"Jamaicans are very comical people, and laughter is a way of coping with life’s displeasures. Also, when you make something of it [a hard situation], it says that you are in control. There are incidences when we have no control; all we can do is make some sort of a gesture. Sometimes, the world can throw things at you that are so cruel and so devastating that you are in no position to have any kind of real response but to make a gesture. And I think that sometimes laughter is a gesture saying that you have not completely annihilated me; you have not robbed me of my ability to respond as a human being. (2013)"
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Lorna Goodison
Lorna Gaye Goodison (born 1 August 1947) is a poet, essayist and professor from Kingston. She was the Poet Laureate of Jamaica from 2017 until 2020.
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