Two Poems Published in The Caribbean Writer, Vol.36, 2022

By: aromaproductions on 12:03 PM

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The theme for this edition of the Caribbean writer is “disruption, Disguise, and Illuminations.” More and more, as history meets day-to-day experiences, epiphanies unfold, and, as we self-interrogate the disruption motifs in many of these illuminations, the roots of prevailing disruptions emerge, complicated by disguise. According to St. Thomas Source, a Virgin Islands newspaper, volume 36 boasts insightful and exciting poetry, short stories, personal essays, interviews, and book reviews by established as well as emerging writers from the Caribbean and its diaspora. Gail Widmer is the versatile and skillful cover artist for this edition. It can also be ordered on the journal’s website at www.thecaribbeanwriter.org  or through PayPal.

Its website

(https://www.thecaribbeanwriter.org/) 

states that The Caribbean Writer (TCW)-–Where the Caribbean Imagination Embraces the World-–is an international, refereed, literary journal with a Caribbean focus, founded in 1986 and published annually by the University of the Virgin Islands.

     Our mission is to publish quality writing by established writers that reflects the culture of the Caribbean; promotes and fosters a strong literary tradition; and serves as an institute for the development of emerging writers.

            

TCW features new and exciting voices from the region, and beyond, that explores the diverse and multi-ethnic culture in poetry, short fiction, personal essays, creative non-fiction, and short plays. Their names can be seen on the back cover of the journal seen above.

 Social, cultural, economic, and sometimes controversial issues are also explored, employing a wide array of literary devices. TCW also publishes translations, book reviews, interviews, and special sections offering insight into the dynamics of Caribbean society and showcases visual art by leading and emerging artists of the region.

            I am happy to share my poems below, between the covers of this wonderful international literary journal, with fellow writers of poetry, fiction, essays, artists, and writers of reviews from the Caribbean and the African diaspora.

Poems published in The Caribbean Writer, Volume 36, 2022

Ah Nyam Dem Words

(On reading the works of Caribbean Writers)

 

Ah nyam dem—devour every word

in books of Caribbean stories

piled at my bedside in my European home.

 

I wrap myself in tales about my people,

revisit the magic of healing herbs,

and voodoo, obeah, our hovering other world.

 

Ah nyam dem words. They are breakfast, lunch, dinner.

They ground my feet, nourish my soul,

give me light when I am beaten down by dark winter,

keep me warm when I am cold.

 

Ah nyam dem words, chapter after chapter—

all soused in the marrow of Caribbean customs.

They offer starter, main course, dessert

in my fantastical journey.

 

Reading is my free passage to my distant home.

There is no endless flying, no cancelled flights,

no interrogation by immigration.

 

I hear my people’s voices,

walk with them in markets,

ride with them on calypso-bombarded buses,

hear the sucking of teeth— chuuuuuups,

the measured sound of our annoyance,

stretching in its elasticity,

hear the unrestrained,

infectious belly laughs

that grab our hearts

and are slow to depart from memory.

 

I hear the screams of souls

who fear losing themselves

when ensnared by

jabless, sukahna, Mami Water,

and by jumbis that refuse

to depart the living world.

I see how we speak without speaking—

arms akimbo, eye-cutting, eyebrows moving,

our lips and noses pointing.

 

Ah nyam dem all, protein-filled stories

that are food-words for my soul.

 

Dear Ancestors

(Memoranda between Worlds)

 

Our forebears brought them

from West African shores—

the unwritten codes of conduct,

the secrets to longevity,

pacts kept between the living

and long-gone ancestors.

They passed them down to us.

 

Herb-filled lockets placed around

a newborn’s neck wards off the jealous dead.

White sand spread around homes

keep the recently departed at bay

when they come by to say farewell,

sing their lamentations.

 

The broomstick turned up

 in a corner says,

dear friend, dead fiend,

your time is done here,

we do not care

for unannounced visits.

The broomstick is turned up

for the living, too,

to halt unwelcomed road-warriors

peddling wares and religion.

 

We have now shunned

the public shaming of bedwetters

once forced to march down village roads

with clanging cans tied to their feet.

 

But we thank you, dear elders,

for the healing herbs and bushes

that mend broken bones and spirits,

that minister to maladies

which test our will to live.

 

 You left us many proverbs—

“The death of whelks

is the joy of soldier crab.”

“When it rains, monkeys

say they should have built a house.”

“Moon runs fast, but day catch him.”

“One hand can’t clap.”

 

Your Memoranda imbibed,

the harmful noted, discarded.

We will never close the door

between the realms

of the living and the departed.

Your ancient wisdom still lights our path.

 

© Althea Romeo Mark 

 December 2022 Blog

Here is the link to the December 2022 blog which features my short story, “Wrestling Iguanas,” reprinted in Bookends of Jamaica, Sunday Observer, December 2022.

https://aromaproductions.blogspot.com/2022/12/my-short-story-wrestling-iguanas.html

Born in Antigua, West Indies, Althea Romeo-Mark is an educator and writer who grew up in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. She has lived and taught in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, USA, Liberia (1976-1990), London, England (1990-1991), and Switzerland since 1991.

Althea Romeo Mark’s upcoming publication,  On the Borders of Belonging, is expected to be published in the summer of 2023. She is the author of two full-length poetry collections, The Nakedness of New and If Only the Dust Would Settle, (English-German), and three chapbooks, Beyond Dreams: The Ritual Dancer, Two Faces, Two Phases and Palaver, Shu-Shu Moko Jumbi. The Silent Dancing Spirit is an anthology that includes poems by Althea Romeo-Mark and prose and poetry from participants in a Black Writers’ workshop conducted at the Department of African American Affairs at Kent State University.