At Aburi2

 

In Your SPELL

(in honor of Giles Hall, Spelman College)

In Your SPELL

You
stand there
Majestic red-bricked sight
Shuttered door in peeling white
Dwarfed by sheer tow’ring height
trellised four-storied light
Slated belfry pierce the night
world-wearied eyes dusted in speckled grey
Mirroring wisdom of many a day
Aged oak limbs yellowed and long
Fluting winter’s last swansong
On much trodden mould dusted in soft burnished gold
What secrets do they really hold?
You
Stand majestic
in December’s tired dance
Sagacity echoes in your very stance
Heads bow in humble obeisance
To your o’er pow’ring omniscience
So . . . can you tell . . .
Of TV camera lights blasting bold
Casting you in A Different World
Can you tell . . .
How Harriet and Sophia burned
And in Friendship Baptist turned
Their fervor
Into favor
Of those who yearned
To rise, and sit and learn
Like Miss Mamie from ole Decatur town
shut out, shut up, long before Brown
Etta, Ludie-Mae and Aunt Dell . . .
So Can you tell . . .
Of ancient lore, Anansi tales or more
of starched voices, ruffled pinafores
praising all homemaker’s score
Well . . .can you tell?
How many have graced these hallowed halls
how many tried within these walls
to rise up with the few
of dark accursed hue
What dainty little damsel queens
Emerged to grace this tidy scene
in white-gloved work hands
from this Southern land
And did you see. . .
When that poor child fell
Pinned ‘neath your sorrowing tree
You were there. . . so did you see?
And can you tell?
Your many secrets kept so well
Dear old G-I-L-E-S
I'm captive in
your SPELL!

© KPLewis (Kalypsoul)
01.14.2005

TGIF

TGIF

Part II

I used to love Friday!
Hi Day. . . I Day. . .My Day,
Believe-I-Can-Fly Day
Until that (Sigh!) Day
When Mr Lamé . . .

(Heaven’s Ambassador!)
slithered his way under my door
at a quarter to four
scent of her oozing from every pore
Just a friend and nothing more?
Sure!

Thought life would be a song. . .
He’ll love you long; he’ll love you strong!
Wait! Something’s just gone terribly wrong!
Hissing away with forked tongue!
So long!
See ya around!

So Mr. Lame
with string of letters to his name
hometown street acclaim… ing his fame
sophistication . . . he’s got game!
who every night ignited my flame
sank in a bite of poison and shame.
Came. . .
Then gave Dame Afrika his name.
Nothing has ever been the same.

Now it’s just Fried Day
Marinate, Simmer, and Slow-broiled Day
Cry Day, Lie Day
Wondering-Why Day

But NEVER ever
Roll-Over-and-Die Day
Just Pray-the-Most-High Day
That, perchance, someday . . .again I’ll say,
"Thank God It's Friday!"

© KPLewis (Kalypsoul)
2004.

Missing U

To Dearest Lesly

Missing U

Hey girl how long has it been?
Is it really all of nine teen
Almost twenty-four have gone
Since you and I did have some fun

Remember all the waves we made
And all the festive plans we laid
I knew you so well inside and out
As you knew me without a doubt

Best friends, no -- sisters to the heart
Although from worlds so far apart
Bridged chasms between black and white
Your friendship brought me calming light

We stayed the course through thick and thin
You helped me let the sOnshine in
Together we did laugh and weep
Eternal confidences keep

Relaxing on Maracas Bay
Chatting while our kids did play
Dancing with Sy at Tony’s Place
Royal Oak and a Coke to chase

Kicked back a laugh when we did meet
At Moon Over Bourbon Street
I think of you no less each day
You’re truly in my heart to stay

Is that your face in the rippling stream
Or didn’t we speak in last night’s dream
Is that your voice at the other end
So many messages I’d like to send

Say, what's your e-mail address there
Just read a good one I’d like to share
Call me or drop a line or so
How you’ve been I need to know

For the life of me I don’t know why
I search the crowds of passersby
To catch a glimpse, a flicker in the stare
A tinge of recognition there

Cause it has been truly quite a while
Since last I did see your smile
Nineteen months since my birthday
When you just upped and passed away

© KPLewis (Kalypsoul)
Nov. 2004

Missin U Photo

My son, Carlton, Lesly, and I - three weeks before she passed.

