First Annual Festival of Women's Poetry *********************November 2008*********************

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First Annual Festival of Women's Poetry *********************November 2008********************* :: *International section :: Women poets from around the World :: Canada :: Afua Cooper

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Topic: Afua Cooper (Read 256 times)

louisa
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Afua Cooper
« Thread Started on Oct 10, 2008, 3:59am »

Afua Cooper

Negro Cemeteries

‘Negro’ cemeteries are surfacing all over Ontario
ancestors rolling over
bones creaking
skeletons dusting themselves off
dry bones shaking in fields of corn

A man walks on his farm
the morning after a thunder storm
see broken headstones a push troo di earth
he rub di mud off
see the inscriptions
like hieroglyphics
reveal names, dates, ancestry
the local museum seh
is an old ‘Negro’ cemetery
All over Ontario
‘ Negro’ cemeteries are surfacing
ancestors rolling over
from the fur-trader to the loyalist to the mariner from Dominica
demanding we remember them
insisting we reveal their history
All over Ontario
ancestors are rolling over
appearing in potato fields
appearing in fields of corn
appearing in wheat fields

Like Osiris ancestors burst from the earth
in green resurrection
African skeletons shaking the dust from their bones
skulls with rattling teeth
reciting litanies of ancient woes
tongues spouting where none existed before
speaking in funereal language
Griots rising from graves
recounting the stories of their journeys
hafiz tongues uncleaving
reciting surahs of the dawn
babalawos emerging from the storm
divining with their shells and stones
drummers advancing
playing the talking drums
the bata drum
the djembe
the kete and funde
sending messages across this land

Loas coming out of their secret place
and break the shackles of their confinement
Papa Damballah hissed his displeasure at his long internment
Ogun squats, ready with his cutlass
he sniffs the air, scenting signs*

Toussaint rising from his dungeon tomb
prophesying blood and fire

And a woman named Dorinda sits on her tomb
a pipe smoking from between her lips
as she recites and recites and recites the stories of her many passages
the stories of her many transformations

* Damballah and Ogun are deities from the Voudou pantheon

This poem is to be found on Afua Cooper's website which also contains other poems, audio recordings, books published, and bio.

http://www.afuacooper.com/home_page.html

Other sites of interest - -

http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/cooper/index.htm

http://www.dubpoetscollective.com/afuacooper.html

« Last Edit: Oct 10, 2008, 4:14am by louisa »

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