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Post by christina61 on Nov 20, 2008 17:51:59 GMT 2
Diaspora
Afraid is a country with no exit visas a wire of ants walking the horizon embroiders our passports at birth Johannesburg Alabama a dark girl flees the cattle prods skin hanging from her shredded nails escapes into my nightmare half an hour before the Shatila dawn wakes in the well of a borrowed Volkswagen or a rickety midnight sleeper out of White River Junction Washington bound again gulps carbon monoxide in a false bottomed truck fording the Braceras Grande or an up-country river grenades held dry in a calabash leaving
Our Dead Behind Us, Audre Lorde, W.W. Norton, 1986
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Post by kbecker on Nov 20, 2008 21:44:14 GMT 2
Thanks for this. I am struck by the specificity of place names, how evil is not nebulous, but in the details. Journals likewise are about the details, the places we inhabit emotionally and physically. I appreciate your giving us more food for thought. Kim
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Post by christina61 on Nov 22, 2008 18:35:41 GMT 2
Yes, the specificity of evil is a good way to describe what Lorde is about in this poem.
And the calabash with a grenade hidden inside is a truly difficult but vital image - the calabash is sacred in many cultures - African and Native American - and symbolizes a specific summons to the loa in Haitian voudon, for example, most particularly Papa Legba, the guardian of the crossroads, the emissary of the underworld, and to have someone place a grenades inside a calabash, well it shows just how determined that person must be to use them.
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Post by kbecker on Nov 23, 2008 22:49:47 GMT 2
"grenades inside a calabash"
This line from the poem--and your helpful explanation--make me think of how things can be disguised. Sometimes it is the opposite: something bad (or off-putting) on the outside can hold something good. In writing, it seems to me that I am often exploring that edge. Journals are where those first connections are often revealed and if they hold true, they may appear in a poem or story. And speaking of outside, I have been moved to re-read Sister, Outsider since we began this discussion. Her writing has meant a lot to me. Thank you for highlighting her work. Kim
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Post by christina61 on Nov 23, 2008 23:25:54 GMT 2
Thank you Kim for adding your thoughtful commentary on this Journal site. Your interest and insight are very much appreciated.
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