Your Voice

Your Voice

Your voice
Washing over me
Cleansing
Cascading
Undulating
Eddying
Gently rising and falling
In cadences vibrating

Your Voice
Flowing over me
Poetic
Rhythmic
Melodic
Harmonic
Giving exquisite pleasure
my hills and denes to treasure

Your voice
Quivering over me
Strumming
Stroking
Smoothing
Soothing
Slipping, sliding, tenderness
like mellifluous Caress

© KPLewis (Kalypsoul) 
07.17.2005

Prism

Prism

I Need You
You -- enhance my sultriness
My seductress, lover-ness, diablesseness
Entice me, enfold me
Evocative me, provocative me
Swizzlin’ me, sizzlin’ me
Skintalizin’ me
Give entrance to enchantress
temptress in me –
swell my rising glow
rivers melt and flow
Tumultuousness
Tenderness
Togetherness
Craze me, faze me, daze me
Amaze me
A maze me

I Need You
You -- calming balm to spirit
and to soul –
and so to heart
if these are indeed separate and apart
as I’ve been told
spirit behold
creative soul
multi-chambered heart of gold
Voice my every forming word
seek being even as I am heard
Lifting lilting again and again
through narrowed passageways
of unspeakable pain

I Need You
You -- thoroughly known to me
Perfunctorily
Indelibly etched in memory
Identity
Fidelity
Essence of
Foreverhunger
Foreverthirst
Foreverlove
Foreverfirst
shared history, responsibility
duty, family, legacy
Everything in life to me
Eternally


I Need You
You -- tickle my soul
Bele drum roll
Dance, laughter, hilarity
Carousel and farmers in the dell
Simon sez me, twist me, twirl me
Tease me, please me
Caps me, collapse me
Ring me, sing me
Prepubescent me
Rummy
Riddle-a-ree
Romping, Carousing
like tomboy within
roughandtumbling
the joy I’m in

I Need You
You -- engage the mental me
Exquisite profundity
Discursive, paradigmatic, parabolic
Antithetic, synthetic, synoptic
Diagrammatic, Ism-atic
Intellectual giant ascetic
Strutting your philosophy
Supersize me
Parse and analyze me
Doctor me in blissfulness
Jingle jangle Headiness
Consumed, engulfed in happiness

I Need You
You -- welcome gate to sanctuary home
Nurturerprotectormother
Eternalwombincubator
Suckle on sustaining meat
Life-giving everlasting teat
Strengthen you
Lengthen you
From nothingness
To godliness
From potter’s mess
To firm-rooted flawlessness
Wondrous Adonis
Handsome in your manliness

I Need You
Multi-myraid you
Feed me
Fill me
Free me
Thrill me
From tangled wrong to fluted song
From prison night to prism light
From astride stately shining stern
Bring the bliss for which I yearn
Come sail anew in ecstasy
Wind-tossed multi-mirrored sea
Mirage Memory Majesty
Just as the multi-myriad me

I Need You

© KPLewis (Kalypsoul)
07.17.2005

Wildflower

(To the art of perseverance)

Wildflower

Black Orchid, sensitive and mild,
wildflower emerging in tentative style.
Puffs of pollen, all comfy and nude,
fluffy like swans down, warm, cosy and smooth.
Gazes in wonder at this idyllic place;
lifts up a voice in this echoing space.
Fuzzy warm ducklings all gather around,
nuzzling together where caring is found.
Home for the one who has sought high and low;
don’t scurry away when the trumpeters blow!
You’ll find a friend here if you linger a while;
respite from the storm, my poetic child

