S•ASONING for Llle MORTAR: Virgin Islanders Writing in the Caribbean Writer Volumes 1- 15
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s•ASONING for llle MORTAR: Virgin Islanders Writing in The Caribbean Writer Volumes 1- 15 Edited by Marvin B. Williams Layout and Design by Quilin B. Mars Research Publications Unit University of the Virgin Islands Copyright © 2004 by Research Publications Unit, University of the Virgin Islands ISBN: 0-9628606-9-7 Cover photo by Larry E. Oliver All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be repro duced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any informa tion retrieval system, without prior written consent of the author. Research Publications Unit University of the Virgin Islands RR 1, Box 10,000 Kingshill, St. Croix USVI 00850-9781 Phone: 340-692-4152 Fax: 340-692-4026 Email: [email protected] Website: www.TheCaribbeanWriter.com Acknowledgements Sincere gratitude goes to Dr. Henry H. Smith, Vice Provost for Research and Public Service of the University of the Virgin Islands whose energy and unswerving encouragement spur our publication unit ever forward. Thanks must also go to President LaVerne E. Ragster and Provost Gwen-Marie Moolenaar for their support. Special thanks are extended to Dr. Erika J. Waters, founding editor, whose 16-year stewardship of The Caribbean Writer placed it in the position of prominence it now holds, to Dr. Richard Nemeth who suggested this anthology, to Dr. Deborah Fontaine who quickly recognized the importance and viability of such a text, and to Quilin B. Mars, Managing Editor of The Caribbean Writer, for her untiring efforts to see this project to fruition. Recognition is offered to The Caribbean Writer, University of the Virgin Islands, which first published the poems, stories, play, and essays reprinted here, and a fraternal embrace reaches out to all the writers who consented to have their work build this text. Although every effort has been made to trace copyright hold ers, in some cases this was not possible. As such, we welcome any information regarding poets and authors whose work was includ ed without knowledge. TABLE OF CONTENTS £ Acknowledgements iii Introductionn 10 POETRY ERIK TURKMAN Masquerade 14 From My Island 15 ARNOLD R. HIGHFIELD Regular Departures 17 From Exile 18 Departing Christiansted in a January 19 The Guineaman 20 ALICE V. HENRY Two Sides ah de Same Coin 23 BARBARA M. CALLWOOD Dey Music Gawn 25 Playgrounds 26 PATRICIA HARKINS-PIERRE Sister of Light 28 Death by Drowning 29 Passion Play 30 Jumbie 31 MARVINE.WILLIAMS Hurricane Thanksgiving 32 Freedom City, Homecoming 33 Night Rite, Freedom City 35 The Mill Ruin Above Ham's Bluff 36 December Tingles 37 Ham's Bluff 38 Downwind Tale 39 KATE MELONE Conjured by Surfaces 42 Sunset Legacy 43 MARlY CAMPBELL Dubby Shoonk, Frederiksted 44 Art as Becoming a Way to Live 45 PATRICIA GILL MURPHY Sufi Meditation: the Arcades of Saint Croix 46 The Leatherback Turtle Lays its Eggs 48 DAVID GERSHATOR La Playa 49 Terra Incognita/Taino Incognito 50 Synagogue Sand 51 Happy Hour/St. Thomas 53 PHILLIS GERSHATOR Tale of Two Trees 54 REGINA JOSEPH In De Midst of De Storm (Whe Over Yonder) 56 CARROL B. FLEMING Resources 58 Poet Not Taken 59 JEANNE O'DAY Crucian Time 61 The 5th Grade Atlas 62 Saharan Dust 63 GABRIELLE DILORENZO The Limbo Marriage 64 Anthem to Ecology 68 Where the Saints Still Glow 70 Tall Man Gan 72 MARK SYLVESTER Flute-man, Whey Part you Dey? 74 SIMON B. JONES-HENDRICKSON Screaming in our Hearts 76 Three Diamonds in the Sky 78 GENE K. EMANUEL Awa/Ahwe 81 CARMEN ROGERS-GREEN Tonight 83 Sarah Seh 84 Election Time-Again 87 ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK Old Mama on a Journey 89 Each One Must Walk This Way 90 Carnival Stray 91 SHARMANE MYVETIE Casting Down Arms 94 WINSTON NUGENT Columbus Revisited 96 EDGAR OTHANEIL LAKE Dawn's Early Light 98 PATRICIAM. FAGAN Caribbean Night 100 Daydreams on a Subway Train 101 AMY MACKAY Sunday 102 ISIDOR PAIEWONSKY Kingfish Hooked 104 CARYN K. HODGE When Oyo Come, You Gon' Know 105 Man Love 106 TREGENZAA. ROACH The Times of Sunday 108 KATHERINE LUKEY Homecoming, St. Croix 112 FICTION MARVIN E. WILLIAMS Adamon 115 Brownies 124 Skipping Stones 129 NARCISSA WHITE Benjie's Eulogy 137 ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK The Waterfront's Women; The Waterfront's Men 141 Easter Sunday 148 PATRICIAM. FAGAN In Miss Emma's Shack 154 Lahida the Cat 160 SUSAN BROWN Seduction at Tivoli 169 The Horse at Albertine Hall 178 PHYLLIS BRIGGS-EMMANUEL Teacher Jane 184 DAVIDA SIWISA JAMES The Commute 194 CELESTE R. DEARY The Dreampiece 201 JESSICA D. THORPE The Old Machete 212 DRAMA MARVIN E. WILLIAMS Liberated 221 PERSONAL ESSAYS SUSAN BROWN Days of Rum and Locusts 25 6 MARVIN E. WILLIAMS A Stranger's Homecoming 262 ERIKA J. WATERS Traffic Lights and the Human Condition 276 In the Aftermath of Hurricane Hugo: An Elegy for My Books 280 CARROL B. FLEMING The Writing Beach 283 INDEX 285 