Caribbean Poems For Anthology - Updated

Caribbean Poems
Table of Contents
1. Death of a comrade (1950s) ................................................................................................................ 1

2. I clench my fist (1953) ........................................................................................................................... 2
3. Do not stare at me .................................................................................................................................... 3
4. The child ran into the sea...................................................................................................................... 4
5. Limbo ............................................................................................................................................................ 5
6. Montage ....................................................................................................................................................... 7
7. Granny .......................................................................................................................................................... 7
8. Examination centre ................................................................................................................................. 8
9. Time .............................................................................................................................................................. 9
10. Island memory ....................................................................................................................................... 10
11. Talk ............................................................................................................................................................. 11
12. Coffee break ............................................................................................................................................ 12
13. Cane Gang................................................................................................................................................. 13
14. Pearl ........................................................................................................................................................... 14
15. Pineapple.................................................................................................................................................. 15
16. The knot garden .................................................................................................................................... 17
17. The yard man: An election poem .................................................................................................... 19
18. What we carried that carried us ..................................................................................................... 20
19. Fool-fool Rose is leaving labor-in-vain Savannah .................................................................... 21
20. Praise to the mother of Jamaican art ............................................................................................. 22
21. This zinc roof .......................................................................................................................................... 23
22. For the girl who died by dancing .................................................................................................... 24
23. Book of Genesis ...................................................................................................................................... 25
24. The warner-woman ............................................................................................................................. 26
25. The carpenter’s complaint (C.X.C recommended poem) ....................................................... 27
26. Let this be your praise ........................................................................................................................ 28
27. Just like that ............................................................................................................................................ 29
28. Recompense ............................................................................................................................................ 31
29. Her majesty's seal ................................................................................................................................. 32
30. Church Matters ...................................................................................................................................... 33
31. Mama’s handbag.................................................................................................................................... 34
32. Sonny’s lettah (1980) .......................................................................................................................... 35
i
33. If I waz a tap natch poet...................................................................................................................... 38
34. To the labour party .............................................................................................................................. 41
35. Dutty Tough ............................................................................................................................................ 42
36. Noh Lickle Twang ................................................................................................................................. 43
37. New Scholar ............................................................................................................................................ 45
38. Harlem shadows (1922) .................................................................................................................... 46
39. The Castaways........................................................................................................................................ 46
40. Adolescence............................................................................................................................................. 47
41. Last lines................................................................................................................................................... 48
42. Yarn Spinner ........................................................................................................................................... 49
43. Cat-rap ....................................................................................................................................................... 50
44. For forest .................................................................................................................................................. 51
45. I like to stay up ....................................................................................................................................... 52
46. The edge of night ................................................................................................................................... 53
47. The Bone-trip ......................................................................................................................................... 53
48. Iguana ........................................................................................................................................................ 54
49. Oregon Elegy ........................................................................................................................................... 55
50. Last night................................................................................................................................................. 57
51. Black Power April, 1970..................................................................................................................... 58
53. Anger bakes ............................................................................................................................................. 59
54. The felling of a tree ............................................................................................................................... 60
55. Love After Love ...................................................................................................................................... 61
56. The fist....................................................................................................................................................... 61
57. Cut language! .......................................................................................................................................... 62
58. Confessions of a son ............................................................................................................................. 63
59. To Gran... And no farewell ................................................................................................................. 64
60. Punctuation marks ............................................................................................................................... 65
61. Fishing ....................................................................................................................................................... 66
62. The Earth is Our Friend ...................................................................................................................... 67
63. Poetry Caan Nyam ................................................................................................................................ 69
64. Wine Pon Paper ..................................................................................................................................... 71
65. Toussaint L’Ouverture acknowledges Wordsworth’s sonnet ............................................. 73
“To Toussaint L’Ouverture”(2006) ................................................................................................... 73
66. Foremother II: Mary Seacole ............................................................................................................ 74
ii
67. Dis poem ................................................................................................................................................... 75
68. Sistas Poem.............................................................................................................................................. 77
69. Wailin......................................................................................................................................................... 79
70. For a defeated boxer ............................................................................................................................ 81
71. On knowing someone: The epistemology of destructiveness ............................................. 82
72. A Woman in Istanbul tells my fortune .......................................................................................... 83
73. Pierre ......................................................................................................................................................... 84
74. Fire .............................................................................................................................................................. 86
References ............................................................................................................................................................ 87
iii
1. Death of a comrade (1950s)
Death must not find us thinking that we die
Too soon, too soon

Our banner draped for you.
I would prefer
the banner in the wind.
Not bound so tightly
in a scarlet fold
not sodden sodden
with your people's tears
but flashing on the pole
we bear aloft
down and beyond this dark, dark lane of rags.
Dear Comrade,
if it must be
you speak no more with me
nor smile no more with me
nor march no more with me
then let me take
a patience and a calm-
for even now the greener leaf explodes
sun brighten stone
and all the river burns.
Now, from the mourning vanguard moving on

dear Comrade I salute you and I say
Death will not find us thinking that we die.
by Martin Carter
1
2. I clench my fist (1953)
You come in warships terrible with death
I know your hands are red with Korean blood
I know your finger trembles on a trigger
And yet I curse you – Stranger khaki clad.
British soldier, man in khaki

careful how you walk
My dead ancestor Accabreh
is groaning in his grave
At night he wakes and watches
with fire in his eyes
Because you march upon his breast
and stamp upon his heart.
Although you come in thousands from the sea

Although you walk like locusts in the street
Although you point your gun straight at my heart
I clench my fist above my head; I sing my song of Freedom!
by Martin Carter
2
3. Do not stare at me
Do not stare at me from your window, lady
do not stare and wonder where I came from
Born in this city was I, lady,
hearing the beetles at six o'clock
and the noisy cocks in the morning
when your hands rumple the bed sheet
and night is locked up the wardrobe.
My hands are full of lines

like your breast with veins, lady ─
So do not stare and wonder where I came from.
My hands are full of lines
like your breast with veins, lady.
and one must rear, while one must suckle life.
Do not stare at me from your window, lady.

Stare at the wagon of prisoners!
Stare at the hearse passing by your gate!
Stare at the slums in the south of the city!
Stare hard and reason, lady, where I came from
and where I go.
My hand is full of lines

like your breast with veins, lady,
and one must rear, while one must suckle life.
by Martin Carter
3
4. The child ran into the sea
The child ran into the sea
but ran back from the waves, because
the child did not know the sea
on the horizon, is not the same sea
ravishing the shore.
What every child wants is always

in the distance; like the sea
on the horizon. While, on the shore
nearby, at the feet of every child
shallow water, eating the edges
of islands and continents does little more,
little more than foam like spittle
at the corners of the inarticulate mouth
of some other child who wants to run
into the sea, into the horizon.
by Martin Carter
4
5. Limbo
And limbo stick is the silence in front of me
limbo
limbo
limbo like me
limbo
limbo like me
long dark night is the silence in front of me

limbo
limbo like me
stick hit sound

and the ship like it ready
stick hit sound

and the dark still steady
limbo
limbo like me
long dark deck and the water surrounding me

long dark deck and the silence is over me
limbo
limbo like me
stick is the whip

and the dark deck is slavery
stick is the whip

and the dark deck is slavery
limbo
limbo like me
drum stick knock

and the darkness is over me
knees spread wide

and the water is hiding
limbo
limbo like me
5
knees spread wide
and the dark ground is under me
down
down
down
and the drummer is calling me
limbo
limbo like me
sun coming up
and the drummers are praising me
out of the dark

and the dumb gods are raising me
up
up
up
and the music is saving me
hot
slow
step
on the burning ground.

by Kamau Brathwaite
6
6. Montage
England, autumn, dusk –
so different from the quarter-hour
at home when darkness drops:
there’s no flamboyant fireball
laughing a promise to return;
only a muted, lingering farewell,
and day has passed to evening.
by Mervyn Morris
7. Granny
When Granny died
I stumbled in and out
her place, remembering
banana porridge, fumbling
her dog-eared bible,
faded bedspread,
musty cushions, hugging
memories of her love.
From the overflowing funeral

this fingled programme
is a talisman I carry
everywhere. Love is with me still.
by Mervyn Morris
7
8. Examination centre
Dilapidated room,
paint peeling.
Sufferers
on edge.
The chief invigilator

gives the word.
The fingered papers rustle.
Outside the centre –

part of my recall –
trees bend and stretch
and breathe.
Winds, playful, tease.
We’re struggling here

with questions
and time
and longing
for a life we glimpse
through dust
clouding the panes.
by Mervyn Morris
8
9. Time
Not too old to feel the bile,
that back-breaking anger,
that feeling of death in my heart.
Not too old to turn on their smiles,
transparent thin things,
wanting to raise an open palm; to strike.
Not too old to watch an ancient one of them
lament the encasing of her man,
the jutting-bellied cracker, and smile . . .
Not too old to count their grave falling
like notches of God’s blessing, to say;
“Shit, I outlived you, I outlived you.”
Not too old to still my tongue,
to hum a blue gospel, while my soul
wails that old cry of motherlessness.
Not too old to dream of blood,
the taste of iron on my lips,
the swell of power in my breast.
Not too old to hear the nightriders,
to face the starched sheets of this South,
with trembling, with the heart of a child.
Not too old, not too old,
not too old, not too old.
by Kwame Dawes
9
10. Island memory
Flying over Montserrat
Clear one island.

