The Journey Home
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About this ebook
In this mythical-poetic collection of verse, seasoned poet Horace Goddard shares vivid imagery and energetic language as he offers a bold, refreshing, yet introspective glimpse into an African Caribbean mans search for a home in the diaspora.
As migratory man travels from place to place and establishes ties to the land, he nurtures a perpetual yearning for the land of his origin and often wonders, Where is home and how will I get there? In this new collection of poems, often penned in fable-like style, Goddard questions what home means, what culture means when a person is transplanted, and what race means in a country that is predominantly black or white.
As Goddard offers a memorable lyrical journey from Africa to the Caribbean and finally to Canada, his poetry invokes emotions and nostalgia as he explores the differences in cultures and details his experiences as a traveler. It is through this celebrated poets eyes that many will truly understand what it is like to journey home.
Horace I. Goddard
Horace I. Goddard was born in Barbados and currently lives in Dorval, Quebec, Canada. He is the author of ten books, many of which are poetry collections. He enjoys travelling, research, and writing. He is married to Patricia Dennison. Horace I. Goddard is a poet, fiction writer, and critic.
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The Journey Home - Horace I. Goddard
Contents
I In Search Of Africa
Primal Mother
Connubial Bliss
I Surrender All
Cudjoe
King Jah Jah
Sikio
Village Mother
Worship
Death by Default
World Scope I
A Long Way from Home
Work Blues
II Caribbean Rhythms
On the Road to Dragon Bay
Of Rivers
Looking out to Sea at Morant Bay
The Marriage Bed Unfolds
Archival Birth
This Rock is Home
Shadows
Searching
Mirror
Longing
Wild Rose
I Have Dreams
Before Another Sunset
Loneliness
Shades of Care
WINTER BLUES
Oh, Give Me More
Jamaica
This is Jamaica Too
Death Will Come
Desex the Text
When Hurt Has No Escape
A Requiem for Spring
The Song of the Dead
Hurdles
The Rainmaker
Young Love
Jolene
Rum Shop Blues
Midsummer
Lamentation
Still Thinking of You
At the Water’s Edge
The Growth of Friendship
Refugee
Dawn of Christmas
World Scope II
Anwar El Sadat(1919–1981)
Summertime
Soul in Silence
Matrimony
FOREDAY MORNING
Give Me Time
Voidancy
A Ring of Silence
Swan Street
Seascape
Sunrise
Island Mother
A Final Kiss
Eventide
Vesper
Yellow Tear
Ruptured
Nature’s Seamstress
The Little Things in Life
Desire
In Search of Self
Town and Country: Same Difference
III Canada in We
Crack
Canada Lies Within Me
Who a Dem?
Beat Racism
Echoes of the Past
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Several of these poems in this collection, or versions of them, have appeared in Kola. I would like to thank H. Nigel Thomas for his invaluable friendship and for reading the manuscript and offering emendations. My gratitude goes to Anthony Joyette, Clarence Bayne, Cyril Dabydeen, and Dr. Derrilyn Morrison for their encouragement. My wife, Patricia Dennison, is my critic and sounding board, and I thank her for her constant support.
I In Search Of Africa
Primal Mother
Silent gourds of memory
Hang from a whispering tree
All covered with icicles
That wrestle my mother’s image from me.
I sit here remembering silent dreams
And listening to plaintive voices
"Ya plenty trees fuh curl
Dah camera ’round!"
Voice in; fade out.
Zoom to sweet Ijeoma.
She tells tales told to her of Africa
Veiled in valleys of darkest solitude.
Cannibalized poets sprout
From her loins and wait to dip
Their pens with venom to poison these pages
While the world stands preaching promises.
Here I stand with torrents of tempestuous words,
Time bombs to tear down those wailing walls,
To break open those borrowed monuments
Whose necromancy bewitched the spider, Ananse!"
Babylon despairs with every passing moment.
Who a dem in Kingston
Can avert this desolation?
Out of different dust,
One nation is born.
One people in de capital
Make holy noise in the ancients’ cathedral.
Our grandcestors’ drums beat in tumult.
Our once sacred songs are mute.
Our rhythms lack the wiles of the shaman,
Whose guiles tricked the dancers’ feet.
If the tune of the flute
Doesn’t resonate in this bamboo shoot,
Do not blame this foreign mother.
It is I who’ve lost the art of conjure.
Connubial Bliss
Bit by ritualistic bit,
The couple sat at poolside cutting
The bottom tier of the bridal cake.
The groom purses his lips and
Proclaims his love while he drinks
Flowing tears from his lover’s cheeks.
In the wedding crowd,
One drunken, loud
Voice above the band’s playing cried,
"Bwoy ’im can’t last very long.
’Im used fo’ hunting a Westmoreland.
Po’ thing! She is from England."
The poet and I changed our drink
From tonic and gin to whisky
And water, stretching out our revelry.
Night flowed into darkness.
In the meantime, cerebral tipsiness
Dulled each moment of bliss.
The funeral pyre
Ignites Miriam’s body,
Bouncing shards of desire across the bed.
In