Alas, I’m still sick. However, my bad luck means that instead of going out for New Year’s Eve, I stayed in & so was able to work on publishing the vote today with a clear head. Hope your New Year’s was a bit more adventurous than mine.
But being in bed has meant I’ve been able to enjoy a good bit of reading including some wonderful Bajan poetry from Barbados’ first appointed Poet Laureate! After devouring a number of her pieces, this is one of my favorites. Hope you love it as well.
“Tonight I want to offer you
this moonlight cupped in a purple
flower; this chorus of crickets
holding no grudge against the day’s
dying. I want to lift the cool sweetness
of sour-grass under the night wind
and soothe the tautness in your face.
I want to tempt you away from your heroic
silence for joy that is free and foolish.
I want to weave these early stars
like a rope for you to hold
and make your way past your old
hurts, faiths crumbling like dust.
This wanting is not a nebulous thing;
it is the soul desiring its other self
where need knows no hindrance of words.
Now, only this longing, this reaching
yet again – in spite of.”
It’s just beautiful! (For those of you asking, this work is from the poet’s collection in The Stone Gatherer (view on Amazon).
Now onto the important bit…
SO WHAT BOOK ARE WE READING?
“Utterly delightful! The impish love child of Amos Tutuola [famed for his African folk tales] & Gabriel García Márquez [known as one of the best writers of the 20th century].” - Nalo Hopkinson
“Bursting with humor and rich in fantastic detail, Redemption in Indigo is a clever, contemporary fairy tale that introduces readers to a dynamic new voice in Caribbean literature. Lord's world of spider tricksters and indigo immortals, inspired in part by a Senegalese folk tale [incorporating the Afro-Barbadian culture], will feel instantly familiar—but Paama's adventures are fresh, surprising, and utterly original.
Paama's husband is a fool and a glutton. Bad enough that he followed her to her parents' home in the village of Makendha, now he's disgraced himself by murdering livestock and stealing corn. When Paama leaves him for good, she attracts the attention of the undying ones—powerful spirits called the djombi—who present her with a gift: the Chaos Stick, which allows her to manipulate the subtle forces of the world. Unfortunately, a wrathful djombi with indigo skin believes this power should be his and his alone.
Karen Lord's debut novel, which won the prestigious Frank Collymore Literary Prize in Barbados, the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and the Mythopoetic Award, is an intricately woven tale of adventure, magic, and the power of the human spirit.”
(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)
Happy reading!