The surf brings you softly
to another. Stations
of cratered mountains, clouds
tightening around the necks
Of these green monstrosities.
This archipelago is a trail
of memory. On this old path
I find a new poem, a new
way of seeing myself.
These are strange pauses—
young tender islands.
Below, the sea is clear,
a sharply sloping plain.
The rippled surface like a sheet
of writing paper waiting
to be scratched in clean
white trails: the remnant
of lives written on its softness.
by Kwame Dawes
10
11. Talk
For August Wilson
No one quarrels here, no one has learned

the yell of discontent—instead, here in Sumter
we learn to grow silent, build a stone
of resolve, learn to nod, learn to close
in the flame of shame and anger
in our hearts, learn to petrify it so,
and the more we quiet our ire,
the heavier the stone; this alchemy
of concrete in the vein, the sludge
of affront, until even that will calcify
and the heart, at last, will stop,
unassailable, unmovable, adamant.
Find me a man who will stand

on a blasted hill and shout,
find me a woman who will break
into shouts, who will let loose
a river of lament, find the howl
of the spirit, teach us the tongues
of the angry so that our blood,
my pulse—our hearts flow
with the warm healing of anger.
You, August, have carried in your belly

every song of affront your characters
have spoken, and maybe you waited
too long to howl against the night,
but each evening on some wooden
stage, these men and women,
learn to sing songs lost for centuries,
learn the healing of talk, the calming
of quarrel, the music of contention,
and in this cacophonic chorus,
we find the ritual of living.
by Kwame Dawes
11
12. Coffee break
It was Christmastime,
the balloons needed blowing,
and so in the evening
we sat together to blow
balloons and tell jokes,
and the cool air off the hills
made me think of coffee,
so I said, “Coffee would be nice,”
and he said, “Yes, coffee
would be nice,” and smiled
as his thin fingers pulled
the balloons from the plastic bags;
so I went for coffee,
and it takes a few minutes
to make the coffee
and I did not know
if he wanted cow’s milk
or condensed milk,
and when I came out
to ask him, he was gone,
just like that, in the time
it took me to think,
cow’s milk or condensed;
the balloons sat lightly
on his still lap.
by Kwame Dawes
12
13. Cane Gang
Torn from the vine from another world
to tame the wildness of the juice, assigned
with bill and hoe to field or factory, chained
by the voracious hunger of the cane
the world’s rapacious appetite for sweetness
How place names of my servitude mock me:

Eden, Golden Vale, Friendship, Green Valley,
Hermitage, Lethe, Retreat, Retirement, Content,
Paradise, Phoenix, Hope, Prospect, Providence
Each with the Great House squatting

on the highest eminence
the Sugar Works overlooking
my master’s eye unyielding
the overseer unblinking
not seeing
the black specks
floating across
their finely-crafted
landscape
At shell blow assembled the broken-down bodies,

the job-lots scrambled into gangs like
beads on a string O not pearls no just unmatched
pairings the random bindings like cane trash no
not like the cane pieces laid out geometric and
given names
and burning.
by Olive Senior
13
14. Pearl
Trophy wife, power object,
your lustre fading
from neglect, pull
that rope from around

your neck. Don't you
want to be free?
Come now, break the spell.

Let each pearl be.
Or cast them
before swine. What have you

to lose? Honour,
like the pearl,
is already used. Keep a single

pearl for contemplation
of the kingdom within,
or injest it for melancholy,

madness, and other
lunar folly.
Better yet, count it

a blessing, save
for longevity.
Too many lives
already lost
for this string.
by Olive Senior
14
15. Pineapple
With yayama
fruit of the Antilles,
we welcomed you
to our shores,
not knowing in
your language
“house warming”
meant “to take
possession of”
and “host”
could so easily
turn hostage.
Oblivious
of irony,
you now claim
our symbol
of hospitality
as your own,
never suspecting
the retribution
incarnate
in that sweet
flesh.
So you
plant pineapples
arrayed in fields
like battalions
not knowing
each headdress
of spikes
is slanted
to harness
the sun’s
explosions
and store them

within
the fruit’s
thick skin
on which
— unless
you can peel
15
them off quick —
pineal eyes
watch and
wait,
counting
down.
by Olive Senior
16
16. The knot garden
Gardening in the Tropics,
you’ll find things that don’t
belong together often intertwine
all mixed up in this amazing fecundity.
We grow as convoluted as the vine.
Or wis. And just as quickly!
Only last week as our leader left
for another IMF meeting, he ordered
the hacking out of paths and
ditches, the cutting of swaths
to separate out flowers
from weeds, woods from trees. But
somebody (as usual) didn’t get it
right (what goes on in mixed
farming is actually quite hard
to envision since so many things
propagate underground, by
division). Returning, our leader
finds instead of neat trench
and barricade separating species,
higglers and drug barons moving
into the more salubrious climes
while daughters of gentry are
crossing lines to sleep with
ghetto boys with gold teeth
and pockets full of dollars
derived from songs on the hit
parade. In the old days, he’d
have ordered some hits himself
but agencies that give aid
are talking human rights now.
Instead, something more subtle
—like poisoned flour or raging
tenement fires — is allowed
to spread. While citizens are
dying our leader is flying again,
off to another IMF meeting
in the presidential jet high
above this dense tropical jungle.
Meanwhile, the fertilized soil
(nothing like fire to do it)
bursts into new and twisted growth
of such profusion by the time
he returns, it proves
17
too impenetrable for landing.
Avoiding confusion, our leader
travels on, searching for
unencumbered skies, over the
Cayman Islands, or Liechtenstein,
or Geneva.
by Olive Senior
18
17. The yard man: An election poem
When bullet wood trees bear
the whole yard dreads fallout
from lethal yellow stone fruit,
and the yard man will press

the steel blade of a machete
to the trunk in effort to control
its furious firing. He will dash

coarse salt at its roots to cut
the boil of leaves, try slashing
the bark so it will bleed itself

to stillness, and yet it will shoot
until the groundcover is acrid
coffin color, the branches dry

bones. Under the leaves it lives,
poverty’s turned-down image
blind, naked, one hand behind

one before. The yard’s first busha
was overseer who could afford
to cultivate poverty’s lean image,

but good yard man says since we
are already poor in spirit, fire for it.
by Lorna Goodison
19
18. What we carried that carried us
I
SONG AND STORY
In ship’s belly, song and story dispensed as medicine,

story and song, bay rum and camphor for faint way.
Song propelled you to fly through hidden other eye,

between seen eyes and out of structure, hover.
In barks of destruction, story functioned as talisman

against give-up death, cramped paralysed darkness.
Remaining remnant tasting all of life, blood, salt,

bitter wet sugar. Ball of light, balance power,
pellucid spirit wafer without weight, ingested,

taken in as nourishment, leaven within the system.
Remnant remaining rise now.
II
DANCE ROCKSTEADY
You dance upon the deck of the slaver Antonia

named for the cherubic daughter of sea captain Fraser.
Aye kumina.
You moved just so, in and out between wild notes

sounded by the suicide followers, staying well within
rock steady rhythm,
range of Kilimanjaro, length of river Limpopo.

Respond again to higher rimshot and one drop
ride rocksteady.
by Lorna Goodison
20
19. Fool-fool Rose is leaving labor-in-vain Savannah
Grass cultivation on roof top
hot sun striking it down to chaff,
Rose bundling with strong effort
scorched fodder fit for Jackass.
Rose securing sinkhole in river

with rock salt and rose quartz,
to find favor with headmaster
inspecting her morning tea sugar.
Sign on sign and she did not heed,

returning to shut-bosom mountain
spite river’s mouth spitting weeds.
Open lands with never enough room
for her to raise a modest Rose tattoo.

Soothsayers in suits well-pressed
prophesying Rose-death from fatigue,
expecting a legacy of marrow secrets
scrolled soft-tubed in yielding bones.

