Mad Woman of Harvard

It has been my pleasure during May to spotlight the Guyanese-Canadian poet, Cyril Dabydeen.  Below is another Cyril Dabydeen poem, Mad Woman of Harvard, which I hope you will find interesting. Have you read any of Cyril Dabydeen's poems? If yes, what are your thoughts on this poet? I would love to hear from you.

Stay tuned in June for poet Kwame Dawes.

Mad Woman of Harvard

As if flies are after her,
she flits incessantly
with a thin-leafed book,
this woman, grey-haired,
a long brown coat draping

her frail body. She walks
swiftly to another tree,
swats, then struts off again,
waging her wars; she turns,
looking around,

seeing me, she with fierce eyes,
my spirit oddly in tune with hers.
A couple close by also look at her,
amused at her cryptic smiles, Eumenides
dogging her path. The mind's weakness,

I say, my own, with this longing for knowledge.
She cries out deep inside at the dim sun's
rays. "You there, it's no good watching
other people - you in the dark glasses!"
A scholar's grimace, all on green grass

splayed out as I am, alert
to other traumas, other worlds, as
she keeps marching up and down,
all words waywardly expressed, if you must
know, or keep thinking about, always.

(Harvard University Campus, August 1986)

From Imaginary Origins. Selected Poems 1970-2002.

Copyright Cyril Dabydeen 2004. Reprinted with author's permission.

Winning Writers

Winning Writers, founded in 2001, is an excellent resource for poets who are interested in keeping up with poetry contests and other literary news. The site is included on the list of 101 Best Websites for Writers by Writer's Digest , and received the Truly Useful Site Award (well-deserved, I would add) in 2006 from Preditors & Editors.

The War Poetry Contest, which focuses on the theme of war, is their current contest. May 31st is the deadline. I'm sorry for the short notice, but if you are inspired to, and can complete up to three poems on war before the deadline, please check out their submission guidelines and go for it! You can enter online, which is convenient, since the end-of-month deadline would mean mailed entries would not be received on time.

Of course, if you miss the deadline for the War Poetry Contest, there are many other upcoming contests you can enter.

I would be happy to hear about any successes, so please send me your comments.

Good luck!

The Big Apple

Today, I feature another Cyril Dabydeen poem, The Big Apple. Enjoy.

The Big Apple

I have decided to be cheerful;
on Fifth Avenue, I lost
twenty dollars in a card game.

I, who felt I was smart,
fell into such a trap,
mesmerized by the sleight of hand.

Now, back at my own game,
responding to words only,
I wait here by the New York City Library,

thinking how best to pursue my craft,
mulling over passers-by,
the old man chasing after a youth -

"Stop him!" he cries.
A few feet away, a woman
reads Marquez; asks her boyfriend

if he knew him
and what solitude conveys
to the rest of us. I consider

metaphor like distance -
the forest floor of a city
swirling in the summer's heat.

The drama continues to grip
our minds; the crowd larger;
finger on the trigger;

this assault forced upon us,
as I imagine greenbacks -
an orchard in me perhaps -

eloquent with each new card
a cue to meaning,
grappling with a youth's escape,

as hands proliferate like leaves
on a tree, this ruse of losing
one's money and succumbing

to art for art's sake:
I flutter in this make-believe,
clinging steadfastly to words!

Copyright Cyril Dabydeen 2004. From Imaginary Origins. Selected Poems 1970-2002. Reprinted with author's permission.

Cyril Dabydeen's Amazonia

Amazonia

We discussed how Caribbean
writers only look north,
and how maybe I'm unique
among them (I want to believe)
because of my interest
in all of South America.

Indeed, when you came to my home
in Ottawa, we ate
barbecued capybara,
and for starters swallowed
anaconda's eggs whole -
you better believe it -
and drank Irish beer,
Guinness and Smithwick's
(I'd just returned from Dublin, you see,
spent time at the Writer's Museum
with Yeats and Joyce,
Behan and Beckett).

You told me of the time
when you wanted to come
to Georgetown from Brazil,
to the university, and travelled
to Boa Vista on the border,
and ended up in Lethem
where you planned to board
a plane...

But somehow
a cow had hit the plane
and the trip was cancelled,
and with another woman,
with your scholar's ways,
you travelled to Venezuela instead
to continue your work: this interest
in poetry - mine, if only for a while
because I'd been born in Amazonia.

Now you snap a picture of
my daughter, with my wife
looking on; and Pilar from Spain,
keen on Margaret Atwood,
noted our different ways
in the one place I call home -
far more than Canadian Studies,
now that we're indeed here.

Copyright Cyril Dabydeen, 2004.
From Imaginary Origins. Selected Poems 1970-2002.
Reprinted with author's permission.

Thanks, Toronto

Special thanks to family and friends in Toronto who turned out for the book party for From Cane Field to the Sea, despite snow and rain (I forgot how snowy Spring in Toronto can be sometimes). Nevertheless, it was delicious food (that curried chicken was want-more good), great company, and good poetry. My first public poetry reading ever, and I had fun!

So, thanks again, for your support.

Blessings.

Derek Walcott's White Egrets Wins the 2011 OCM Bocas Prize

Derek Walcott's White Egrets has won the 2011 OCM Bocas Prize.

I knew it! White Egrets is a great read, and I absolutely enjoyed reading it.

Congratulations, Derek Walcott, for another deserved win.

Cyril Dabydeen

My poet of the month, Cyril Dabydeen, is such a prolific writer and internationally-acclaimed poet, that my posts during this month will hardly scratch the surface of the works and achievements of a poet of his stature. However, I will try...

Cyril Dabydeen

Cyril Dabydeen, of Indian descent, was born in Guyana in 1945. He is a poet, novelist, short story writer and book critic. He left Guyana for Canada during the 1970s, where he attended Lakehead University and Queen's University. His masters thesis was on the American poet, Sylvia Plath.

Featured in over 60 literary magazines, and anthologized in approximately 20 volumes in 7 countries, he is the author of approximately 17 books. He was the Poet Laureate of Ottawa from 1984-1987. Cyril Dabydeen has received many literary awards, some of which are:

Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence (Guyana Council of Canada)
Sandbach Parker Gold Medal
A.J. Seymour Lyric Poetry
Archibald Lampman Poetry Prize (four-time finalist)
Ottawa Book Award (finalist)
Okanagan Fiction Prize (twice)

Cyril Dabydeen's poetry titles include:

Poems in Recession
Unanimous Night
Uncharted Heart
Imaginary Origins: New and Selected Poems
Hemisphere of Love
Discussing Columbus
Stoning the Wind
Born in Amazonia
Coastland: New and Selected Poems

I hope to share so much more on the works of this talented Guyanese poet. As usual, I invite you to share your thoughts on either our poet of the month, any other featured poet, or Caribbean poetry in general.