When I met Walcott, the Nobel laureate

Derek Walcott

Derek Walcott, the 1992 Nobel laureate for literature for his metaphorical poetry that decried the harsh legacy of colonialism even as it intricately wove itself in the imagery of his native Caribbean isles, passed away, aged 87, in his beloved home of Gros Islet on the island of Saint Lucia.

On April 28, 2006, as I sat on a couch outside the grand suite of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Montreal, Canada, on a cold spring evening, I was quite nervous – not so much about the opulence of the surroundings, but that I was about to meet, greet and interview (for this newspaper) Derek Walcott – ‘the poetic voice of the Caribbean.’