A quiet stranger came empty handed
to the well; Fool-fool Rose offered up
her cup, in thanks uttered key words
that turned her from housetop agriculture,

and locked off her ambition to bottom
and dam a river hole. Farewell/hosanna,
Fool-Fool Rose is leaving Labor-in-Vain Savannah.
by Lorna Goodison
21
20. Praise to the mother of Jamaican art
She was the nameless woman who created
images of her children sold away from her.
She suspended her wood babies from a rope
round her neck, before she ate she fed them.
Touched bits of pounded yam and plantains
to sealed lips, always urged them to sip water.
She carved them of wormwood, teeth and nails
her first tools, later she wielded a blunt blade.
Her spit cleaned faces and limbs; the pitch oil
of her skin burnished them. When woodworms
bored into their bellies she warmed castor oil
they purged. She learned her art by breaking
hard rockstones. She did not sign her work.
by Lorna Goodison
22
21. This zinc roof
This rectangle of sea; this portion
Of ripple; this conductor of midday heat;
This that the cat steps delicately on;
This that the poor of the world look up t

On humid nights, as if it were a crumpled
Heaven they could be lifted into.
God’s mansion is made of many-coloured zinc,

Like a balmyard I once went to, Peace
And Love written across its breadth.
This clanging of feet and boots,

Men running from Babylon whose guns
Are drawn against the small measure
Of their lives; this galvanised sheet; this

Corrugated iron. The road to hell is fenced
On each side with zinc —
Just see Dawn Scott’s installation,

A Cultural Object, its circles of zinc
Like the flight path of johncrows.
The American penny is made from zinc,

Coated with copper, but still enough zinc
That a man who swallowed 425 coins died.
This that poisons us; this that holds

Its nails like a crucified Christ, but only
For a little while. It rises with the hurricane,
Sails in the wind, a flying guillotine.

This, a plate for our severed heads;
This that sprinkles rust
Over our sleep like obeah;

This that covers us; this that chokes us;
This, the only roof we could afford.
by Kei Miller
23
22. For the girl who died by dancing
‘It is a warning to young people that dem mus stop du de Dutty Wine,’ said one woman who
called the incident a curse on the land. ‘Is like a demon sen’ from de pit a hell dat is taking the
lives of the youth even before dem have time to repent’
Jamaica Gleaner, October 30, 2006
Forgive the old woman who only sees

confusion in the wild
rotations of your head &
the in/out butterfly of your thighs.
She could not imagine how,
in the helicopter swing of red braids,
you were being lifted high.
Forgive her, the selfish belief

that heaven is reserved for ladies
with names like Agnes or Beryl
& that no Tanisha would ever inherit
the kingdom of God.
She will be surprised soon enough

to find you on a wide marble tile
in front of Jesus. She will be surprised
that the saviour has given unto you
a tall speakerbox, filled
to its brim with music,
& that you continue your peculiar art –
dancing dutty wine with a clean heart.
by Kei Miller
24
23. Book of Genesis
Suppose there was a book full only of the word,
let – from whose clipped sound all things began: fir
and firmament, feather, the first whale – and suppose
we could scroll through its pages every day

to find and pronounce a Let meant only for us –
we would stumble through the streets with open books,
eyes crossed from too much reading; we would speak

in auto-rhyme, the world would echo itself – and still
we’d continue in rounds, saying let and let and let
until even silent dreams had been allowed.

by Kei Miller
25
24. The warner-woman
The morning shimmers in its bowl of blue crystal.
Me, underneath my mother's bed.
I delight in dust and dimness.
Connoisseur of comics and the coolness of floorboards,
I prolong my life's long morning.
But the blue sky broke. The warner-woman.

Bell-mouthed and biblical
she trumpeted out of the hills,
prophet of doom, prophet of God,
breeze-blow and earthquake,
tidal wave and flood.
I crouched. I cowered. I remembered Port Royal.

I could see the waters of East Harbour rise.
I saw them heave Caneside bridge. Dear God,
don't make me die, not now, not yet!
Well, the sky regained its blue composure.

Day wound slowly down to darkness.
Lunch-time came, then supper time,
then dream-time and forgetting.
Haven’t heard a warner-woman

These thirty-odd years.
by Edward Baugh
26
25. The carpenter’s complaint (C.X.C recommended poem)
Now you think that is right, sah? Talk the truth.
The man was mi friend. I build it, I
Build the house that him live in; but now
That him dead, that mawga-foot bwoy, him son,
Come say, him want a nice job for the coffin,
So him give it to Mister Belnavis to make −
That big-belly crook who don't know him arse
From a chisel, but because him is big-shot, because
Him make big-shot coffin, fi-him coffin must better
Than mine! Bwoy it hot me, it hot me
For true. Fix we a nex' one, Miss Fergie −
That man coulda knock back him waters, you know sah!
I remember the day in this said-same bar
When him drink Old Brown and Coxs'n into
The ground, then stand up straight as a plumb-line
And keel him felt hat on him head and walk
Home cool, cool, cool. Dem was water-bird, brother!
Funeral? Me, sah? That bwoy have to learn
That a man have him pride. But bless mi days!
Good enough to build the house that him live in,
But not good enough to make him coffin!
I woulda do it for nutt'n, for nutt'n! The man
Was mi friend. Damn mawga-foot bwoy.
Is university turn him fool. I tell you,
It burn me, it burn me for true!
by Edward Baugh
27
26. Let this be your praise
And what is praise but the offering up of one’s self,
the daily rituals: waking to the stream of light seeping in
under the bedroom door, dressing slowly, humming Marley’s
'Three Little Birds' or a made up melody,
cursing the traffic and the heat - the unbearable brazenness
of the morning sun - punctuating your profanities
with pleas for forgiveness. When you were a child
your mother threatened to wash your mouth with soap.
You have not forgotten how a mouth can sully everything,
its desire to be perfect and how often it fails.
At work you smile with the girl who asks stupid questions,
you imagine she has unpaid bills, a wayward child,
you imagine you are more alike than different.
You cut your nails at your desk, laugh when someone falls,
eat lunch too quickly, take Tums for the indigestion.
In the evening you drink peppermint tea, watch TV and
when your eyes grow heavy you say a quick word
of prayer, a thank you for another full day, a request that you
not be killed in your sleep. Perhaps, you squeeze in an orgasm.
And if this is not praise, this simple act of living, if this is not
enough, then let us lie here and do nothing and see
what God has to say about that.
by Tanya Shirley
28
27. Just like that
She got up and died; scraped the chewed bones
to the side, remnants of the stew she stayed up late
making on Holy Thursday so that not a pot would be
put on fire come Good Friday morning.
She centred the fork before lifting her plate high
in the air and in one motion stood, bent over and
collected his plate — her breasts dangling low
before his eyes.
Then she navigated the sharp edge of table,

swooshed her hips just once and died.
Her hips did not complete their sway
before she fell full-bodied to the floor.
He, stunned into action, would later remember
that he wanted so badly to skip breakfast and
partake of her flesh, but she, thinking of her mother
reciting verses in the back pew, thought it was sin
enough that she was not in God’s house;
she could not worship at his mouth.
And so, without the last rites of flesh on flesh,
hip against bone, tongue along lip,
they parted ways.
II
She walked into church that Good Friday morning

with death on her mind;
sang each hymn louder than even the choir
and off-beat bird propped in Sunday manner
against the tree by the window
(each week he forgot pursuits of nectar and women
to sit on the highest branch, nose pointed down as if
he knew the colour of each sin and sinner).
She threw the notes out and up as if
Jesus could have been saved by her voice,
his open wounds sutured by her bellow.
She had to get death out of her throat.
This was the first Easter she felt
each whip, each nail, each jeer.
When they came to get her — three of her brothers,
eyes on the ground, grown men looking like boys —
a note rolled back down her tongue.
29
She saw her child flying higher and higher,
the clouds parting; saw her greet Jesus
on this Good Friday morning.
by Tanya Shirley
30
28. Recompense
remember how Janet get up in history class
& say she not black
& we laugh & tell her fi sit her black backside down
but Janet say
we too fool for school; she half Scottish
& somebody
tug on Janet plait & say look how yuh head tough
& Janet say
don't make that fool you; naked eye don't see the blood
in 18something
her great great great somebody step off a boat
& dig up
her great great great somebody out the cane field to test
the sweetness
of local sugar (no sense buying puss in a bag)
& she not
letting Scotland get away scot-free; she laying claim
to that money
that build bronze statues & columned empires on cobblestone streets
& she say
bet you when Scotland issue apology & say all half-breeds line up here
for recompense
all a we who black & a bray like ass going start sing different tune
but she going be first in line;
all along she singing the same thing: there is money in this blood
money in this blood
by Tanya Shirley
31
29. Her majesty's seal
Someone at the British High Commission
did not agree with my express photographer
that the smile I had practiced
in front of the mirror for a whole half hour
made me look beautiful
brought out my innocence
made my lips look sexy.
He or she
had with firm prerogative
blotted out my face with
her Majesty’s Seal.
The lion’s head made an obscene pattern

on my forehead
his torso covered my two eyes
and his behind sat imperiously
over my nose and sexy mouth.
At least my two cheekbones
my vain claim to African royalty
stood out on either side of his torso
small assurance
I had not been totally obliterated by the beast.
It’s a lie I tell myself

they have no interest in my photo
they just could not catch me
to brand my face
force me to carry the mark of the beast
in my forehead
so they stamped it on my photo instead
blotted out my face.
When I arrive at Heathrow

