Rise up

Photograph of T Burrows

The dust of my emotions

Blow on the high heels of my vision

Web-like, tangled

Squiggles

Rise up

Shape

Breath

life

The flower

-

Poem by Brenda McCartney

Waiting

Image by Imagemore Co., Ltd

The Moment

I

A purple flower

Left by her lover

Delivered in response to her letter

A few days earlier

II

The lone figure

Lay poised and beautifully adorned

Along the peaceful meadow

His return seems like forever

But he was waiting for dawn

-

Poem by Brenda L. McCartney

Pack Light

Photographed by Martin Harvey

Relax your mind

Simply unwind

Revive your spirit

Adventure, life -  inherit

Going to the beach  everyday this week conjures some special memories of days on the island relaxing. In life we often carry around too many burdens and my thoughts take me to Erykah Badu’s ‘Bag Lady‘ song “I betcha love can make it better.” Enjoy your life and surroundings wherever you are look at the bright side and make the best of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqN0jsSe

The soul of a Grey Day

There is something about stormy/ hurricane-like weather that makes the child in me return. I usually get excited watching the waves bash against the coastline as the sand disappears. The sound of the ‘pitter patter’ of the rain drops beat gracefully against the frosted glaze of the car windows. I roll down the car glass as the rain gently kisses my body and soothes my skin. For some this grey day is inhospitable as it triggers regretful sighs. For me, this rainy day instills awe and thankfulness. For me days like this indicate a beginning, a sign of a good fortune and a gift to treasure. As the seagulls gather noisily and wander just above the rush of the waves a warm feeling inside me swells, and at the same time this weather represents the quintessential British life that I miss…

Tebuwnah

Basho is a Japanese Poet who practiced a form of poetry called haikai, consisting of linked verses. This is where the familiar term Haiku first developed. A Haiku is the first verse of the linked verses of a Haikai poem. The Haiku is unrhymed phrases of five, seven and five syllables that are meant to capture the essence of nature. Basho learned the craft of poetry from Kigin, a prominent Kyoto poet. He eventually became a recluse, and on his travels relied on the hospitality of temples and fellow poets. Each Haiku portrays the landscapes Basho travels through.  It has been three centuries after Basho’s Narrow Road yet it still speaks to us. Through the words of revered Japanese Poet Matsuo Basho I found and penned my own Haiku; I added a line.

Gladly  I join you

Nurtured by Life!

Leaping unto pages

Written in summer

-

Poem Written by Brenda L. McCartney

Rain Drops

Throughout the week, I was psychologically (not stocking up on gas, water, canned items or even boarding up my dwellings) preparing for Tropical Storm Emily. However, it appears that there is a weather pattern change so we are expecting some thunderstorm, cloudiness, winds with occasional rain…  Personally, there is always something soul stirring about rain, gentle breezes even thunderstorms.

So my friends enjoy your life and surroundings wherever you are  look at the bright side and make the best of it.

Junkanoo Faces

Our lives – eyes – wide open

Under fettered compelling emotions

Ethnographic still life

Inscriptions in mosaics piece by piece

II

Nocturnal pauses – the rhythm of bugle

cowbell, goombay and goat skin drums

Images muse in cultural imagination

Subliminal manipulations

Vividly conjured

III

Mosaic depictions in an episodic buzz of a Byzantine era

Vignettes  bold

Night and day reflections

World of spirits – old and new

Rattles, dazzles

Yoruba tradition blares in a drumming dance

Multiple layers under the dominance of gazes

Red, yellow, blue, gold, white and black touchingly reconciled

The radiance of Junkanoo faces not bound by season

But kindred spirits

-

Poem Written by Brenda L. McCartney

Happy Valentines Day

Image taken by Saas Fee, perle-der-alpen.ch

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

.

Poem Written by Derek Walcott

Some may say this is cynical piece for Valentines Day; I call it a masterpiece. Be positive appreciate the person you are simultaneously celebrate others in your life.

Bowl Out

Photograph taken from Island of Montserrat

It is not long into the new year and Montserrat has lost two icons; Mr. John Osborne and Mr. Noel ‘Dada’ Tuitt. We have begun to memorialize, celebrate and mourn these two well known political leaders. Mr. John Osborne, one of our former chief Minister’s of Montserrat died after serving some thirty eight years in Montserrat’s legislature. Well, exactly a week and a day after his passing Mr. Noel ‘Dada’ Tuitt, a former colleague who served with him as Minister of Agriculture then passed away. They both ran and won their seats for the People Liberation Movement (PLM).

I have been listening intently to ZJB (Radio Montserrat) and reading what I can from various sources, as many are reflecting on their lives. Hearing and reading what others have to say about them makes me remember being in Montserrat when they were alive. Even now, I can just imagine myself in Montserrat sitting on a ‘white wall’ with my foot swinging as people from the village congregate to share the news and talk about these national figures. One of the things they would probably say with amusement is “John Osborne knock Mr. Tuitt wicket clean.” In other words, due to the proximity of their deaths, Montserratians would say that: “John Osborne can bowl” or “he bowled Mr. Tuitt clean out.” This saying “bowl out” originates from cricket. In the Caribbean to say that cricket is a sport would be an understatement. Cricket is a way of life and a way of viewing life. We love cricket, so naturally we would express ourselves in cricket terms and use cricket terms as metaphors. So in this instance life is likened to a game of cricket, where we finish the innings. The way it is expressed the last person who died would be like a bowler to take someone else out.

In the Bahamas (where I live now) they say people go (die) in three’s. Meaning three people who people associate with one another usually die together. Somehow the number three is associated with completion. Three strikes, three bases in a game but maybe I’m just speculating as to how this saying started.

One thing is clear, language is moving, powerful and it is shaped by the reality of everyday experiences. This fact has created the many different cultures, dialects, pidgins and languages that have existed throughout the years. The words and phrases that I have encountered make me also think of the colorful ways that we express ourselves as Caribbean people.  Mr. Richard Allsopp stated,  and I paraphrase,  that  in the Caribbean we have a powerfully operative vocabulary with notable linguistic similarities and other lexical differences. He further mentions that it is powerful because it includes many elements in idioms, adjectives and verbs. It has been noted that this is in part due to colonization of some of the islands or the change in national ownership (e.g. English and French) or differences in settlements (e.g. Irish, Danish, Scottish). Words or phrases from time to time have varied meanings.

In using our Caribbean dialect, patois, it is necessary to document exactly what we mean, if we want others and  history itself to interpret our words clearly. In fact there has been a move towards a Caribbean lexicography, with resolutions passed as far back as 1967. Evidence of documenting terms used locally in Montserrat was highlighted in a song by Soca King Arrow “Montserrat English’ and also in the book “Alliouagana Folk” (1973) by Dr. George Irish. Along these lines it would be good to have many publications documenting the way we speak. This especially means more Caribbean dictionaries and Caribbean English books.

For now, we will continue to speak and write our minds referencing the safe, comfortable and familiar knowing that our expressions, like lives of great men will one day be fragments of a great Caribbean history.

What are some of the terms used in your culture to describe loss?

Beach Going

Photographed by Alissa Stella Maris

Pounding almonds on pathways

Elemental desires

Rough tides lapping

Bicycle rides

Line fishing

Swimming smiles

Echoes off concave ledges

Birds flies disperse

Sequined colors on flawless teal

Can not tell –

the beach to be quiet

even seagulls to stop talking

Sea grapes groves and almond trees -

team around rocks

Energy thunder through

Sun kissed pleasures  broken shells

-

Poem Written by Brenda L. McCartney