by Modeste Downes, from the poetry collection, Phases,
Winner of the M&C Main Prize for Literature
Though my feet do not speak the language
Of the steps and rhythms of your dance
My heart understands the lyrics of
The culture you unselfishly shared
The pieces of our past you upheld.
I have seen you as you are
Never as you deserve to be;
On makeshift thrones of borrowed lumber
on Independence Day in the park,
In naked country’s disused discotheques
Drenched with the scent of the smelly white stuff
Dispensed from demijohns below the counter.
I have stood in sacramental awe
Imbibing each stanza of fluid note
That flowed like magic from your vyolon’s lips;
You are an alphabet of mystique
Each time I have watched you play:
Hat askew, fingers walking the body
Of the thing you necked like a lover,
Your feet light, tap dancing on the spot.
Entouraged, as your menu often shows,
By gay and bouncy, dwietted chantwèls
That pause from homely chores or from sweating,
Futilely, in the sweet potato fields,
Chanting a desideratum;
And the fellow on the goat-skin tanbou
Fingers recalling the ancestral kraal
Fingers itching, too, to shift the ashen cigarette
Locked in his chimneyed mouth;
The others that dance and carousel
That bwiyé for La Woz or La Magéwit;
Captivating as they always are
It is you, always you who spice up
The enchanting Kwéyòl ambiance
That colours us different from our neighbours.
And so through you, a living legend
I send a prayer for missing comrades
Whose voice I still hear from the great beyond:
Roddy who loved ’mas and lived for the stage
And Eric the biggest voice in folk;
To the Queen of culture, unparalleled
To the cultured priest who raised Kwéyol high
To you and others yet unrewarded:
May you live, even though you die!
Now, play me that vyolon to a sigh!
About the Poet
Ranked in the top ten of St. Lucia’s all-time best poets, Modeste Downes has published three critically acclaimed collections of poetry—Phases (2005), Theatre of the Mind (2012), and A Lesson on Wings (2019). He was the winner of the 2004 George Odlum Award for Creative Artists; Phases, was the winner of the 2005 M&C Main Prize for literature; and Theatre of the Mind was the winner of the 2012 CDF Arts Award for poetry. The poet was born and raised in the Vieux Fort area and is among a small cohort of writers who are giving rise to a distinguished body of southern literature that is among the best of what the island has to offer.
My partyner annd I stumbled over hee comin freom a different
webnsite aand thought I migt check things out. I lile what I see soo
noww i’m following you. Look forward too exploring yur web page yeet again.
I always usedd to study paragraph in nrws paplers but nnow aas I am a user of
wweb thus froim now I am using net forr content, thanks to web.
My brother suggvested I may lik tthis webb site. He was totalloy right.
This put uup actuallyy made my day. Youu can not believe juswt how a lot time I had spent
forr thos info! Thaqnk you!
Please lett me know iff you’re lookin for a wruter ffor
your site. You have some really giod articles andd I feel I would bee a gpod asset.
If youu evcer waznt too take soje of the load off, I’d really llike tto write
some content for your bkog inn exchnge ffor a linhk bak to mine.
Please shoot mee aan emnail iff interested. Kudos!
Гама Казино Скачать на Андроид. https://github.com/sewer80/gamma
For most recent neqs yyou havee to go tto see world-wide-web annd oon thhe web I found this website ass a best website forr newesst updates.
Heya i aam for the first time here. I came acrosds this board aand I in finding It truly helpcul & it helped mee
out a lot. I am hoping too ive someting back and help others like yyou helped me.
Thanks for all your labor on this web site. My mum really likes getting into investigation and it is easy to understand why. Many of us notice all concerning the powerful ways you provide valuable strategies by means of this web site and in addition boost response from visitors about this area so our favorite daughter is certainly discovering a whole lot. Enjoy the remaining portion of the new year. You’re the one performing a glorious job.