her Majesty’s Imperial seal
in the place where my face should be
will be enough to let me
a (former) colonial subject
in.
by Paulette Ramsay
32
30. Church Matters
She knelt meekly at the altar
bowed her head and prayed silently
then as if to a cue
she lifted her hand
stretched forth her palm
to accept the offer
of the body broken in
her stead
symbol of supreme sacrifice
she chews with reverence
and gratitude
swallows with dignity
bows her head and prays again
she lifted her head
accepts the offer
of the blood shed in her stead
symbol of supreme sacrifice
she swallows with gratitude
happy to be among
the chosen ones
her prayer of gratitude completed
her ritual of holiness ended.
She rises from the altar,

cuts her eye and
twists-up twist-up her mouth
at Angie as she passes her
on her way
to receive her own
emblems of sacrifice and love.
By Paulette Ramsay
33
31. Mama’s handbag
Una bolsa bien usada
its scratched leatherette
not even a poor Louis Vuitton imitation
inside the labyrinth of secret compartments
a chest of quaint surprises
an old, forgotten, half stick
of Wriggley’s Spearmint, my favourite
pieces of watercrackers
rolled up in crumbled wax paper
leftovers from last week’s visit
to the gastroenterologist
a neatly folded silk handkerchief
embroidered with my initials
a sweaty mint ball
sticking to brown paper
a twisted crochet needle
holding a spool of red thread together
my first tooth
or what was left of it, apparently returned
by the tooth fairy
a button, just like the one
I need for my plaid dress
the first Easter card I made
showing Jesus on the cross
singing glory hallelujah.
Mama’s dilapidated handbag

preserves the secrets of my life
tells my stories
between its tattered lining.
Mama’s prized possessions
keep us close.
by Paulette Ramsay
34
32. Sonny’s lettah (1980)
Brixtan Prison
Jebb Avenue
Landan south-west two
Inglan
Dear Mama,
Good Day.
I hope dat wen
deze few lines reach yu,
they may find yu in di bes af helt.
Mama,
I really don’t know how fi tell yu dis,
cause I did mek a salim pramis
fi tek care a likkle Jim
an try mi bes fi look out fi him.
Mama,
I really did try mi bes,
but nondiles
mi sarry fi tell you seh
poor likkle Jim get arres.
It woz di miggle a di rush howah

wen evrybady jus a hosel an a bosel
fi goh home fi dem evenin showah;
mi an Jim stand up
waitin pan a bus,

nat cauzin no fus,
wen all af a sudden
a police van pull-up.
Out jump tree policeman,

di hole a dem carryin batan.
Dem waak straight up to mi an Jim.
One a dem hol awn to Jim

seh him tekin him in;
Jim tell him fi let goh a him
far him noh dhu notn
an him naw teef,
nat even a butn.
35
Jim start to wriggle
di police start to giggle.
Mama,
mek I tell yu whe dem dhu to Jim
Mama,
mek I tell yu whe dem dhu to him:
dem tump him in him belly

an it turn to jelly
dem lick him pan him back
and him rib get pap
dem lick him pan him hed
but it tuff like led
dem kick him in him seed
an it started to bleed
Mama,
I jus coudn stan-up deh
and noh dhu notn:
soh me jook one in him eye

an him started to cry
mi tump one in him mout
an him started to shout
mi kick one pan him shin
an him started to spin
mi tump him pan him chin
an him drap pan a bin
an crash
an ded.
Mama,
more policeman come dung
an beat mi to di grung;
dem charge Jim fi sus,
dem charge me fi murdah.
Mama,
don fret,
dont get depres
an doun-hearted.
Be af good courage
till I hear fram you.
36
I remain
your son,
Sonny.
by Linton Kwesi Johnson
37
33. If I waz a tap natch poet
if I woz a tap-natch poet
like Chris Okigbo
Derek Walcot
ar T.S.Eliot
I woodah write a poem

soh dyam deep
dat it bittah-sweet
like a precious
memari
whe mek yu weep
whe mek yu feel incomplete
like wen yu lovah leave

an dow defeat yu kanseed
still yu beg an yu plead
iill yu win a repreve
an yu ready fi rack steady
but di muzik done aready
still
inna di meantime
wid mi riddim
wid mi rime
wid mi ruff base line
wid mi own sense a time
goon poet haffi step in line

caw Bootahlazy mite a gat couple touzan
but Mandela fi im
touzans a touzans a touzans a touzans

like Kamau Brathwaite
Martin Carter
Jayne Cortez ar Amiri Baraka

soh rude
an rootsy
an subversive
dat it mek di goon poet
tun white wid envy
38
like a candhumble/voodoo/kumina chant
a ole time calypso ar a slave song
dat get ban
but fram granny
rite
dung
to
gran
pickney
each an evry wan
can recite dat-deh wan
still
inna di meantime
wid mi riddim
wid mi rime
wid mi ruff base line
wid mi own sense a time
goon poet haffi step in line

but Mandela fi im

like Tchikaya U'tamsi
Nicholas Guillen
ar Lorna Goodison

soh beautiful dat it simple
like a plain girl
wid good brains
an nice ways
wid a sexy dispozishan
an plenty compahshan
wid a sweet smile
an a suttle style
still
mi naw goh bow an scrape
an gwan like a ape
peddlin noh puerile parchment af etnicity
wid ongle a vaig fleetin hint af hawtenticity
like a black Lance Percival in reverse
39
ar even worse
a babblin bafoon whe looze im tongue
no sah
nat atall
mi gat mi riddim
mi gat mi rime
mi gat mi ruff base line
mi gat mi own sense a time
goon poet bettah step in line

but Mandela fi im
by Linton Kwesi Johnson
40
34. To the labour party
You sold out the working classes
Brought the Unions to their knees
Now you want to win back the voters
But it's too late, can't you see
You left me with

An inborn fear of bureaucracy
A fright when you talk about democracy
‘Cause I'm tired of all this fallacy
When things rebounding right out of control
And it hard to pay the heat bill in the cold
You promised us a government of vision

You promised you would hear our voice
It didn't take you long to stop listening
And taking away our choice
Now you wonder why there's growth in the right wing

and the bankers have taken all the notes
But you're still making friends with the city
as they tighten the noose round our throats
by Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze
41
35. Dutty Tough
Sun a shine but tings no bright;
Doah pot a bwile, bickle no nuff;
River flood but water scarce, yawl
Rain a fall but dutty tough.
Tings so bad dat nowadays when

Yuh ask smaddy how dem do
Dem fraid yuh tek tell dem back,
So dem no answer yuh.
No care omuch we dah work fa

Hard-time still een wi shut;
We dah fight, Hard-time a beat we,
Dem might raise wi wages, but
One poun gawn awn pon we pay, an

We no feel no merriment
For ten poun gawn pon wi food
An ten pound pon we rent!
Saltfish gawn up, mackerel gawn up.

Pork en beef gawn up,
An when rice and butter ready
Dem jus go pon holiday!
Claht, boot, pin an needle gawn up

Ice, bread, taxes, water-rate
Kersene ile, gasolene, gawn up;
An de poun devaluate
De price of bread gone up so high

Dat we haffi agree
Fi cut we yeye pon bred an all
Turn dumplin refugee
An all dem marga smaddy weh

Dah gwan like fat is sin
All dem-deh weh dah fas wid me
Ah lef dem to dumpling!
Sun a shine an pot a bwile, but

Things no bright, bickle no nuff
Rain a fall, river dah flood, but,
Water scarce an dutty tough.
by Louise Bennett
42
36. Noh Lickle Twang
Me glad fe se's you come back bwoy,
But lawd yuh let me dung,
Me shame o' yuh soh till all o'
Me proudness drop a grung.
Yuh mean yuh goh dah 'Merica

An spen six whole mont' deh,
An come back not a piece betta
Dan how yuh did goh wey?
Bwoy yuh noh shame? Is soh you come?

Afta yuh tan soh lang!
Not even lickle language bwoy?
Not even little twang?
An yuh sista wat work ongle

One week wid 'Merican
She talk so nice now dat we have
De jooce fe undastan?
Bwoy yuh couldn' improve yuhself!

