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
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
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.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your appreciation Rosemary
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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!😃🍹
ReplyDeleteThank you for your appreciation Sanaa
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"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.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your appreciation Bev
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Such a joyful and warm piece.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your appreciation Rommy
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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.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your appreciation Robin
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"People with salt in our soul and sweetness in our smiles
ReplyDeleteSo 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!
Thank you for your appreciation Susan
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A beautiful, happy, rhythmic poem, Gillena, which made me smile! I love the lines:
ReplyDelete‘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'.
Thank you for your appreciation Kim. I am going to google and read Island Man
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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.
ReplyDeleteThis might be my new favorite by you.
Hope you have a fantastic day.
Thank you for your appreciation Magaly
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Mr mountain, the inlander, loves this piece. Well done.
ReplyDeleteGlad you dropped by Ron
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Walking and talking in rhythm- lovely!❤️
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by Vivian
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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.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your appreciation Joel
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What a happy poem, Gillena. It feels like a warm hug.
ReplyDeleteGlad you dropped by Sara
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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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Glad you dropped by Jim wishing a comfortable time as you heal from that pulled molar
ReplyDeleteMuch✏love
Hugged by the sea is a wonderful place to be Gillena. Close to Paradise!
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by Sallie
ReplyDeleteMuch✏love