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
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Poem Written by Brenda L. McCartney
Image taken by Tom
I stood in the zoo looking at a peafowl willing him to raise the train of feathers for a stunning display but to no avail. I wanted to see the spread of the feathers. It would make a great photo and a memorable moment. Now that I have had a chance to do some research on the peafowl I have learned that there has to be a reason for them to raise their feathers. I have also learned that in Hindu the peacock is a symbol of mortality and love and most times when people think of the peafowl it is usually in reference to the male with its raised train of multicolored feathers. That is why we call them peacocks – the cock part signifies that it is a male and this particular peacock was an India Blue Peacock.
So there I stood in the sun raising my arms, my daughter and husband and a random woman raising their arms as well – hoping that this peacock would somehow show us his full plumage. What struck me that day was the bold shimmer of blue on the peacock’s neck. Another lady stood by making her own observation of the peacock. She openly shared my sentiments about the brilliance of the blue. If someone would ask me what is my favorite a color a color does not come to mind. For me a favorite color depends on my mood.
On that day even the hot sun seemed cool. When I reflected on the peacock it was as if it embodied tranquility even in its colors. A few weeks has passed since by experience at the zoo but still there is something electrifying about the anatomy of a peahen’s brilliant color particularly the blue. This week shades of this hue has been revealed in several places or things namely; Bridesmaid dresses, red carpet dresses, the color of cars, that I felt compelled to blog about this.
Do you know what is your favorite color is? Is there a particular reason why you like a certain color. Is your favorite color a color that has to compliment your skin tone, eyes etc.?
Photographed by John Smith
Monosyllabic gaze
A gentle insistence
Honey-colored mornings
Hypnotic patterns – calm blue
Crimson thoughts, chilling notes
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Poem Written by Brenda L. McCartney
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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?
Photograhed by Momiji
Sunlight streams
Leaf peeping
Orange tints
Bare boughs, bald moments
The sap of life
Remembered beginnings
Opened secrets
A mystery wrapped in an enigma
Winter’s solace
Kind peace in solstice’s afterglow
Liberty in eternal beauty
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Written by Brenda L. McCartney
Image by Corbis
Stirred, wrapped in
Not quite turquoise
Not quiet pine green
Breakfast meditation
Season’s rhythm
A litany of thoughts
Plays upon life’s reason
Weaving stories
In strokes of sunlight
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Poem by Brenda L. McCartney
Image Taken from MACO Caribbean Living
Feather touch eyes pare
A preserving indulgence
The searing ache
Methylated Spirits
An iridescent stillness
Wildly beautiful
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Poem by Brenda L. McCartney
This morning an elderly friend drove up in the church yard with the back of his pick-up truck laden with spice leaves (pimento) for anyone who wishes to have some. I got so excited thinking about what I would do with the spice leaves after church. An older lady asked what could she use the leaves for, I told her that you can use it in souse, porridge, to cook meat, tea or as a bed for grill meats. Personally, I could not wait to go home to boil some porridge. What was truly priceless was a simple expression from my daughter as her eyes lit up and she said mama I love flour porridge that filled me with a sense of pride.
Tonight thinking about the porridge takes me back to the first time I came to the Bahamas and was home sick and cooked some flour porridge (flour pap) and my landlord at the time (I was in college) associated it with growing up poor. She was not an unkind woman and was just misinformed; I sighed and gave her a short shrug and concentrated on my porridge. The few second of discomfort were washed away as my flour porridge eased me through the sadness and longing for home that I felt and linked me back to my grandmother’s nurturing. Thinking about it now, if I grew up poor I did not know it at the time.
Sometimes in life because we are from different cultures/backgrounds there is an inability to connect and words said with certain intonations can have such a profound effect. My friends, we have no control over what people say or do we have to deal with it, perception is everything and only us knows what is important to us. In life we can find something to love about each person.
Photographed taken from Island of Montserrat
There is something majestic about flowering trees. They appear almost like a private paradise when we drive along some streets. This time of the year flowering trees stretch across miles of every Caribbean island. At different times in the year we see flowering trees like the flamboyant (Poinciana) trees, the Yellow Elder, Yellow Pouis, Wild Orchids, Frangipani, Crepe Myrtle, Jacaranda, Pink Cassia, Crab Apple or Creeping Thistle. They stimulate us in one way or the other and one thing we can agree on is that they are breathtakingly beautiful and “reminders of God’s goodness, mercy and grace.”
Flaming red Poinciana – flamboyant
Branches cling to the souls of paradise
Punches of untamed clusters
The exclusive pride of islanders entice
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Natural optimism trek Caribbean isles
The marriage of the blazing sun and flowers appease
Flowering trees stretch over miles in relaxed spaces
Knocks in compliments in swirls of tropical breezes
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The rush of tranquility melts, teases
With littered tropical footprints of vibrant hues
Dramatic silhouettes enchants seduces
With halcyon days, unhindered ocean views
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Poem Written by Brenda L. McCartney
Image taken from Blog Skins
There are certain terms, inflections, idioms, colloquialism, slang, buzz words, expressions specific to islands or countries. At this moment I am thinking about the colloquial words that abound in our native island’s speech. Sometimes it maybe difficult to decode and these expressions are literally and hardly ever found in the dictionary. Yet we know our own particular slang patterns very well.
I remember one Christmas Enrique and I went to Montserrat and he ran to me and said that the girl sitting on the stools at the bar is from The Bahamas. I told him no way, I asked why did he think so. He said her accent, what she said. He also noticed the distinct design of her jewelry, which looked to him to be Bahamian bought, particularly the design of her wedding band. At that very minute my brother who came in on a flight with her told Enrique that the girl at the bar was a Bahamian. Yes, Enrique gave me the look; how dare I do not believe that he did not know his own people.
Okay, so I called my Aunt late one night hoping she would be up, she said she just finished washing her dishes and “lock off de light” and why am I calling her this ‘odd hour of night’ I recalled for years I could not stop using the term when I was going to turn off the light.
The other day, my friend was saying to me she will never forget when she visited Cat Island and she asked a lady how may children she had. She said “I been behind that door five times” which means she had five children. I have heard the term “coat suit” which is a sometime used Bahamian expression for a “three piece suit” several times and each time it brings the same chuckle as it did the first time. Often it is used as an outright joke when someone is dressed up as in “Why you so dress up in your coat suit?”
I hope that you can share a light moment with your friends or co-workers the slang terms, colloquialisms even idioms that you may find of interest. Enjoy your day or what is left of it my friends!
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