An yuh get soh much pay?
Yuh spen six mont' a foreign, an
Come back ugly same way?
Not even a drapes trouziz? or

A pass de rydim coat?
Bwoy not even a gole teet or
A gole chain roun yuh t'roat.
Suppose me las' me pass go introjooce

Yuh to a stranga
As me lamented son wat lately
Come from 'Merica!
Dem hooda laugh afta me, bwoy

Me could'n tell dem soh!
Dem hooda sey me lie, yuh was
A-spen time back a Mocho.
Noh back-ansa me bwoy, yuh talk

Too bad; shet up yuh mout,
Ah doan know how yuh an yuh puppa
Gwine to meck it out.
43
Ef yuh want please him meck him tink
Yuh bring back someting new.
Yuh always call him ‘Pa’ dis evenin'
Wen him come sey ‘Poo’.
by Louise Bennett
44
37. New Scholar
Good mahnin, Teacher – ow is yuh?
My name is Sarah Pool.
Dis is fi-me li bwoy Michal
An me just bring him a school.
Him bawn one rainy day, ma'am, it

Was comin awn to night –
Ugly baby grow pretty fi true,
For dis one was a sight.
Him bawn de week when Rufus

Jack-fruit tree did start fi bear,
Is dat same mont Oby pig dead
– But me figat de year.
We call him Mi, Mike, Mikey,

Jay, Jakey, Jacob, Jack,
But him right name is Michal Jacob
Alexander Black.
No treat him rough, yaw, Teacher;

Him is a sickly chile:
As yuh touch him hard him meck nize –
Some people seh him pwile.
Teck time wid him yaw Teacher –

If him rude an start fi rave
Dis beat anoder bwoy, an him
Wi frighten an behave.
For nuff time when him rude a yard

An woan hear at all
Ah jus beat de bed-poas hard, mah,
An yu waan fi hear Jack bawl!
Now dat yuh know him lickle ways

Ah not havin no fear
Dat anyting wi mel him, so
Ah lef him in yu care.
by Louise Bennett
45
38. Harlem shadows (1922)
I hear the halting footsteps of a lass
In Negro Harlem when the night lets fall
Its veil. I see the shapes of girls who pass
To bend and barter at desire’s call.
Ah, little dark girls who in slippered feet
Go prowling through the night from street to street!
Through the long night until the silver break

Of day the little gray feet know no rest;
Through the lone night until the last snow-flake
Has dropped from heaven upon the earth’s white breast,
The dusky, half-clad girls of tired feet
Are trudging, thinly shod, from street to street.
Ah, stern harsh world, that in the wretched way

Of poverty, dishonor and disgrace,
Has pushed the timid little feet of clay,
The sacred brown feet of my fallen race!
Ah, heart of me, the weary, weary feet
In Harlem wandering from street to street
by Claude McKay
39. The Castaways

The vivid grass with visible delight
Springing triumphant from the pregnant earth,
The butterflies, and sparrows in brief flight
Chirping and dancing for the season's birth,
The dandelions and rare daffodils
That touch the deep-stirred heart with hands of gold,
The thrushes sending forth their joyous trills,─
Not these, not these did I at first behold!
But seated on the benches daubed with green,
The castaways of life, a few asleep,
Some withered women desolate and mean,
And over all, life's shadows dark and deep.
Moaning I turned away, for misery
I have the strength to bear but not to see.
by Claude McKay
46
40. Adolescence
There was a time when in late afternoon
The four-o'clocks would fold up at day's close
Pink-white in prayer, and 'neath the floating moon
I lay with them in calm and sweet repose.
And in the open spaces I could sleep,

Half-naked to the shining worlds above;
Peace came with sleep and sleep was long and deep,
Gained without effort, sweet like early love.
But now no balm─nor drug nor weed nor wine─

Can bring true rest to cool my body's fever,
Nor sweeten in my mouth the acid brine,
That salts my choicest drink and will forever.
by Claude McKay
47
41. Last lines
This is the last line I draw.
Alright. Draw the last line.
But I tell you, yonder
is a next. No line ever last
no death not forever.
You see this place? You see it?
All of it? Watch it good.
Not a jot nor a tittle
going lost. Every old
twist-up man you see,
every hang-breast woman,
every bang-belly pickney.
every young warrior
who head wrinch
with weed, white powder,
black powder, or indeed
the very vile persuasion
of the devil (for him not
bedridden you know)
every small gal-turn-ooman
that you crucify on the
cross of your sex
before her little naseberry
start sweeten,
I swear to you,
every last one shall live.
Draw therefore, O governor,
prime minister, parson,
teacher, shopkeeper,
politician, university lecturer,
resonant revolutionaries,
draw carefully that
last fine line
of your responsibility.
by Pamela Mordecai
48
42. Yarn Spinner
Inside she sits and spins, decanting gold
and silver from her wrists. Her fingers bleed.
Day and then night. Myriad windows perch
above her head, brilliant birds. Through them
she cannot see the river pirouette
from a valley hung high, tumble, kneel deep
into a basin blue as chiming bells set in
obsidian rocks. Night, and then day, but she
cannot observe the stars, the sun. She scoffs air,
laps sweat off her chin. Straining to listen, finds
she cannot hear even the wind. The walls
leach marrow from her bones. The room
adjusts around her shrinking frame of mind.
She teases out a winking thread, curls it
about a spool, then wheels and comes again.

Rich filaments bite through her skin as she
construes the pile of unspun wool, rovings
of thought, symbols of winding cord, strings she
makes hum, imagine up a poem to twist
the tongue, cable to match a letter to
a sound, a drill that interweaves syntax
of word and necessary word, a song
to bring a measured meter to the hands
that drum on ancient wood. But this can’t be a life.
Flapping flamboyant wings the windows preen
and squawk, a flock cruising landscapes she will
not see again. The river in the rising sun
spits, spurts, explodes resplendent as a veil
let fall to hide a bride. Marry she won’t
locked in this tower where time goes. Her green
flesh crawls fluted as wrinkled sea. Once she
was brown and curious in the world, Now her
illumination is a crusted bulb
on a high wire. How did she come to this,
within without an inkling of out, intent
on weaving meaning as she strips it from
herself? And still she feeds the iridescent mound
so thick and plentiful it steals the light.
And are you sad alone? Not when I spin.
And are you sorry for the yarns you make?
No, for they keep the children warm. What if
you die spinning a thread? Die, yes, but never dead …
by Pamela Mordecai
49
43. Cat-rap
Lying on the sofa
all curled and meek
but in my furry-fuzzy head
there's a rapping beat.
Gonna rap while I'm napping
and looking sweet
gonna rap while I'm padding
on the balls of my feet
Gonna rap on my head

gonna rap on my tail
gonna rap on my
you know where.
So wave your paws in the air
like you just don't care
with nine lives to spare
gimme five right here.
Well, they say that we cats
are killed by curiosity,
but does the moggie mind?

No, I've got suavity.
When I get to heaven
gonna rap with Macavity,
gonna find his hidden paw
and clear up that mystery.
Nap it up
scratch it up
the knack is free
fur it up
purr it up
yes that's me.
The meanest cat-rapper you'll ever see.

Number one of the street-sound galaxy.
by Grace Nichols
50
44. For forest
Forest could keep secrets
Forest tune in every day

to watersound and birdsound
Forest letting her hair down
to the teeming creeping of her forest-ground
But Forest don't broadcast her business

no Forest cover her business down
from sky and fast-eye sun
and when night come
and darkness wrap her like a gown
Forest is a bad dream woman
Forest dreaming about mountain

and when earth was young
Forest dreaming of the caress of gold
Forest roosting with mysterious eldorado
and when howler monkey

wake her up with howl
Forest just stretch and stir
to a new day of sound
but coming back to secrets

And we must keep Forest
by Grace Nichols
51
45. I like to stay up
I like to stay up
and listen
when big people talking
jumbie stories
I does feel
so tingly and excited
inside me
But when my mother say

“Girl, time for bed”
The is when
I does feel a dread
Then is when
I does jump into me bed
Then is when
I does cover up
from me feet to me head
Then is when
I does wish I didn't listen
to no stupid jumbie story
Then is when
I does wish I read
me book instead
(“Jumbie” is a Guyanese word for “ghost”.)

by grace Nichols
52
46. The edge of night
Watchman by the seawall koker
twenty years I met him on my walks
seawind and sunset I see recalling him.
He smoked his curly pipe, we talked
fireflies sparking in the low, protected fields.
I often thought what a life he’s lived
but what a life is any life that’s lived.
He was old when he began this job
guardian of the tidal gates of town.
Got away from a rum-soaked father’s home
wandered far to other lonely lands
and home again he never built a home
or had one woman or concerned himself with God
“Ah live from then to now an’ don’ remember how.”
Eyes far away as stars beyond our counting
an old man stranded on the edge of night.
Long ago he was a forest guide
went with Museum teams in Essequibo
and made a name for his strange collections.
One day he brought for their inspection
a black and shiny scorpion whose helmet-head was gold
They honoured him, he was named discoverer
the keepsake plaque engraved in Latin script.
I tell him it is beautifully done
he gestures, the sea in tumult rises at our feet.
by Ian McDonald
47. The Bone-trip

Bone-trip, he called it, his brutal name
for dying: “The bone-trip is always hard.”
I remember his face lit by fire,
cracked into a thousand creases
as he bent over, hardening nails:
he repaired boots for working men in Gentle Street.
One day his smiling partner wasn’t there.
“Well, bruds gone to make his bone-trip now.”
Wiped his sweaty face with rag,
went on nailing the rough, strong boots.
Cruel, I remember thinking, fifty years ago.
And it is now, my God, now, it is now.
by Ian McDonald
53
48. Iguana
for A.T.
My friend from Guyana

was asked in Philadelphia
if she was from “Iguana.”
Iguana, which crawls and then

stills, which flicks its tongue at the sun.
In History we learned that Lucayans

ate iguana, that Caribs
(my grandmother’s people)
ate Lucayans (the people of Guanahani).
Guiana (the colonial way,
with an i, southernmost
of the Caribbean) is iguana; Inagua
(southernmost of The Bahamas,
northernmost of the Caribbean)
is iguana— Inagua, crossroads with Haiti,
Inagua of the salt and flamingos.
The Spanish called it Heneagua,
“water is to be found there,”
water, water everywhere.
Guyana (in the language of Arawaks,

Wai Ana, “Land of Many Waters”)
is iguana, veins running through land,
grooves between green scales.
My grandmother from Moruga
(southern-most in Trinidad)
knew the names of things.
She rubbed iguana with bird pepper,
she cooked its sweet meat.
The earth is on the back

of an ageless iguana.
We are all from the Land of Iguana,

Hewanorra, Carib name for St. Lucia.
And all the iguanas scurry away from me.

