Phyllis Carter, widow of Guyana’s poet laureate, Martin Carter, was the guest of honour at a ceremony inspired by students and held early yesterday morning at her husband’s graveside at the Place of the Seven Ponds in the Botanic Gardens in Georgetown.

A student presenting the bouquet of flowers to Phyllis Carter

The occasion was a reading of selected poetry written by Martin Carter to mark the poet’s birth month and the twelve years that have elapsed since his passing. Carter was born on June 7, 1927, and died on December 13, 1997.

This tribute to the man hailed as the finest poet Guyana has produced grew from the initiative of a group of fourth-form and sixth-form students from several schools in Georgetown—and their enthusiasm for the poetry they presented was unmistakable.

One of the students during the readings

In a respectful ceremony, the students gave a brief overview of the phases of Carter’s work, and then read aloud from a selection of representative poems.

As each reader came forward to read, he or she placed a single red rose in a vase standing on the tomb.

At the end of the proceedings, the bouquet of twelve roses was presented to Phyllis Carter, who was visibly moved both by the readings and the earnestness of the young people.

Careful preparation had clearly gone into the programme: the readers delivered their poems with clarity and conviction, and the smooth movement from one item to the next gave testimony to hours of rehearsals.

The credit for the training of the students in order to bring their initiative to fruition goes to Phyllis Jordan.

Parents and teachers who attended the simple ceremony agreed that it was heart-warming to witness such eagerness in young people to see change come to the country—the kind of change that Martin Carter himself fought for with his voice and with his pen.