in search of grace
life and nature’s uncertain

territories alone.
You must already miss

the warmth
of your mother’s smile

the sound
of her singing you to sleep

as you lay contented,
head nestled in the crook of her arms.

You think constantly
of the maybes you left behind,

daydream
of simple things: your room,

its yellow walls
tiny crib and fluffy carpet,

so different
than this new bed of moss and grass.

And at night
you weep a little, and wish

that life for you
could have been different,

imagine
how those other children –

so like you yet so alien
with their schoolbooks and toys –

were so lucky
they must never be sad.
Sometimes, you play
with them, inhabit their worlds

for an hour or two
in the evenings until one by one

they disappear –
mammas and papas calling them in

from the streets
to dinners and bedtimes with stories,

prayers, tuck-ins,
and kisses. You can only look

on, turn tail
and trudge back into the darkness,

your body
steadily moving into the forest

your feet
trying to find the way home.

A treatment that recounts the gnomes of old with modern accompaniments as to present Afro-Caribbean sayings that have travelled loops of time and place and captured with present day relevance. These sayings are extracted from a rich, vibrant landscape of wise saws and have been cultured and preserved as precious platitudes, for they maintain a timeless currency around the human experience.

The truisms as they have been tried and proven to become, underlie the pointed poignancy of grassroots minds not steeped in pretence or affected by schooling but sustained by such ‘earthy’ intelligence rooted in and nurtured by life’s real and didactic simplicities.

These respectable ‘ parables’ speak to an ‘Afrocestry’; they are communicated through a language –patois- which historically constituted a lingual ‘ ruse to master bemuse’ and which has remained as a cultural element in its graphic, esoteric essence. These sayings riff metaphors and allegories and are indeed parcels of a legitimate linguistic territory perhaps similar to that place from which Shakespeare wrote his influence; a territory now proudly occupied by constituents of the African Diaspora. And there the sayings are regarded as veritable rhetoric and musings that transcends geographic divides of residence or origin in their application.

These sayings have inexorably earned a deserved respect not merely as trite reverence for the forebears but for being pristine wisdom we ought to habituate as we forge our own unique expressions of enlightenment. They survive as legacies of a colourful, seductive ancestry and hold sway as an idiom of distinction within the Babel of Canadian multiculturalism. They are unwizened voices in my mind where they defy oblivion and rain a stream of humour and sense - mantras for life and living.

Written with an Oedipal fervour I channel my mother, the especial medium amongst the ‘ole time peeple passed’ and who guide this literary odyssey. I hope with her help (and theirs) (GOD BLESS THEIR SOULS!) the reader will experience the gist and joy borne in the purposive significance of these sayings in my head.

Having said that let see wey mi madda oudda sey.. an addaz tu! - according to one p!erson’s interpretation, p!’s.

‘Ag pickney sey to ag mumma… “mumma mek yu mout’ so lang?!”
Ag mumma sey to ag pickney. “Pickney!Yu dis a cum yu wi fine out!”

Translation:

The piglet said to to the mother sow.. “ Mummy, why is your snout so long?!”

The sow replied, “ My child you’re young, you will discover why, over time!”

This is indeed an apt gnome with which to ‘be-pen’ this journey. Not only have I had the agrestic advantage of dealings with pigs, (the quadrupeds) I have as well only just begun. I am fledgling and like a suckling, do not know what’s to happen along the passage of time that shall lead us ahead in this ode to our predecessors.

“Not everything can be explained…some things have to be experienced” is the essence of the wise saw as offered by a dear medium I know. Some of us have earned a wealth of skills that have been attained only through involvement and not passive transference as by ‘diffusion’ or whatever other means of indirect attainment.

The physical imagery the saying evokes is the contrast of experience and innocence. As a farm person I have had direct contact with pigs and their off springs. Thus I can unequivocally suggest that the snouts have enabled the animals to negotiate a lot of ‘shiza’ in their rearing. It is felt that a long mouth is associated with disgruntlement and grief. The suckling curiosity we experience from time to time defines an innocence that only engagement will enlighten. So on the one hand there is grief and on the other some added advantage in being grown up..are the two ever reconcilable?