And all the iguanas are dying.
by Christian Campbell
54
49. Oregon Elegy
for I. H.
I once told a friend, who was going

to Oregon for Christmas with his girlfriend,
he’d be the only black person there

and, in fact, if you shuffle Oregon,
like a seasoned minstrel, it spells Negro

but with an extra O as if to make
a groan, nearly a shout, perhaps

a moment of fright: O Negro in Oregon!
He died laughing and told me

that’s word-lynching, and I wondered
if we could also lynch words,

string them up, sever them,
tattoo them with bullets and knives;

if we could hold a barbecue
for language swaying with the branches,

soon picked to silence by crows—
words soaked in coal oil

then set ablaze, a carnival of words
sacrificed over rivers, from bridges,

from trees, too-ripe words dangling
from branches just beyond our reach.

Like Alonzo Tucker in 1906,
shot twice, then hanged

from the Fourth Street Bridge
by two hundred men arched into one

white arm because (we wonder,
we know) a white woman said

he raped her. I want to tell my boy
55
blacks weren’t wanted in Oregon
at first, but what do I know, I’ve never
set foot on Nez Perce land where

exactly one hundred years after
Tucker, he could go west to one edge

of America because he loves
his woman enough to be

the very last Negro on Earth.
by Christian Campbell
56
50. Last night.
got a peek
at the moon
last night
and didn’t think of lovers
got a peek
at the moon
last night
an saw
a man with a load on his back
got a peek
at the moon
last night
an cried
by Oku Onuora
57
51. Black Power April, 1970
In April she turned seven.
The city was an army of arms, uplifted –
fists, tight, punching hard at heaven.
What did it all mean – becoming seven,

and Port-of-Spain an angry sea,
heaving, demanding release?
Sister preached a mad Sermon on Hair,

led blind prayers to the Virgin for peace –
her lenses as black as her fear.
Corralled in a rosary of responses,

she saw again the white of her father’s shirt,
sailing to work. More than anything,
she wanted to march beside him, cuffing

against the wrong she could not tell him,
shouting, “Power!” until the whole sky fell.
by Jennifer Rahim
52. After hospital visits

She comes in like a wilted flower – spent,
slightly limping on a wounded ankle
that each year seemed less able to carry
her small frame on her heart’s ready business.
Missions my father baptised her goings
to care for grandchildren – days at a time.
Something like pain trembled in his voice.
He needed her much more than he could say,
but bore her absences as he did his suffering,
bravely – waiting as she once did for him
when his many goings were not about love.
Now, she is the woman of his sixth station.
After hospital visits she collapses in his chair
puts her feet up, and is no more broken –
bridge that bears his not too late love of home.
by Jennifer Rahim
58
53. Anger bakes
Some mornings she is silent.
Her hymns raise no staircases
to lift darkness off our backs.
The kitchen is not a chapel then.
It sounds of the swash-swash
strokes of the broom, the rough
I-mean-business handling of pots,
the counter’s groan as she makes
smooth dough of flour and water.
Those mornings we try not to hear

her quarrelsome bracelets pick bones
with the blame-bruised enamel bowl,
but strain our brains for her deep-
throated invocations “ I lift up my eyes
to the mountains...” If verses fail
to save, if bakes curse in hot oil
we beg the sun “Please, sleep late!”
Flour cannot rise without hymns.

Fried bakes, flat and hard as river stones,
must be sawed open and chewed for hours
while, like exacting bakers,
we weigh and sift her silence.
by Jennifer Rahim
59
54. The felling of a tree
When the air is a sharpened blade
cutting nostrils clean like cutlass steel,
the bush-planters pass the sleeping houses.
Sometimes alone, sometimes in pairs,

they lumber up the mountain road
tall-tops pounding the asphalt smooth.
Sometimes I awake and follow them,

knowing they go beyond the road’s end
into the depths of bearded trees
where tallness is not neighbours’ fences

and bigness is not the swollen houses
that swallow us all.
I follow - slowly – my thinking measured,

my steps behind clobbering boots, steady
certain that if I stay in their neat clearings
I will never see, and I want to see the trees.

I want to hear their long silences speaking
the untold plenty of leaves.
I follow, drinking the air like water,

my steps a soft conversation with blades
that cut paths through the asphalt.
I follow, the strength in my thighs a newness

that makes my feet sprout roots,
and I think: this is what tall means.
Just when my lips begin to savour my salt,

he looks back. Seeing me grow branches
draws out his cutting steel and slashes my feet,
since girls can never become trees.

Turning, I run down the mountain weeping
like leaves after rain-forest showers.
by Jennifer Rahim
60
55. Love After Love
The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored

for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,

peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
by Derek Walcott
56. The fist

The fist clenched round my heart
loosens a little, and I gasp
brightness; but it tightens
again. When have I ever not loved
the pain of love? But this has moved
past love to mania. This has the strong

clench of the madman, this is
gripping the ledge of unreason, before
plunging howling into the abyss.
Hold hard then, heart. This way at least you live.

by Derek Walcott
61
57. Cut language!
(for Stephen )
Wrapping your tongue

round words
Stephen man-
oevering
“spinsters and
bachelors”
how many learn to spell

but never practise
words
my grandson
you will be
wordsman
claiming this English
language
other people’s
anguish
claiming our
patwa
switching easy
when reason calls
“I saw the lightning
leaping through the house
I heard the thunder clap
an Nanny bawl out ‘Jiizas Krais’”
Children across the wall

offend
and you defend
with “gwe bwai
no bada wi”
didn’t I tell them

everytime
bilingual is the lick?
by Velma Pollard
62
58. Confessions of a son
My father lost me
somewhere between
the smell of leather
shoes and the enchantment of untying laces
Waiting to cross swords

with the tyrant
who would cow her
I man watched
hovering over
Mother
(I four feet high)

standing on tiptoe
Half century later

still I do not know
if culture curbed concern
or if he loved less
than he needed love
I store for her

affection without question
for him respect
with unlove
waiting for compassion
by Velma Pollard
63
59. To Gran... And no farewell
I didnt wish to see the moth-marks
where your Khus Khus smelled
the high weeds crowding the forget-me-nots
or alien fingers
handling knives and spoons
kept sheening in brown calico
and so I let the years

make jumbie chain-links
ages long before I brought
bright florets for your grave
One room remains

and one small fretwork shard
among the rotted beams
ingrown with baby grass
remembers still the august Entry Hall
tributes of broken china
lean-to tables
and an old man shambling out and in
cursing the vultures
who would snatch the land...
I round the corner

eager with my shrubs
the grave at last...
then unbelieving shudder
Corpie’s tomb
Naomi’s garden square
and yours that now
my mind will never hold
no single adoration
no peculiar tears
some well-intentioned
madman with his spade...
all now one vast sepulchraic mass
I crush the shrublets

tramp them underfoot
and with a heart
too swollen now for tears
descend the slope
without adieu.
by Velma Pollard
64
60. Punctuation marks
Punctuation Marks
Where sea and land meet, begin there.
The ampersand, the join, is a fault
which caused jagged peaks to rise –
from the ocean’s floor -
spanning a vacant gulf.
On any map of the world there are footnotes
reminders of nature’s force.
Long ago, nomads, fragile as their pottery,

skimming waves, trecking from south to north,
stopped once too often for wood and water
and perished.
From the pre-ceramic Cibony
to the ceramics of Saladoid and Suazoid
we know them by their shards.
Common island caribs, sunk in a murderous tide
that flowed from east to west
bearing assassin and poets
discoverers of the New World.
Come nearer, focus on one dot of an island

I was born there, on the rim of a volcano
on the edge of a large full stop
where the sand is black
where the hills turn a gun-barrel blue
where the sea perpetually dashes at the shoreline
trying to reclaim it all.
By Philip Nanton
65
61. Fishing
Two boys fishing—like me—for a poem,
waiting to play each line till it gets taut,
hoping to hold onto it as it fights
to slip away, burning the hand that wants
to grasp and measure it as it leaps and dives.
Often, as with all good lines of poetry, it cuts
the flesh that tries to tame it, to
tire it, to haul it into the light of human
understanding and watch its colours sparkle
as it fights the shape of the vessel
in which they land it and to which
they will make it yield the meaning
of its capture, the scale of its hope—
the syllabic wonder of its form and breath.
And so with every line: some, of course

must be thrown back—too tired,
too weak, too hauntingly familiar,
too easily wrestled into limp acquiescence…
Yet, by the time the circling beam of the
lighthouse, like the flash of trope and image,
becomes visible, the poem will have taken shape
on the crude palimpsest of the dinghy’s floor
and the poet-fishermen will head for shore…
And when the poem is complete, packaged,

marketed, the fisherman of words is happy
to let go of it and return next day
to the blue sea of wonder, to seek again
the fin-flash of lines of poetry, just
beneath the surface of his longing.
by Mark McWatt
66
62. The Earth is Our Friend
(Garden of Creation)
The earth is the garden of creation

Purposefully clothed with lush, green vegetation.
Roots!
Firm enough to prevent critical soil erosion,

All elements working in union,
For natural joy and satisfaction.
The earth is a friend, we are the friends of the earth
The cyclic function of the earth’s ecology is no mystery.

