Monthly Archives: March 2011
Monday Features
I’m in love with words.
Every writer adds essence and character to a piece. I have met writers who add revolution and a striking need to be wiser, better, more human with just words. I wanted to start featuring writers I admire: whether up and coming or already established on the Poetry front. Maybe I’ll through in a little Plath every now and again *sullen smile*
People forget there is so much difficulty articulating the human condition into print. From E.M. Forster to V.S. Naipaul, literature is an art, and a compelling challenge.
So here is my first writer: Hezron Henry
Restoration: A Tarnished Jewel
There was once a woman who felt so vulnerable
That she felt she needed to build walls impenetrable
‘Cause men before have used and abused
A treasure…
This treasure of such great magnitude would be priceless in any sheik’s harem
That would be the diamond encrusted crown of pure and un-matchless gold on any king’s brow
A treasure that would turn any frowns upside down
In a world full of maybes
She “would be” that “can be” in a man’s life
She said she can be the sanity in his world of insanity
She would be his trust in a world of “In God We Trust”…but just can’t say the Lord’s Prayer in an institution of education
And while we’re all slaves to our impulses
She admits she’s not perfect
But yet still a treasure
Offering pleasure
Pleasure not only of the passions of one’s carnal desires
But also of spiritual and mental upliftment
Togetherness …
Well…that’s all she’s after…
Now I know your body is frail
And men have the audacity to call it a temple
But yet still refused to be baptised
But right now I wanna worship in your temple
Baptise me
Convert me at the altar of your soul
As I behold the light at the end of your tunnel
Got me 1 step closer to heaven
And I know that men have tried to GET into you
Bu I’m just trying be into YOU
So when we’re done I can reverse and take that time to converse
And expose our naked souls on the linen of ecstasy
Under the cover of a warm caress
Because you have chosen to bless me with your presence
And more even so….your essence
I want us intertwined
And braided like my hair
Meaning I want us to grow
Meaning I want you to stay…
In reference to what Lupe say
So if I cud speak into your soul until it becomes whole
Inspire me to do the impossible till I’m centuries old
And if two alternate realities were to collapse under our touch
Would you risk it all for 1 second’s rush
Or live a lifetime without
So I wanna voice my concern
For many brothers don’t wanna get burned
So if I step back and act all thuggish, ruggish and bad to the bone
Like a rapper without ice
Flossing words
Valuable enough to bribe a prostitute‘s panties off
Don’t worry…..
You got me
You got me
A Love Affair
Too young to understand, I stared at you with such intrigue and frustration.
You were effortlessly beautiful and difficult to understand.
Words hung between us with an air of passion and desperation.
You seemed to move seamlessly through the crowds; everyone admiring your grace and poise.
I imagine every way your words are repeated – beautiful, melancholy, and ambitious.
Rhythmically echoing your words, storming our brains in search of meanings; we were all too young to understand.
Your maturity, your inspiration, you are timeless.
Even these words feel inadequate.
I’ve grown and still hunger for intellect like yours, but could never reach it.
Through the ages, you’ve graced everyone with your profoundness and made men quiver to please you.
Gods assigned to you, Calliope danced for you, and Erato sang for you, but you were ethereal.
A love for Literature is never confined to one era.
I strive to be a poet and a writer, but there is so much depth in your world.
Our love started young, yet with age, I’m ever more mesmerized.
Painting: Girl Reading by Oliver Ray
The Proust Questionnaire
1. What is your idea of perfect happiness? Sitting on a beach somewhere
2. What is your greatest fear? Failure
3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? My obsessive tendencies
4. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Rudeness
5. Which living person do you most admire? My father
6. What is your greatest extravagance? Procrastination
7. What is your current state of mind? Troubled
8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Kindness
9. On what occasion do you lie? Most Panicked
10. What do you most dislike about your appearance? Almost everything
11. Which living person do you most despise? A co-worker
12. What is the quality you most like in a man? Intellect
13. What is the quality you most like in a woman? Humour
14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Cool Beans
15. What or who is the greatest love of your life? Who?- doesn’t matter they’re nothing to me. What?- any novel
16. When and where were you happiest? Age 8 running in the grass with my sister
17. Which talent would you most like to have? Dancing
18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I would ask to be taller.
19. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Reading
20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? A monument
21. Where would you most like to live? Brazil
22. What is your most treasured possession? My piercings
23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Constant wallowing in self-pity
24. What is your favourite occupation? Writing
25. What is your most marked characteristic? Sarcasm
26. What do you most value in your friends? Their candour
27. Who are your favourite writers? Zadie Smith, Edwidge Danticat, Monique Roffey, Rohinton Mistry
28. Who is your hero of fiction? The little boy in the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel
29. Which historical figure do you most identify with? Frida Kahlo
30. Who are your heroes in real life? My Parents, My Uncles
31. What are your favourite names? Sophia, Michael, Malcolm, Emma
32. What is it that you most dislike? Too trusting
33. What is your greatest regret? My last 2 relationships & a few friendships
34. How would you like to die? Loved & in a morphine induced state
35. What is your motto? Learn to be kinder to yourself, M.
Today
I watched the disaster on the news and my heart felt a tug.
Legions of soldiers roaring and ploughing through the earth by an angry Poseidon.
Laced with a fuming motivation, the water ran, the land screamed whilst unable to save itself.
I couldn’t believe this quake happened. It was surreal. 8.9 and continually pummeling the ground.
I called my mom.
Her heart was heavy with fear, all the while her sighs ended with “Oh Bon Dieu”.
“Don’t worry Mom.”
Futile encouragements to a woman who’s experience on this Earth was phenomenal.
“Look how it went through a large country like Japan, what if something like that hit here? We wouldn’t last.”
What do I say?
Small Caribbean islands used to only worry about a hurricane and a dry hot summer.
Now, there are quakes, after-shakes, waves and a mom worried about escaping an island 7 miles long. It leaves me petrified.
“I’m going to pray, call me in a while. And tell your sister to call her father.”
20 years ago, everyone would laugh. Today an attempted laugh would get the sternest glare, an apocalyptic verse, and strategic plans of survival and repentance.
I hang up and watch the news again.
An angry Earth holding the heads of nations as its spoils of war: Haiti, India, New Zealand, China.
Prayers sent to the universe for Japan and still the water flows on.
Black and unforgiving in its killing – even nature refused to be kind.
I see tear-filled eyes begging to be spared, bodies being forcefully sacrificed. Life and death being weighed on the BBC news.
Some will pray for this world in earnest, others will delve into the reasoning of it going off tangent.
Me? I’m staring at the sky, waiting for a sign on which nation will be next, continually praying for it to end.
*Photo courtesy of www.vttbots.com
Dreams
Like most people, I don’t remember most of my dreams.
The ones I do remember are the nightmares or the disturbing dreams of me running naked through a meadow with people staring. I remember having one when I was 14, l where I was saving babies from elephants running amok on my little island. My most recent one involved sheep chasing me because I stole their cheese. I know, odd?
I searched the internet for dream interpretations and hoped to find an answer, but most of the times, they’re completely vague and have the air of a bad horoscope.
“You have something in your life that’s chasing you from your destiny”
Geez, really? I stole cheese and now I’m losing my path.
Last night, I had another one. Usually, I’ll call my father and he’ll sift through his library of religious text and give me an ambiguous answer and then preach to me about changing my attitude and perception on life. I welcome it, surely. But today, I rather spare him this one. It was just all kinds of….weird.
So here it goes:
In the dream, a spontaneous painful crest-like tattoo appeared on my left arm. I also dreamt that a painful bruise/tattoo appeared on my right thigh. I ran to my parents who were watching tv and told them painful tattoos are appearing on my body and they replied, calmly: “if it spontaneously appeared, then they’ll disappear on their own.” In the dream, it was shocking that they didn’t do anything. I was in excruciating pain, yet they didn’t anything. My parents are so amazingly lovely, them not reacting to me in pain shocked me more than anything. I actually woke up this morning rubbing my arms and thighs and checking for any bruises. All my limbs were hurting me and I couldn’t sleep at all after that. It was that intense.
I googled.
It was as usual: me having some permanent issue that I refuse to let go. Of course anyone who’s anyone have issues they refuse to let go. Is that truly a human crime? Can I not linger over a high school trauma? A past ex? A bad criticism from my boss? I mean really, what type of world would it be if I didn’t replay painful episodes in my head over and over again to the point where optimism is a blurry fairytale and cynicism is like my knight? I mean, really? I know I’m being a tad bit delusional, but aren’t issues held near and dear to everyone? Do I need my conscience acting as if it’s not humanly natural?
Or perhaps it’s something else. Maybe it’s a supernatural sign from the universe? From God? And if it is, what does it mean?
Why couldn’t I live in the era where Joseph from Genesis was an advisor? Or able to visit someone at a “Dream Interpretation” office with a nice hourly rate and humble 1960s decor? Instead, I have to meditate and scour the internet for an answer, with no avail.
Maybe Yahoo Answers will help….
*Photo from http://www.josephinewall.co.uk/lilac_dreams.html