INTRODUCTION by MARVIN E. WILLIAMS Virgin Islands literature is currently in its third definitive sea son of flowering. The first petals of the 1930s Jarvis School of poets gave way to the radical leaves manifested in the late 1960s- 70s outpouring of (again, predominantly) poetry. Today, the tree is in agitated bloom, its branches and limbs robust with not just poetry, but short fiction, biographies/memoirs, and the novel as well. And while the roots continue to hold steadfastly and signif icant branches and limbs need pruning if we are to aerate the tree for purification and healthy breathing, the fact remains that there is abundant growth-often unwieldy-if less prodigious develop ment. Indeed, over the last twenty years (1984-2004) Virgin Islanders have published an impressive number of texts, almost certainly not limited to my accounting. I have located 95 books/chapbooks of poems, 10 collections of adult short fiction, 15 novels, 35 biographies/memoirs, 35 books of children's stories, and six volumes of folklore. In addition, there have been seven anthologies of poetry and three annual literary journals, two pro duced by students on the University of the Virgin Islands cam puses and, most preeminent, The Caribbean Writer, an interna tional journal of Caribbean writing. Outside of the brief-some times descriptive, sometimes critical-introductions offered by the anthologies, criticism (as much rain as sun spurring disci plined growth) has been conspicuously missing from the creative soil. It is this missing ingredient that in large part accounts for the uneven quality of the works produced. Very little stewardship guides predominantly nascent writers who, possessing a deep desire to articulate their vision, lacking personal critical judg ment, having ready access to hustler or indifferent printers and internet publisher sites, and seduced by the idea of publication, finance their own sophomoric texts that far too often draw one's attention and induces despair. And where the need to assert one's voice or massage one's ego is not at issue, too many begin ning writers chase the near illusionary dream of acquiring a financial dividend from their products. Writing almost always provides its own reward. Good writing acquaints itself with pos terity. In keeping with the mission of The Caribbean Writer which has committed to providing a forum for and encouraging good writing in the region and territory-wide, Seasoning for the Mortar gathers some of the best texts of Virgin Islanders which have appeared in the former journal over the first fifteen years of its existence-1987-2002. Additionally, the present anthology offers itself as an important gathering of contemporary Virgin Islands writing to be utilized as a text in secondary and post-secondary classrooms. Thus it simultaneously fills a void in our curriculum and traces the recent trajectory of our literature, its producers, their themes and treatment. Following the format of the parent text, the book is divided by genre; and owing to our attempt to provide a relatively focused view of the styles and voices of multiple contributors, the indi vidual pieces are clustered around their authors. Part I focuses on the poetry of 29 poets who engage-in nation language and Standard English-numerous themes among them the myriad shades of personal and group identity, the ambiguous legacy of colonialism, and women's self-agency in a patriarchal environ ment. Part II consists of 14 short stories many of which interro gate issues surrounding coming of age, subterranean violence in male-female relationships, and the enduring legacy of the fantas tic in island affairs. Part III offers a play that takes a comic view of the conflicts that arise when an increasingly challenged male chauvinism comes under the attack of an assertive womanist vision. The final section-Part IV-is comprised of five personal essays each in its own way investigating how demographic and cultural shifts impact tradition and provoke reassessment of name and place. Collectively, the works in this anthology provide what its title suggests-ingredients for a Virgin Islands literary gumbo of which unseasoned and seasoned writers, critics, and audience can draw nourishment whose end is healthy growth and development. Seasoning for the Mortar Erik Turkman is a writer, photographer, and jazz musician. His literary work often centers around themes relating to his family, which origi nated in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He currently teaches at Stanford University. Masquerade pitchy patchy flingin' 'bout horsehead man snappin' gypsy woman singin' out mockojumby trampin' The sun drenched costumes dazzle their jovial way along Main Street, a parade of sequins and brilliant rags. I am here for my yearly pilgrimage, visiting my grandmother, aunt, uncle, and the hordes simply called cousin. The sun bites my skin even after half an hour, but it is Carnival, so I pay no mind while I am seared.