Like the organs of the human body,
Each working in perfect harmony,
In this our environmental community,
of which the guardians and keepers,
are the children of humanity.
The rivers, like blood streams flowing into the oceans

Returning secretly to the fleshy bowels of earth’s creation
Evaporating to the atmospheric breath of life
Sun, moon and stars
Solid, liquid and gas
Land, sea and air
Flesh, blood and spirit.
Like the lungs of man

The trees breathe to keep the earth alive
Yeah! The Sun, like a devoted Father
Working from sunrise until sunset
And the Moon, like a loving Mother
Working from dusk until dawn
Shining with the sweet embrace of her children, the stars
If we protect the earth,

Then, the earth will protect us
Clothe, feed and shelter us.
The earth is the garden of creation.
If we keep the earth alive
Then we will stay alive,
The earth will keep us alive.
67
The earth is our friend,
We are the friends of the earth
by Yasus Afari
68
63. Poetry Caan Nyam
Now if the hunter ever tell the story of the hunted
Then the hunted will be robbed of it's honour and glory
Soh I and I have to shape our own reality
Preserve our own dignity and identity
Now I write my poetry to rewrite history

Burn illusions and fantasy
Shape and create my own destiny
And create my own reality
Now at the College of Arts Science and Technology

I mix and match Rastafari philosophy with dub poetry
Only to disappoint mi friends and family
And same time my girlfriend Twiggy left me
Twiggy left me, Twiggy left me
Soh the summer holiday, mi goh home to mama

A speng inna mi walla-be gun-foot-trousers
Mi buckers and tam, buckers and tam, buckers and tam
Di neighbour dem start seh
But look 'pon sister Derrie good, good bwoy doh eeh!
When mi walk up to mama, mama seh

But look 'pon mi good, good pickiney bwoy, doh eeh!
Wonder if a education tun him inna idiot
Then mama tun to mi and seh
Tonie, why yu nah goh cut off yu locks and goh look wuk!
Really and truly, weh yu really plan fi duh wid yu self!?
Mi seh mama, I plan fi live off a dub poetry

Then mama look 'pon mi and seh
Bwoy, yu eva hear seh poetry caan nyam!?
Poetry caan nyam, poetry caan nyam
Mi seh yes mama! Mi a goh show yu seh poetry caan nyam
Bwoy a turn inna idiot
Like 'P', fi pineapple, papaya and pumpkin'
'Cause yu grow mi as a real ole country bunkin'
'O', fi orange, ote eatie (apple)
'E', fi eggplant
'T', fi tamgerine, tamrind and tomato
'R', fi radish, rasberry and rose apple
'Y', fi yamm, like Saint Vincent, yellow yam and mosella
69
Soh mama if yu feel disappointed
It's alright, don't worry
'Cause I and I a show yourself
And mama, I and I still love
So mama look 'pon me and seh
I and I!? Soh a two a onnu a walk now!?
Walla-be gun-foot-trousers
Mi buckers and tam, buckers and tam, buckers and tam
Poetry caan nyam, poetry caan nyam..
by Yasus Afari
70
64. Wine Pon Paper
If reggae inna the dancehall
That mean dancehall fi inna reggae
And if dancehall inna the reggae
That mean reggae fi inna dancehall
Mi si pen all a wine 'pon paper

When girls a give out dem numba
Dem seh haul and pull-up mi selecta
Fah the word sound have up the power
Now lata is already greater
Lyrical riddim a dance 'pon paper
And question a bubble wid answer
And when the ink and the vibes start flow
The stanzas them start fi grow
So the fruits and works start show
And mi people dem glad fi know

Wi have music, dance and comedy

Story telling, fashion and poetry
Now thoughts and words bring reality
Rreality shape wi identity
So wi think and make things happen
Now action brings the reaction
And set the whole ting inna motion
So if yu don't plan to fail
Don't fail to plan
Just join wid mi inna the celebration
Mek wi sen out a good vibration


Dem seh haul and pull-up mi selecta
Fah the word sound have up the power
Now lata is already greater
71
Lyrical riddim a dance 'pon paper
And when the ink and the vibes start flow
The stanzas them start fi grow
So the fruits and works start show
And mi people dem glad fi know

Wi have music, dance and comedy

Story telling, fashion and poetry
Now thoughts and words bring reality
Rreality shape wi identity
So wi think and make things happen
Now action brings the reaction
And set the whole ting inna motion
So if yu don't plan to fail
Don't fail to plan
Just join wid mi inna the celebration
Mek wi sen out a good vibration



by Yasus Afari
72
65. Toussaint L’Ouverture acknowledges Wordsworth’s sonnet
“To Toussaint L’Ouverture”(2006)

I have never walked on Westminster Bridge
or had a close-up view of daffodils.
My childhood’s roots are the Haitian hills
where runaway slaves made a freedom pledge
and scarlet poincianas flaunt their scent.
I have never walked on Westminster Bridge
or speak, like you, with Cumbrian accent.
My tongue bridges Europe to Dahomey.
Yet how sweet is the smell of liberty
when human beings share a common garment.
So, thanks brother, for your sonnet’s tribute.
May it resound when the Thames’ text stays mute.
And what better ground than a city’s bridge
for my unchained ghost to trumpet love’s decree.
By John Agard
73
66. Foremother II: Mary Seacole
from i was a little girl
my feet itched at the water’s edge
watching the waves ebb
ships coming and going
i observed my mother
sniffing and sorting herbs
forever blending and tasting
her brow knitted in concentration
find your gift she insisted

help someone be star or lantern
my hands carried the moon
even when night was dark
i would not be land-bound

robbed by womanly constraints
oh panama i come fingers liniment
sleep on clean sheets and stomachs well fed
there is and always will be a difference

between a woman and a lady but i was both
my face and heart unveiled to every man
my bedroom eden before the fall
i was persuasive i could charm

and not even a misguided nightingale
would deter me from administering
what i know to ally and enemy equally
i would leave treasure map for daughters

who would surely follow on my heels
listening keenly to the winds that beckoned them
herbal plants stored securely in their suitcases
by Opal Adisa Palmer
74
67. Dis poem
dis poem
shall speak of the wretched sea
that washed ships to these shores
of mothers cryin for their young
swallowed up by the sea
dis poem shall say nothin new
dis poem shall speak of time
time unlimited time undefined
dis poem shall call names
names like lumumba kenyatta nkrumah
hannibal akenaton malcolm garvey
haile selassie
dis poem is vexed about apartheid rascism fascism
the klu klux klan riots in brixton atlanta
jim jones
dis poem is revoltin against 1st world 2nd world
3rd world division man made decision
dis poem is like all the rest
dis poem will not be amongst great literary works
will not be recited by poetry enthusiasts
will not be quoted by politicians nor men of religion
dis poem s knives bombs guns blood fire
blazin for freedom
yes dis poem is a drum
ashanti mau mau ibo yoruba nyahbingi warriors
uhuru uhuru
uhuru namibia
uhuru soweto
uhuru afrika
dis poem will not change things
75
dis poem need to be changed
dis poem is a rebirth of a peopl
arizin awaking understandin
dis poem speak is speakin have spoken
dis poem shall continue even when poets have stopped writin
dis poem shall survive u me it shall linger in history
in your mind
in time forever
dis poem is time only time will tell
dis poem is still not written
dis poem has no poet
dis poem is just a part of the story
his-story her-story our-story the story still untold
dis poem is now ringin talkin irritatin
makin u want to stop it
but dis poem will not stop
dis poem is long cannot be short
dis poem cannot be tamed cannot be blamed
the story is still not told about dis poem
dis poem is old new
dis poem was copied from the bible your prayer book
playboy magazine the n.y. times readers digest
the c.i.a. files the k.g.b. files
dis poem is no secret
dis poem shall be called boring stupid senseless
dis poem is watchin u tryin to make sense from dis poem
dis poem is messin up your brains
makin u want to stop listenin to dis poem
but u shall not stop listenin to dis poem
u need to know what will be said next in dis poem
dis poem shall disappoint u
76
because
dis poem is to be continued in your mind in your mind
in your mind your mind
by Mutabaruka
68. Sistas Poem

