, • DECEMBER 1987 Poetry Mark Mc W aU, Ras Michael J eune, McDonald Dash, Sasenarine Persaud, Mahadai Das, Pamela Mordecai, A. J. Se..)'1l1our, Ian McDonald. The at r e Joel Benjamin, Jeremy Poynting, Frank Thomasson, Ron Robinson. Art i c I e s Alan Persico, Frank Birbalsingh, Nesha Haniff. • Review A Goodly Heritage (Elma Seymour). • Kyk 37 - Edited by A. J. Seymour and Ian MCDonald CONTENTS Friends of Kyk-Over-AI 2 Across the Editor's Desk This issue - a "Theatre" Issue• 3 Mahadai Das - Appeal 3 Poetry in Schools 4 BIM No. 70 5 The New Voices, Nos. 29/30 6 Journal Of West Indian Literature 6 The 3rd Walter Rodney Memorial Lecture 7 The Guyana Prize 8 The Printing of Kyk No. 37 8 • Poetry Remembering Anna Regina Mark McWatt 9 River Passage 10 Klickity Klack Ras Michael Jeune 14 Sun Suddenly McDonald Dash 17 Rain Storm Sasenarine Persaud 18 Bones Mahadai Das 19 Genesis Pamela Mordecai 20 Two Love Poems A. J. Seymour 21 That My Son Be Kept Safe Ian McDonald 22 Theatre The Early Theatre in Guyana Joel Benjamin 24 At Homes, Tagore and Jive Jeremy Poynting 45 Down Memor Lane Frank Thomasson 49 Guyanese Professional Theatre Ron Robinson 55 Articles Martin Carter's "B ent" Alan Persico 59 Interview with Jan Carew Frank B irbalsingh 66 Edna Manley Nesha Haniff 76 Review • A Goodly Heritage (Elma Seymour) N esha Haniff 78 Contributors 80 • • • - ... FRIENDS OF KYK-OVER-AL A great many individuals and organisations have con­ tributed to the successful re-Iaunching of Kyk-Over-Al. We owe a special debt of gratitude to the followi'ng for their support of this issue of the magazine: GUYANA RESOURCE CORPORATION LTMII'ED GUYANA SUGAR CORPORATION LIMITED REPUBUC SODA FACTORY The cost of printing and distributing a literary magazine is very heavy. Please help us to keep Kyk-Over-AI going by sending your annual subscriptions (two issues) to ei ther of the Joint Editors as follows: - AJ. SEYMOUR OR: IAN A. McDONALD 23 North Road, c/o Guysuco, Bourda, 22 Church Street, Georgetown, Georgetown, GUYANA. GUYANA. Tel. No. 02 63170 Tel. No. 02 67329 In England please apply to: F.H. Thomasson, 9 Webster Close, MAIDENHEAD, BERKSHIRE SL6 4NJ Annual Subscription rates: (including postage) G$60, EC$30, £ 8, US$12 The Editors of Kyk-Over-Al would welcome the submission of poems, short stories, articles and reviews to consider for publica­ tion. Publication of course cannot be guaranteed and because of expense it will not be possible to return manuscripts. 2 • . J •. <J f'6' • OVER THE EDITOR'S DESK THEA TRE ISSUE A major part of this issue of Kyk-Over-AI consists of arti­ cles on the theatre. In the old series of K y k s published in the period 1945 to 1961 there was an excellent tradition of writings on the theatre. We would have liked to have reproduced some of these pieces in this issue - not only because of their intrinsic significance and excellence but also because of the fascination there is in comparing thinking on the subject then and thinking now. Unfortunately any su 'h abstracts either would have been too short to do justice to the whole or would have monopolised too much space. However. for the sake of interested researchers, ~we note that important pieces on the theatre appeared in Kyk Nos. I, 6, 10, 11 and 12 and that issue 25 was devoted entirely and most • interestingly to the theatre. We also note that the New World For t n I g h tI y, that beacon of enlightenment which appeared in Guyana for a time in the 1960's, contained excellent articles on the theatre in issues 24, 25 and 26. rerhaps the time has come now for an effort to be made to write the first "History of Theatre in Guyana". Can the money be found to commission someone like Ken Corsbie or AI Creighton to do the job? MAHADAI DAS operative care, she was transferred for therapy to the Chicago Rehabilita­ With deep sadness we report the tion Centre at Northwestern Hospital. serious illness of Mahadai Das, young As a foreign student in the U.S.A. and most promising Guyanese poet, Mahad ai lacks both the social support who for the past few years had been and financial resources which play living and studying and writing peo­ key roles on the long road back to try in the United States. In May this full recovery. A Friends of Mahadai year she was' taken ill and hospital Das group has been fOlilled to help. tests indicated Endocarditis (an in­ Because of the legalities involved in fection of the heart, in this case the setting up a formal fund-raising mitral valve). Heart surgery was mechanism, the group asks that dona­ planned but before it could be done a tions be made by cheque or money or­ piece of the infected material broke der in the name of Mahadai Das. Do­ off, embolised in the bloodstream, nations should be sent to "Friends of travelled to the brain, and caused a Mahadai Das", Box 16202, Chicago, stroke. The stroke cau sed speech, illinois, 60616, U.S.A. We hope for, memory, and motor impairment. Her and look forward to, her complete re­ mitral valve has been replaced using covery and to publishing many more open heart surgery and, after post- of her poems in future. 