New immigrants are especial in this regard. Coming to Canada or emigrating to any foreign country for that matter is a new ‘suckling experience’ that will be guided by the immersion / acculturation the transition entails. Some effects of the ‘new environs experience’ can not be fully understood or appreciated via the class style seminars that are held for the new immigrant a la ACCESS etc. or by the subjective guidance offered by earlier settlers. The element of snow or the season of winter might be explained as “Cold! Brr!” but would not be appreciated until the chill and the bite is lived and experienced.

Experience is the best teacher, afterall; hence the sow opted to explain the snout size difference only subtly. It seems that that is the best advice around full understanding the life experience if we so choose. There is an advantage in learning from others through their mistakes and consequences but as mother pig would have it it seems more beneficial to have actual experience. How else can you suggest that ‘ you’ve been there , done that!”. (Even if you wind up with a long mouth!) That latter day slang drives the development of the snout. You’ve just got to do it! As Nike exhorts or simply reside in your innocence or ignorance as the case may be. Of course the subtext to the saying is the suggestion that one retains the choice of determining which experience(s) one opts to experience. There is the presupposition that one will want to have experienced life’s challenges in order to arrive at a well-rounded and informed adulthood. The question of the necessity to do or not do to have or not have the direct benefit from engagement is in fact a consequence of one’s state or stage of innocence/ignorance. The end must justify the means so the pay-off will be driven by the extent of involvement one chooses to exercise. If for some reason one is faced with a foreign notion, an idea not familiar to one’s mindset then, momma pig requires one to live the idea before one can make an informed evaluation of the idea…

There is an associated thinking. It surrounds the effect of completion. It is a good thing to think a thought, a better thing to record it and the best thing yet is to bring it to life by enlivening, living it. We all know that a dream is nothing unless lived.

It’s like vocabulary for instance. A word is never fully understood until it is used. You might hear the meaning from someone else but it is not quite learned until you shape the word on your own tongue and lips to deliver it in appropriate context. Imagine the joy and full appeasement in accomplishing the learning.

So what can I tell you. There you have it..That’s for today “Wey mi madda ‘ouda sey …an’ addaz tu!” Keep tuned as I channel ‘dem adda wanz’ (I hope mum thinks this a good enough cause to interrupt her rest) to return with something for you to mull over.

p!eace

The operation was partially successful
in that the life was saved
But the patient escaped during his rehabilitation phase
And it was at that point in time
that the tiny twin island state of TRINBAGO,
which among its many distinctions
included both a Mr. Universe,
and two Miss Universe title holders,
an Olympic gold medalist in the one hundred metres,
the highest score by a batsman in test cricket,
the eighth wonder of the world
by virtue of its incredible pitch lake
and for a period of some twenty five years or so
the person who held the post of chief minister of state
was reputed to be
the third most intelligent person on the planet
capable of debating issues of national concern in Latin,
became the first country
on the planet
to produce

A CYBORG

. . . walk forty miles in a day,
barefoot to boot
on hot pitch
burning like a bitch,
to this you may say " NO WAY!"
But MAHAL
could easily cover the distance
from Port- of - Spain
to San Fernando
all the while
shifting gears in style
and wearing a big broad smile,
this distance by the way
on any given day
is sixty five miles
I dare say

In his khaki shorts
his calves rippling muscles of corded steel
MAHAL barefeet
and with no shirt to his name
would cover the island
touring in his invisible mobile
being careful to follow
all the laws relative
to the Highway Ordinances Act
he kept to the side
because his vehicle
was of the slower moving sort
but he always made sure
to make all of the required signals
with unmistakable style
breaking all the while

But when he pulled into
a town or city
panic would ensue
as all drivers there
were seized by the fear
that they might park their cars on the very spot
where MAHAL had left his
for in instances like this
impelled by a wrath that knew no bounds
violators of the sacred space
where he had left
the invisible mechanical side of his being
would be threatened with dismemberment
and scolded with lyrically precise
cadences of obscenities
that flowed like lithe litanies from his lips
for taking such liberties.

Did you enjoy this article? Read more of Sandy Macintyre's work at AHANAIE, World Music Collective.