June has been designated Caribbean Reader Month, which celebrates writers and stories from the Caribbean. I have been collecting Caribbean literature since it was a mandatory subject in my high school in Jamaica and part of our Caribbean Exams, which replaced the British O-level exams. One of my favorite poets is Derek Walcott. When I started reading his poetry, I found similarities in his love for his country, Saint Lucia, and the Caribbean, his love of the sea, his work as a painter, and my new passion, Greek mythology. I even modeled the cover of my book, The Colour Wheel of My Dreams, after his Selected Poems, which features one of his paintings on the cover. So it is only fitting that he is my chosen author and poet for June.

When the Caribbean writer Derek Walcott received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992, the world finally recognized what readers throughout the Caribbean had long known: that one of the greatest poets writing in English came not from London, New York, or Paris, but from a small island in the Eastern Caribbean.

Born on the island of Saint Lucia in 1930, Walcott spent his life exploring questions of identity, colonialism, history, memory, and belonging. His poetry moves effortlessly between the Caribbean and Europe, between fishermen and ancient heroes, between the blue waters of the Caribbean Sea and the classical myths of Ancient Greece.

Walcott once described himself as “a divided child,” a phrase that captures his mixed heritage and much of his work. He inherited African, European, and Caribbean influences simultaneously. Rather than choosing one identity over another, he transformed this cultural complexity into poetry that reshaped world literature.

What Are Derek Walcott’s Poems About?

What drew me to Derek’s poetry is that at the heart of his poetry is the search for home. His poetry often traveled between the Caribbean and Europe, examining identity, memory, and the legacy of place. In The Colour Wheel of My Dreams, I embark on a similar journey, from Jamaica to Italy and discover how distance deepens one’s connection to home. Like Walcott, I find inspiration in the landscapes, languages, and contradictions of two worlds, using poetry to bridge the sea between them. And here is the connection to the sea again, which is one of the themes for this newsletter.

His poems often examine what it means to belong to a region shaped by colonization, slavery, migration, and cultural mixing. The Caribbean, in Walcott’s view, is not merely a collection of islands but a place where many histories collide.

Several themes appear repeatedly in his work:

The Sea: The Caribbean Sea serves as both a physical and symbolic presence. It represents memory, history, loss, and connection.

Colonialism: Walcott explores how European empires shaped Caribbean societies while questioning how Caribbean people can reclaim their own narratives.

Identity: Many poems reflect the tension of being both Caribbean and heir to European literary traditions.

Nature: The landscapes of Saint Lucia—its mountains, fishing villages, forests, and coastlines—are vividly portrayed throughout his work.

Art and Memory: Walcott frequently reflects on the role of poetry, painting, and storytelling in preserving culture.

His language combines lyrical beauty with intellectual depth, allowing readers to experience both the physical world and the historical forces beneath it.

Greek Mythology in Walcott’s Poetry

One of the most remarkable aspects of Walcott’s work is his use of Greek mythology. Some critics initially questioned why a Caribbean poet would draw so heavily on Homer and the classical world. Walcott’s answer was simple: the classics belong to everyone. I love this! By placing classical figures in a Caribbean setting, Walcott suggests that the struggles of Caribbean people are equally worthy of epic treatment. Walcott’s answer is that mythology can be reinvented. Ancient Greece and the Caribbean become part of a shared human story.

Walcott’s Relationship with the Caribbean

Although Walcott traveled widely and taught abroad, Saint Lucia remained the emotional center of his work. The island appears repeatedly in his poetry as a place of beauty, memory, and inspiration. One can never fully leave the Caribbean if one is born to it.

In the famous poem The Sea Is History ( Selected Poems, pg. 137), Walcott challenges traditional versions of history and argues that the history of Caribbean people is carried in the sea itself—the sea that witnessed slavery, migration, and survival.

