PALOMA MOHAMED, PhD

CARIFESTA

 

I was born of a great mother writer and a graceful artiste father

In swift passionate birthing pushed from the belly of a blue green sea

Rounded through an archipelago of jewels tracing a moment from

Thought to creation, birth through evolution…cultural expression to nation-being

 

I laughed that first morning as the sun touched my head

I rose upon shaky feet and took the first step

With great minds urging me forward, strong voices in my ears

And beheld Guyana, 72 ---year-place of my birth,

 

From Guyana to Cuba, Cuba to Jamaica, Jamaica to Trinidad and Tobago,

Trinidad to Barbados, Suriname to St. Kitts, St. Vincent to Antigua,

Anguilla to Grenada,  Dominica to Haiti, Montserrat to St. Lucia, British Virgin Islands to Cayman Islands, Belize to Bahamas, Turks and Caicos to Curacao

I’ve left my children of burnished hues,

Red, black, brown, yellow, bronze

whose eyes reflect the visions of our times,

of times to come and past times

 

Whose voices waft through troubled and tranquil air

Just the same

to proclaim and reclaim----aye WE here

 

I leave muses with tightly curled hair,

flowing tresses and sinewy locks

Voices and minds which sing and say….

we are Caribbean, we are Caribbean

See us…know us…through Carifesta…..

They all commune here

 

On this odyssey of love I make my way

Year after year from here to there,

there to here and back again

I kiss tears from the faces and sweat from the feet of performing children

Embrace dancers, poets, singers, those who paint and make art with their hands

 

I blow like a mighty wind through the minds of men and women struggling to

Understand who they are…how Caribbean is Caribbean,

Struggling to know what they can make,

if they can make and how to know they can make

from great art great nations

 

I was born of a great mother sculptor and a mighty Shanto father

In swift passionate birthing pushed from the belly of  tall green jungle mansions

 

Each year I am reborn again from the bellies of nations

And thinkers and artists and musicians….

performing this dance across the isles and miles

 

I bring for you ---hope

I bring for you --- joy

I bring from you – discovery

I bring from you- pride

I bring from you --- confidence

I bring yourself to you…..

A muse as bright as any starry night

As strong as any hurling tide

As intricate as the skies tapestry of colored clouds.

 

I am Carifesta….Carifesta…..Carifesta.