The poems in The Coup Clock Clicks were written between 1971 and 1988,
reflecting the work of the then young political activist, poems
challenging indifference, and mainly concerned to understand and, if
possible, ameliorate the situation of others. It is also a personal
memoir, shaped as autobiography.
In reggae-conscious free verse in Jamaican patwa, these poems are
fierce, sometimes witty jeremiads against economic and socio-cultural
division, poverty, violence, and thwarted lives. The collection is
suffused with references to music - mainly Jamaican popular music, heard
everywhere, but displaying Meeks' sharply observant eye, as in his poem
about a Marley concert where the detailed fashion notes vividly point to
the actual separation of classes in Jamaica.
The later poems reflect on the collapse of 1970s' hopes of
decolonisation after the widespread defeat of the left through
self-inflicted injuries and the new world order of resurgent American
power under Ronald Reagan.
As Mervyn Morris notes in his introduction, The Coup Clock Clicks is
an important contribution to Caribbean poetry. He characterises Meeks as
"a resourceful poet" producing "nicely crafted poems... There is plenty
of grief in this collection. But resilience also, and philosophical
questioning."