© KPLewis (Kalypsoul)
02.28.2005

Beyond the Pale

Beyond The Pale 

So one by one
They lay their heavy burdens down
Lay down life’s scabbard, hoe and toil
Lay down the tears and never-ending strife

Now one by one
Reach out their still world-weary hands
Step willingly beyond the pale
Full fathoms deep, last conscious senses fade

In serene smile
And varnished, cedar-lidded eyes
A future lost to yesteryear
And triumph tears the tempests of today

Far-seeing souls
Cold praying clasp, and ashen calm
Set fluid spirits free to roam
No bounds can harm, nor can the joy be told

At chasm’s edge
I peer into vast void of night
No clearer with fair light of dawn
Forgetfulness must be your trusted friend

Still satin sheen
Holds fast to love’s eternal dream
Through rusted coins and green’d shroud pins
Yet in ancestor’s lore you linger still


© KPLewis (Kalypsoul)
 03.26.2005

Feast

Feast

Eyelids closed
Young hearts burned
Birthday party candles dozed

Now . . .

Laughter gone
Flame grown cold
Feasting on pure faith alone


©KPLewis (Kalypsoul)
02.05.2005

At El Morro Photo

Me at El Morro Castle, Santiago de Cuba, June 2002

Visit to the Prime Minister

(Dr. Eric Eustace Williams, Premier/Prime Minister 1956-81)

Visit to the Prime Minister

Well awrite nah, yuh ent boun to push mih so
I come here long before you, yuh know
Well ah get een de bus an ah pay mih fare
An ah get orf by de roundsabout in St Claire
Ma’am could I help you? Dat is de guard at de gate
Ah comes to see de doc. Where is his orfice situate?
Sorry Ma’am but no visitors today
You may come back on Friday or nex week Monday
So you mean to say I get up long before three
Ketch de firs bus from quite San Souci
Sleep still in mih eye – ah com een town
Now all yuh people want to push mih around
Eh, eh! I is a citizen an ah knows mih right
Same ting ah was telling Vio de udder nite
Ah wants to see him right now, get dat straight
An doh gimme no talks; dis business cyah wait
How yuh watchin mih so like yuh tink ah mad
Hear nuh, I is a distinguish pusson here in dis Trinidad
Doh tell me yuh never hear bout me?
I marrid de biggest fowl tief in dis country
He nicer dan you wid yuh bald-pated mout
But A! A! Yuh know de man shovin mih out!
Mister, doh push yuh han in mih face. Ah say doh push yuh han in mih face!
Allyuh people wants to see ruction in dis place?
You telling me my face squashy like mud
But a mosquito bite you an spit out de blood
An yuh behind – it flat like a 100 meters race
Life nowadays ent as hard as yuh face
Corbeaux does pass yuh an steups fus yuh stink
An yuh face – it like a big shot kitchen; it have two sink
Doh talk bout yuh lip - it stretch out like it arskin for more
If ah had a dorg dorter, ah tek yuh for mih son in law
It look like every time yuh open yuh mout
Two teet does steups an walk out
An yuh head so big, it look like ah young whale
Wen it ready to put dong, doh forget, ah want a male
Yuh ent too big for mih to put yuh over mih knee
Yuh ever hear bout lil axe dat does cut dong big tree?
Look, jus carry mih to de man before ah start to cuss
Look mih five dollars done jumpin up in Vio purse
Doh tink I put orn nice dress, necklace an shoe
To come quite here to parade for you!
Awrite, jus wait here yuh go see wot yuh could do?
Yuh constipated chicken, yuh better hurry before I get blue!
An he so darm thin he could get a paunch if he swallow a channa
An he mout ben up like if it turning a corner
But de grass growin nice around here, eh!
Lemme siddong on de lawn til de bastard appear
Ah now sittin dong to enjoy de breeze
Miss Lady, Miss Lady, come dis way please!
Good morning Mr.Prime Minister I is Rose from San Souci
Yes suh is I who did want to see yuh urgently
An dat guard yuh have out dey, he comin out o he shell
An he more waste dong dan a sno-kone in hell
Dese young people eh! He ent even start to cut teet
Why de hell yuh ent sen he home to watch Sesame Street
Mih reason for comin? Well suh Vio bet mih five
Dat ah cyah get een here today to see yuh live’
Dat is all ah win, so tanks for letting mih een
Well is now Rose playin San Souci Queen!