Another beloved poem, A Far Cry from Africa ( Selected Poems page 6), explores the tensions of mixed heritage. Although focused on Africa and colonial violence, it also reflects the larger Caribbean experience of cultural fragmentation.

Perhaps no poem captures his love of home more beautifully than Love After Love. While often read as a personal poem about self-discovery, it reflects a broader Caribbean theme of reclaiming one’s identity after centuries of cultural displacement.

His descriptions of Saint Lucia are rich with sensory detail:

• Breadfruit trees

• Fishing boats

• Tropical light

• Market streets

• Mountain landscapes

• The rhythm of island life

For Walcott, the Caribbean was not peripheral to world culture. It was central.

Walcott’s Relationship with Europe

Walcott’s relationship with Europe was complex.

As a student of English literature, he admired writers such as William Shakespeare, John Milton, and James Joyce. He was deeply influenced by European artistic traditions and classical literature.

Yet he also understood that these traditions arrived in the Caribbean through colonialism.

This tension appears throughout his poetry.

In A Far Cry from Africa, Walcott famously wrestles with divided loyalties:

“How choose
Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?”

These lines reveal the paradox at the center of his work. English was the language of empire, yet it was also the language through which he created poetry.

Rather than rejecting Europe entirely, Walcott sought dialogue. He believed Caribbean writers could inherit European literary traditions while reshaping them to tell Caribbean stories.

His work suggests that cultural identity does not require purity. Instead, it can emerge from mixture, adaptation, and transformation.

Poems That Explore Home

Several poems vividly celebrate the Caribbean as home:

The Sea Is History

This poem reclaims Caribbean history from colonial narratives and locates memory within the sea itself.

Names

Walcott examines the significance of naming places and people in a region shaped by colonization.

Ruins of a Great House

Although focused on a colonial estate, the poem reflects on Caribbean landscapes and the legacy of empire.

Omeros

The entire epic serves as a meditation on Saint Lucia, its people, and its history.

A Poet of Two Worlds

Derek Walcott’s greatest achievement was showing that Caribbean stories belong among the world’s great literary traditions. He refused to choose between Saint Lucia and Europe, between local experience and classical myth, between the fisherman and the epic hero. Instead, he brought these worlds together. Through poems such as Omeros, The Sea Is History, and A Far Cry from Africa, Walcott demonstrated that the Caribbean is not a footnote to history but a place where history, mythology, and culture continually reinvent themselves.

As I read more about Derek, I realized that his time in Italy also influenced his poetry. He wove Italy into his poetry by drawing inspiration from its artistic traditions, classical past, and Mediterranean landscapes. As he traveled through Italy, he reflected on the connections between Europe and the Caribbean, often comparing ancient civilizations and Renaissance art with the culture and beauty of Saint Lucia. In works such as The Prodigal, Italian cities and landscapes become places of reflection, where the poet compares the beauty and history of Europe with the vibrant life of his Caribbean homeland. For Walcott, Italy was not a replacement for Saint Lucia but another lens through which he explored memory, identity, and the meaning of home.

Reading more of Derek’s work as inspired me to update my book of poems. In my work I can extend a Caribbean literary tradition that Walcott helped establish: exploring how migration transforms one's understanding of home, identity, and belonging.

His poetry reminds us that home is not always a fixed place. Sometimes it exists in the space between worlds, where memory, language, and imagination meet. For Walcott, that space was the Caribbean Sea itself—vast, complex, and endlessly inspiring. If you do get a copy of one of Derek Walcott’s books, let me know.

Happy reading.

