First composed in 1956 in Acoli, a Ugandan language, Okot p’Bitek converted this book-length poem into English, and it was published a decade later. The author’s note informs readers that the English-language version “clipped a bit of the eagle’s wings… Read More ›
This quest poem fuses Derek Walcott’s highly metaphoric style with distinctly Caribbean Creole speech patterns. The narrator, a poet/sailor named Shabine, speaks English Creole, declaring, “Well, when I write / this poem, each phrase go be soaked in salt.” This… Read More ›
Published in his first collection of poetry, Chants d’ombre (Songs of Darkness or Shadow Songs), “Letter to a Poet” is a short praise poem by Léopold Sédar Senghor to Martinican poet and statesman Aimé Césaire, to whom the piece is… Read More ›
AT A FUNERAL – DENNIS BRUTUS Black, green and gold at sunset: pageantry And stubbled graves: expectant, of eternity, In bride’s-white, nun’s-white veils the nurses gush their bounty Of red-wine cloaks, frothing the bugled dirging slopes Salute! “hen ponder all… Read More ›
Kamau Brathwaite’s poetic trilogy Ancestors (2001) consists of three poems: Mother Poem (1977), Sun Poem (1982), and X/Self (1987). Brathwaite began Mother Poem while back in Barbados for the first time in almost 20 years. He recounts the realization that… Read More ›
Africa my Africa Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs Africa of whom my grandmother sings On the banks of the distant river I have never known you But your blood flows in my veins Your beautiful black blood that… Read More ›
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