gentlest soul, always deferring to the wisdom of her beloved sister Erna Brodber. All the great ones are moving on. And we not reproducing them quite as fast! Velma Pollard has hurdled over to the other side to run with ancestors. So long Lady V. Rest in Power💙💜🤍

The Poetry Archive described Pollard's creative expressions thus:

Forms of utterance…are as central a subject for her as nature – and taken together they form a body of work which reverences things in their place, while advertising their connection with the wider world. It is this paradox that makes her one of the most important Jamaican poets of her generation.

Pollard’s readings [demonstrate] the diversity of her work, spanning themes such as family, religion, ethnicity and nature. At its most characteristic, her writing assumes a distinctly philosophical tone and shows a strong moral consciousness. The melodious and expressive way in which she delivers her poetry allows us to gain a greater understanding of these things: just as her imagination is simultaneously sensual and nervous, so is her reading rich and stringent.

Jamaican-born York University Associate Professor Honor Ford-Smith paid tribute on Facebook, saying, “Bold and brilliant. No bad mind for her. Just grounded and caring about those coming up behind her. Walk good Velma and may the passage be peaceful and gentle.”

On X, the Journal of West Indian Literature shared a video:

The Caribbean Translation Project, meanwhile, recognised the 20th anniversary of Pollard's lively, popular Anasesem, a collection of Caribbean folk tales and legends for young people:

Tall, slim and with a slightly severe expression at times, Velma Pollard might have seemed intimidating; however, her delightful, sometimes sharp humour, her warmth and above all, her encouraging and sympathetic manner endeared her to many. She will be greatly missed by Jamaicans of all ages, especially younger writers. Her passing leaves a gap in Jamaica's cultural narrative, which she so effortlessly and warmly expressed.

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