3 POETRY IN SCHOOLS bread and butter development. I believe there is an answer to The following broadcast in the this. Fundamentally it cornel down to Viewpoint series on Guyana radio the fact that what distinguishel hu­ represents the deeply held views of man beings more than an)'thing il the editors of Kyk and, we hope, all their use of language. And poetry lovers of literature. matters profoundly because it is a central example of the ule human be­ I have said before, and will keep ings make of words to explore and on saying until the cows come leaping understand all experience. Poetl over a blue moon, that there is noth­ work at the frontiers of language. ing more important in society than They are deeply engaged with the teaching the growing generations to struggle for clarity and meaning. Be­ express themselves in good, clear, cause they wrestle with and refine concise, forceful English. For the in­ language in order to be lucid they dividual, such a skill is a tool whose are, in the most CI ucial sense, guar­ usefulness lasts throughout a life­ dians of the accummulated richness • time. For the nation, a highly liter­ of our written and spoken inheri- ate population not only inspires en­ tance. And if a nation forgets or ne­ lightenment and preserves culture glects such an inheritance its soul but also is a tremendous asset in eco- soon dries up, however great its ma­ • nomic development. And yet, in re- terial success. cent times, trends in examination re- Poetry needs to be at the heart of • suits and the evidence of interview- teaching English because of the qual­ ing first-time applicants for jobs in­ ity of lahguage at work on experience dicate that our school system is be­ that it offers to children. If language ginning to produce a flood of barely becomes separated from moral and literate citizens. It is desperately emottonal life - if it becomes just a important that measures are taken to trail of cliches or a parade of dull tum the tide. practicalities which fail to quicken However, today I want to go a and excite the mind of the reader - • step further and make the case not then we run the risk of depriving just for putting much more emphasis children of the full vital resources on the teaching of English in schools contained in · language which poetry but, beyond that, for more and better provides. As Ezra Pound pointed out teaching of poetry. I realise that long ago, literature, among other there must be a great majority who things, is a way of keeping wolds liv­ see such a suggestion as highly im­ ing and accurate. It is the essential practical, not to say slightly mad, at place of poetry in English teaching to a time when the national emphasis is restore to pupils a sense of exu ber­ on sci ence, agriculture, useful ance and vitality and excitement and trades, and everything educational passion in the acq:,;sition of language • that might lead in future to economic and in the power and savour of words. growth and multiplying the Gross Na­ Books are scarce in Guyana, and tional Product. It will be asked why books of poetry scarcest of all. Yet I should the teaching of poetry find hope that the well of poetry will nev­ any place at all in an educational er be allowed to dry up in our system devoted to hard, practical, schools. There are, for instance, two 4 excellent recent anthologies - The selves in poetry. This working at the Penguin book of Caribbean frontiers of language, the insight Verse In English, edited by P .. ula children will be given into all the Burnett, and Caribbean Poetry possibilities of language, will do Now, edited by Stewart Brown, pub­ them eternal good .. lished by Hodder and Stoughton in • Given the circumstances in London, both of which should be in Guyana's schools today I imagine this all our schools. If children at an im­ will all seem like some elitist dream, pressionable age could be introduced a plea for something that is crazily to such books by dedicated teachers impractical.