Sistas a feel yuh pain
Is a shame
Some men is to blame
Suh yuh breedin agen

An im gwan wid im fren
Lord, wen it a guh en'
Yes a feel yuh pain

Is a shame
Yuh stay at home

Him gwan guh roam
Lef de yard
Seh im gwan abroad
Many years pass de luv' nah lass
Yuh breedin once more
Anadda man fi sure
Yes a feel yuh pain

Is a shame
Male an' female he made us all

To gedda we stan' nun shall fall
De burden of life all mus wear
De joy of life all mus share
Yes a feel yuh pain

Is a shame
77
Sistas sistas 'ave no fear
Som a we breddas really do care
To move forward yuh afi andastan
In disyah ammagiddion u afi stan' stran
Yes a feel yuh pain

Is a shame
by Mutabaruka
78
69. Wailin
juke box play
. . . an’ “stir it up”
in de ghetto
yout’ man
“run fe cova"
hot
hot
hotter
“curfew” in a trench town
gun a blaze:
crack
“trench town rock”
juke box playin

. . . ’an wi sayin
“long time wi nuh ’ave nuh nice time”
yout’man
watch yu step
mek-kase stop
“screwface"
“lively up yuself”
and “come reason now”
yout’man
watch yu ways
“simma down”
stop frown
play music
play in a “mellow mood”
music is food
in de ghetto
yout’man
spread out
stop bungle
inna “concrete jungle”
watch it
in de ghetto
hot
….. hippies smokin pot?
wha dat?
yout’man
throw wey de
molotov bomb
oppressa-man
79
man vex
who yu gwine shoot nex?
hey you big tree
“small axe"
ready
by Mutabaruka
80
70. For a defeated boxer
Doing roadwork early in the morning
you imagined the music of the word “champ”
addressed to you;
pounding the speedball you could see
the belt around your waist;
punching the bag you could see
the headlines
announcing the glory you brought
to yourself and country.
When the night came

you did not see the punches
that put you down;
you heard the count in a daze;
you saw the referee’s signal;
it was over in less than a round.
This failure of your manly art

sent you sinking to a despair
flat as the canvas.
But this is a place where we all go,

floored by hooks, jabs and uppercuts.
But defeat is victorious only when
we do not see it a Kipling’s impostor.
Having dipped into all our pain
you can climb in and fight again.
by Earl McKenzie
81
71. On knowing someone: The epistemology of destructiveness
(After George Laming)
I know you:
These are the dreaded words.
They can mean:

I know you come from a small place
of little significance,
that you once walked barefooted
and carried water on your head;
that you carry still the smell of the canepiece.
They can mean:

I know the decay of your ghetto address
and the odour of your slums;
that you have no known family tree,
that you live by counting red money.
The speaker wants to wield this knowledge

as a destructive power over you,
he who cannot know
the mansions of our mind
and the power of your dreams.
by Earl McKenzie
82
72. A Woman in Istanbul tells my fortune
You will live a long life.
You will get what you now so earnestly desire,
for it will be a distinguished life.
There will be a husband, yes; two, maybe three children.
Your children will be much like everyone else’s children.
The same sorrows. The same joys.
Always there is water around you: Tears? Travel?
You will, as you already know, spend much of your time
far away from home. There will be books,
paintings, terrible quarrels with people you do not know –
it would pay for you to hold your tongue,
but we both know you are not that type.
Mistakes? You will make more than your fair share
of them. Grief? Again more than your fair share.
The restlessness that flutters constantly, caged white
bird in the cavity of your chest, will never go away –
though time will help with the fluttering.
You will outlive your husband, almost outlive
one of your children – what pain, what pain.
I see you an old woman, halo of silver-white hair,
children all about you. I see a garden, and you
wearing a dark-coloured smock, faded pink roses.
You are wearing shoes much too big for you –
(your late husband’s?) In your hands, a pair of oversized
shears, and you: the woman who is always pruning.
by Jacqueline Bishop
83
73. Pierre
It was a boy named Pierre Powell
that was in charge of the atlas
in the cabinet. He also ended days

by shaking the iron bell from principal
William’s window, a work we grudged

him for very little; what cut our cores
twice a week and we had to endure,

was him being summoned to fetch
the key, again from William’s office,

to open the varnished box with the world
map, old and laminated, a forbidden

missionary gift trophied besides the Oxford
Set of Mathematical Instruments and other

things seen only by Pierre and Teacher Rose,
who now only nodded to raise him

to his duty. We waited in quiet
his return, Miss Rose all crinkled blouse

and bones with chalk dust in her hair,
did not stir until he was back, panting

at the door. Another diviner nod
and he opened it, unrolled the map expertly,

kneaded out creases and held down edges
for the ruler our eyes followed,

screeching out countries, and etched
in the periphery, a khaki-pillared Pierre,

with a merchant’s smile, a fixed blur
in our cry of Algeria, Switzerland, Chile,

soon withered away, and we eyed the field
of dry grass outside, a rusty mule,

statue-frozen in the punishable heat,
84
Pierre, a phantom sea fraying
over Antarctica, Fiji, Belize, India
of those still in the rote, a liturgy of dunce,

whose one cardinal point, Tropicana
Sugar Estate, so close we could smell the sugar

in process, whistled its shift change,
and terminated Geography. As if punched

from dream, those of us gazers, spared the map
rolling-up and cabinet-locking ceremony,

saw him, with a cord-strung key, an earnest air
bearing him away in a portal of sunlight.

He was absent, the week before summer,
and when Miss Rose, in rare fashion,

inquired, a girl said he had gone back home.
“Home,” Miss Rose sounded the strange word.

“Home,” the girl echoed and added, “him from Cayman,
Miss, or Canada, somewhere with a C.”

We turned to Miss Rose to clarify Canada
or Cayman, this elsewhere C curdled

to snow in our minds, foreign always spectral,
but she pointed anonymously a crooked

finger and said, “Run to the principal
for the key.” The whole class scattered, paid

no heed that not a single one was ordained.
by Ishion Hutchinson
85
74. Fire
Before there was time to pull away
or shut the skin
your smile cut my face. Instantly
it healed. But now there’s fire in my head,
in the kindling of my skull.
Air
The wind wrenched at my bones. See,

here, and here. I am loose, puppet, I am
jointed to your hands.
Articulate me gently, whispering.
I swing at the air of your voice.
Earth
Draw the curtains.

Like a place to bury kings
the room is warm and dry.
Our flesh moves to corruption
quietly: achieving night
at those same moments of most pure delight.
Water
I have taken the spit from your tongue.

It is river.
It is sea.
I am drowning. Slowly
the moon tides it away
to lap beside your pillow.
I skip my dreams like stones across its silence.
by Dennis Scott
86
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http://www.jah-lyrics.com/song/yasus-afari-poetry-caan-nyam
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Caribbean Poems

1. Death of a comrade (1950s) ................................................................................................................ 1

Too soon, too soon

Now, from the mourning vanguard moving on

British soldier, man in khaki

Although you come in thousands from the sea

My hands are full of lines

Do not stare at me from your window, lady.

My hand is full of lines

What every child wants is always

long dark night is the silence in front of me

stick hit sound

stick hit sound

long dark deck and the water surrounding me

stick is the whip

stick is the whip

drum stick knock

knees spread wide

out of the dark

and the music is saving me

on the burning ground.

From the overflowing funeral

The chief invigilator

Outside the centre –

We’re struggling here

Clear one island.

No one quarrels here, no one has learned

Find me a man who will stand

You, August, have carried in your belly

the world’s rapacious appetite for sweetness

How place names of my servitude mock me:

Each with the Great House squatting

At shell blow assembled the broken-down bodies,

that rope from around

Come now, break the spell.

before swine. What have you

is already used. Keep a single

or injest it for melancholy,

Better yet, count it

and store them

and the yard man will press

its furious firing. He will dash

the bark so it will bleed itself

coffin color, the branches dry

blind, naked, one hand behind

to cultivate poverty’s lean image,

In ship’s belly, song and story dispensed as medicine,

Song propelled you to fly through hidden other eye,

In barks of destruction, story functioned as talisman

Remaining remnant tasting all of life, blood, salt,

pellucid spirit wafer without weight, ingested,

Remnant remaining rise now.

You dance upon the deck of the slaver Antonia

You moved just so, in and out between wild notes

range of Kilimanjaro, length of river Limpopo.

Rose securing sinkhole in river

Sign on sign and she did not heed,

for her to raise a modest Rose tattoo.

scrolled soft-tubed in yielding bones.