Primary Sources by Derek Walcott

Collected Poems, 1948–1984

Walcott, D. (1986). Collected Poems, 1948–1984. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

This collection contains many of his most studied poems, including:

• “A Far Cry from Africa”

• “The Sea Is History”

• “Love After Love”

• “Ruins of a Great House”

• “Names”

• “Sea Grapes”

• Selections from The Fortunate Traveller

• Selections from Midsummer

Omeros

Walcott, D. (1990). Omeros. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Recommended Editions for Readers

If you’re introducing readers to Walcott, I would recommend beginning with:

1. Selected Poems (for accessibility)

2. Collected Poems, 1948–1984 (for the major poems)

3. Omeros (for his masterpiece)

Jamaica and Italy bring out the creative juices in me. Not only writing but wanting to add colour - essentially to paint. By the age of 13, when I had to choose the subjects that would lead me to University, I had to choose the sciences. That was the option I was told to do - mainly by my father. He had wanted me to become a medical doctor, something he had dreamed of but was unable to pursue himself because of the economic constraints of a Jamaican boy born in the 1920s to farmers.

So this he had wanted me to pursue. Unfortunately, art, which I loved so much, could not be taken at the same time as the sciences. At the age of 10, I entered art competitions and in high school, it was one of the better grades I got. I drew all the time. Sadly, I believe any talent I had died in the years that I stopped drawing and painting. I did find my creativity, however after graduating from university, when I discovered ceramics. I don't remember how I started, but one day I found myself at a ceramics class at the Jamaica School of Art in Kingston, in an evening class. Perhaps I was looking for an art class. I was doing creative dance classes on a Saturday and maybe I found this class by accident. But that’s a story for another time.

So, back to painting. I rediscovered painting in Tolfa. Jamaica and Italy have this in common- there is art everywhere. In the homes of Jamaicans art is prominent- mostly Jamaican landscapes and portraits in oil paintings. In high school, I learned about our famous artists. When my son was going to middle school, he had to learn art history and complained that kids were born Michelangelo's - they must have art running in their veins, he would say.

In the fall of 2023, I took a few classes. I decided I wanted to add a few paintings to the book I was writing, as it has a theme of dreaming in colour. I named it The Colour Wheel of My Dreams.

Last year, after doing a year of painting and getting the hang of it, I thought about adding more paintings to the book and asked my teacher, Silvia, if I could commission her to do the paintings. But she asked me - why don’t I do them? I thought I would give it a try and it would become my once-per-week project to produce paintings to illustrate the colours of Jamaica and Italy that are in my mind.

I started last October 2025 and at first, it was a guilty pleasure. I have too much work to do I thought to take three hours out of the day to paint. Sometimes I wouldn't go because I had booked a meeting or had a report to write. When I did go, I realized I needed this time. For many reasons. It allowed me to interact with my community and forced me to speak Italian and listen to the local dialect, which I have difficulty understanding. For days, I would work in English and not interact in Italian. Not only did I love slapping on colour, but after the first hour, my mind could take a break from work and other issues and painting became a meditation. Could be the fumes from the turpentine too!

What more could I want from painting companions who are really quite talented? There are no beginners in this class. Yet they are always coming over to encourage with belle and molto bello. They let me know that what I’m doing is beautiful, which encourages me more, despite the simplicity of my art, which I call slapping on colour to the canvas.

Painting helps with the creative side of my brain. When I am relaxed, I can come up with new ideas and projects. Gradually, I came to really need this as a part of my weekly schedule, and when I’m not traveling, I block out one day per week to take time for art.

Then there is a short break. Tisana - non-caffeine herbal tea with biscotti or pastry of some kind. The original paint and sip- without wine. During the winter, this moment is special. With the cold and darkness, having tea or hot chocolate together huddled around the fireplace raises the spirits.

Our classes for the winter and spring semester are coming to an end before the summer break, and thanks to Sylvia's tutoring and assistance I have produced a series of paintings to create a 2nd edition of my book. I am working towards 20 paintings.

I look forward to completing this creative project, which has been a great help in balancing my everyday life. I have a few more that I will complete in June and will work on polishing a few of the poems.

If you haven't as yet purchased a copy, I have reduced the price of both the Kindle and the paperback. All the proceeds go to my nonprofit of supporting young Jamaican and Caribbean scientists

PURCHASE YOUR COPY HERE