______ FEATURED POET |
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| COPYRIGHT © 2006-2020 rosalienebacchus.com. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS PAGE WAS LAST UPDATED ON: 4 FEBRUARY 2020 |
| LISTEN TO |
| CHERYL BOYCE-TAYLOR |
| Women with children No sacrifice too great. Fractured immigrant families. HAIKU POEM ROSALIENE BACCHUS |
Some women carry their lives
in a wobbly basket to the marketplace
where they sell cakes, pies, rice and beans
stew chicken, rum punch, Mauby and sweet plantains
some women make big pots of pig tails make
roast corn, cod fish and fried bakes
they make pig feet and black pudding
sell it around the Arima savanna
to send their children to school
some women do hair and wash people dirty clothes
to put a roof over their heads
to take care of an ailing mother
feed a pregnant daughter
provide for a missing husband
some women sew holes into their fingertips
burn their wrist frying hair
some women go to England to study nursing
go to America and work in white-lady kitchen
some women leave their children behind
and leave their children behind
with their dreams
and fill the hurt places with fat men
shiny cars and big big houses
some women buy and sell
build up, tear down and search and run
and never hear the wind
calling their names
Poem from So Much Things To Say: Over 100 Poets From the
First Ten Years of the Calabash International Literary
Festival, edited by Kwame Dawes & Colin Channer, Akashic
Books, New York, 2010.
in a wobbly basket to the marketplace
where they sell cakes, pies, rice and beans
stew chicken, rum punch, Mauby and sweet plantains
some women make big pots of pig tails make
roast corn, cod fish and fried bakes
they make pig feet and black pudding
sell it around the Arima savanna
to send their children to school
some women do hair and wash people dirty clothes
to put a roof over their heads
to take care of an ailing mother
feed a pregnant daughter
provide for a missing husband
some women sew holes into their fingertips
burn their wrist frying hair
some women go to England to study nursing
go to America and work in white-lady kitchen
some women leave their children behind
and leave their children behind
with their dreams
and fill the hurt places with fat men
shiny cars and big big houses
some women buy and sell
build up, tear down and search and run
and never hear the wind
calling their names
Poem from So Much Things To Say: Over 100 Poets From the
First Ten Years of the Calabash International Literary
Festival, edited by Kwame Dawes & Colin Channer, Akashic
Books, New York, 2010.
Wobbly Baskets Cheryl Boyce-Taylor |
| FRACTURED |
[M]y poems are filled with childhood memories. So they’re
filled with sounds, aromas, colors, textures of the land,
basically. They come from that earthy place. I have a lot of
trees, mountains, flowers, water in my work and it’s because
of my connection to Trinidad. I feel like sometimes I’m
conjuring up that place in my work, the place of my
childhood where most of my writing originates… And a lot of
my work has a big migration theme in it, because that was a
time when I felt most fractured. Because migration is
fracturing, and so I guess up until my last book, I was still
working on that fracturing.
CHERYL BOYCE-TAYLOR, EXCERPT FROM HER INTERVIEW WITH ANA-
MAURINE LARA ON 3 MARCH 2007.
| I FIGHT BACK LILLIAN ALLEN JAMAICAN-BORN CANADIAN DUB POET REGGAE MUSICIAN & WRITER |
| THIS IS TRINIDAD & TOBAGO INVEST TT DURATION: 3:05 MINUTES |
| WATCH & LISTEN |
Trinidad-born Cheryl
Boyce-Taylor, born
1950, grew up in
Queens, New York,
since the age of
thirteen.
A poet, as well as a
visual and teaching
artist, she is the
author of three
collections of poetry,
Raw Air, Night When
Moon Follows, and
Convincing the Body.
A recipient of the
Partners in Writing
Grant, Boyce-Taylor
served as Poet in
Residence at the
Caribbean Literary
and Cultural Center
in Brooklyn.
Boyce-Taylor holds
master's degrees in
both education and
social work, and
graduated from the
Stonecoast MFA in
Creative Writing
program at the
University of Southern
Maine.Maine.
Boyce-Taylor, born
1950, grew up in
Queens, New York,
since the age of
thirteen.
A poet, as well as a
visual and teaching
artist, she is the
author of three
collections of poetry,
Raw Air, Night When
Moon Follows, and
Convincing the Body.
A recipient of the
Partners in Writing
Grant, Boyce-Taylor
served as Poet in
Residence at the
Caribbean Literary
and Cultural Center
in Brooklyn.
Boyce-Taylor holds
master's degrees in
both education and
social work, and
graduated from the
Stonecoast MFA in
Creative Writing
program at the
University of Southern
Maine.Maine.
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
is located off the
northeast coast of
Venezuela. The
English-speaking
Caribbean Island
nation consists of
the two main
islands of Trinidad
and Tobago, and
21 smaller islands.
Port of Spain is the
capital city.
is located off the
northeast coast of
Venezuela. The
English-speaking
Caribbean Island
nation consists of
the two main
islands of Trinidad
and Tobago, and
21 smaller islands.
Port of Spain is the
capital city.