© KPLewis (Kalypsoul)
1973

Explosion

Explosion

Sunlight's warmth . . .
evoking hot desire
rhythmic explosion
of bronzed soulbursts

Rain . . .
fragrant and pure
bathing, cooling, coaxing . . .
silky soft, love blossoms


©KPLewis (Kalypsoul)
2005

Compulsion

Compulsion

. . .and you hear a voice deep from down within,
or from somewhere out there,
it does not matter,
saying
“ Write for my people!’
So you take this message and enfold it
deep within your heart, but you write not a word.
Finally you get something down on paper and file it
in a box in an obscure corner
and forget about it. . .
For years.
And the voice says
again, “Write for my people!”
But you continue to ignore it until years later
When you grow tired of being pregnant, filled with
a message dying to be born. Bursting to emerge
from the womb with the fury of
a mighty storm. You want
to run
but the weight
is so heavy you can barely stand,
let alone waddle. You have trouble breathing, sleeping
This baby has taken control of your being
And refuses to go away. That’s when
you realize the only way to. . .
is through.
And after much travail
in the night,
a child is born
Peace and Joy
Return to stay
in the morning.

©KPLewis (Kalypsoul)
2005

A Fiery Dawn

A Fiery Dawn

I look at you and I feel
a sudden
overwhelming
rush of love
a flooding swell of tender emotion
deep within my being
making me weak
yet strong
filling me with its power

You are . . .
the blazing brilliance of the noonday sun
shining full upon my face

You are . . .
the poignant lingering glory
of the majestic setting sun
the glowing fullness
of the rising morn

You are . . .
every twinkling star
that weaves its magic
in my midnight sky

You are
the solitary tear
the gem that gleams
in the eyes
of my darkest emotion

You are . ..
the cooling touch
that caresses and soothes
yet sears
the very depths of my soul
making . . .
my flesh to burn
and . . .
my blood to run diffuse

Silently . . .
you crept into my life
and awakened my dormant heart
with a kiss
with a touch
with a word
with a mere glance . . .

awakened my sleeping heart
to the fiery dawning
of your love . . .

You . . .
have taught me how
to live again

To You . . .
I give . . .
my life . . .
my love . . .
my all
. . .
who came unawares
into my life
and made it
. . .
a poetic existence
a wonderful experience
. . .
© KPLewis (Kalypsoul)
1999

At Aburi Photo

At Aburi, 2001.

At Elmina Photo

At Elmina Castle, 2001

Recluse

Recluse

Annoyance
Bubbles unexpectedly
Schizophrenia, OCD
Childish dependency
Hagiolatry
Churlish roguery
Everybody gets to me

Impatience
Threatens like an irate sea
Anger boils vehemently
Bristling at infidelity
Lethargy
Wanton sensuality
Everything is bane to me

Avoidance
Kills humanity
Buried sensibility
Living bestiality
Insanity
Ancient antipathy
Outcast from society

Left alone just to be
Me
Willingly


© KPLewis (Kalypsoul)
12.28.2004

Velvet

Velvet

Exquisite feel of me n you
Shedding both a tear or two
Rubbing beaks like budgies do
Rich-textured powdery hue
Downy swirls of blossom blue
And velvety, too!

Silent touch and satiny
Like warm cups of saki tea
Sheer fluidity
Plush, soft, and cushiony
love-deep in Ebon Ecstasy
And Oh so velvety!

In our togetherness I see
Sultry, sassy, cascading beauty
Nestled softly in a tender sigh
A kiss, a blush, a smiling eye
The wonder that is you n I
Never needs a reason why

©KPLewis (Kalypsoul)
1999