Wednesday, January 22, 2020

697


photo haiku reposted from Lunch Break

HUGGED BY THE SEA
The sea is all around us, hugging us.
They call us island people
People with salt in our soul and sweetness in our smiles
So tasty, we just cannot be still;
Like the waves in our vast hugging sea.

We talk in rhythm, walk in rhythm,
A sea of colour surges through,
Our Carnival days, a non- rainbow rainbow
Which arcs, into a melting pot of island people;
Steel pan, tassa, soca; we are.

So tasty, we build our castles of sand and,
Dig buckets of chip-chip to take home to curry

Days of plunder at sea; the gun powder days,
We place our oppression in museums,
And free ourselves in the unity of culture.
We walk the beaches leaving footprints wet;
All of us, island people.
HUGGED BY THE SEA © gillena cox 2020


Blog hopping today with

Poets and Storytellers United
Weekly Scribblings#3: Salt-water poems


ENJOY THE MUSIC



REVISIT
23 January 2019
23 January 2017
23 January 2016


It's Carnival Season here in T&T
CARNIVAL PAST: photos © gillena cox

28 comments:

  1. This one is fascinating to me. I too am an island person, so can relate - yet the island I grew up on, Tasmania, is very different from yours in climate, vegetation, etc. and so the prevailing mood is different too. Nevertheless, I’m sure we do share a larger sensibility, as there is something unique about growing up on an island, a particular mindset which just comes naturally. Can’t even find the right words to explain, but you’ll know what I mean.

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    1. Thank you for your appreciation Rosemary

      Much❤love

      Delete
  2. I love the vivid and intricate details of Island life in this one, Gillena 💝 especially; "So tasty, we build our castles of sand and, dig buckets of chip-chip to take home to curry." Thank you so much for writing to the prompt!😃🍹

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  3. Thank you for your appreciation Sanaa

    Much❤love

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  4. "Island people, hugged by the sea" … a lovely scenario so foreign to me, a girl of the prairie. Thanks for taking me to distant places.

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    1. Thank you for your appreciation Rommy

      Much❤love

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  6. It is strange isn't it that so many humans have this need to live close to the sea. I had it when living in England and even now in my old age I live quite close to the beach. I loved your poem Gillena.

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    1. Thank you for your appreciation Robin

      Much❤love

      Delete
  7. "People with salt in our soul and sweetness in our smiles
    So tasty, we just cannot be still . . . " Love! The rhythm and movement you speak of are right here in the poem! And the history of oppression is given its rhyme/time, freeing you to be!

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  8. Thank you for your appreciation Susan

    Much❤love

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  9. A beautiful, happy, rhythmic poem, Gillena, which made me smile! I love the lines:
    ‘People with salt in our soul and sweetness in our smiles
    So tasty, we just cannot be still;
    Like the waves in our vast hugging sea’
    and
    ‘We talk in rhythm, walk in rhythm,
    A sea of colour surges through’.
    Although there is a tragic undercurrent in the days of plunder – a museum is the best place to confine the oppression.
    It puts me in mind of one of my favourite poems by Grace Nichols, 'Island Man'.

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  10. Thank you for your appreciation Kim. I am going to google and read Island Man

    Much❤love

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  11. Yes, we are! I love this so much, Gillena. Because we do have music in our bones and mirth in our blood. Even when things get extra hard, we, Island People, swim in to it and live on. Love your descriptions, the metaphors, the truth in the words.

    This might be my new favorite by you.

    Hope you have a fantastic day.

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    1. Thank you for your appreciation Magaly

      Much✏love

      Delete
  12. Mr mountain, the inlander, loves this piece. Well done.

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  13. Walking and talking in rhythm- lovely!❤️

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  14. An interesting thought of island people being hugged by the sea. I guess where I grew up we were hugged by cornfields. I like this look to another part of the world. Thank you, Gillena.

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  15. Thank you for your appreciation Joel

    Much✏love

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  16. What a happy poem, Gillena. It feels like a warm hug.

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  17. I liked reading this from you, an "island people". Building sand castles seemed like a dream to me. Of course mine really didn't turn out to be much like a castle. Sorry I'm so late, I have to catch up with the world now that we are home. Today I had a molar tooth pulled.
    ..

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  18. Glad you dropped by Jim wishing a comfortable time as you heal from that pulled molar

    Much✏love

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  19. Hugged by the sea is a wonderful place to be Gillena. Close to Paradise!

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  20. Thanks for dropping by Sallie

    Much✏love

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