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Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 426
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 29, 2004 - 04:47 am: | 
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Well...I hadn't planned on debuting my poem for Kathleen Cross yet...but she wrote such a beautiful one for me.
Anyway, I'm such a "different" kind of poet than Kathleen and others here. My works are very "psycho", LOL....and sometimes, as with this poem for Kathleen...require set up.
The poem is called "Angels and Insects". Because those are the two forces that I think about when I think of Kathleen.
The angel of the title is her soul and her essence (I think of her as angelic and sincere)...the insect of the title is the African's constant battle with locusts and the red ant vs. the black ant...in other words..."color" and the way that it has both blessed and cursed all of us, and in Kathleen's case...presents a strange riddle for both her and her African kin.
The poem itself has nothing to do with the above, however.
The poem is about "unconditional" love and Kathleen's special relationship with GOD and humanity.
NOW....here comes the problem.
I can't write ANYTHING unless it comes to me, unforced, in the gravity and weight that it brings with itself. And this poem, came to me from my feelings about my birth mother and what I imagine she felt for me. Therefore, I have to translate just a "few" words from her language before you read the poem.
Caabudwaaq
is the ancient capital city of the Waaq (my mother's tribe)
hara means "body of water" horeesa (is the man)
horooroo means (the stick of the man given to him for marriage)
Siqqee is the stick given to females for marriage and also represents the "solidarity" of all the "Gadaa" (the women's governing body separate from men).
Walargee is the "meeting" that women have for political fellowship in Waaq society.
Whenever the women have finished meeting in Waaq society....they all scream together!! They do this after Weddings, after funerals...after a baby is born. But ONLY the women. They all get together and scream as loud as they can.
muka laaftuu means a "soft woman/virginal"
The poem will be published in my 2006 book of poems "My Dearest and My Dearest of All".
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Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 427
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 29, 2004 - 04:54 am: |
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“Angels and Insects”
A poem for Kathleen Cross
By KOLA BOOF
Sing:
hara horeesa/ horoo-roo
hara horeesa/horoo-roo
hara horeesa/horoo-roo
(the groom is coming for her out of the sea!)
Whisper:
Gather us this last time Aloona (dolphin)
For we promise you a wedding veil made of white pooku violets;
muka laaftuu…and our prayers upon your ivory cheek like kisses
of a mother walking to the gates of rich men.
Stand even barefoot, daughter!
For now that he has dreamt you into being
and your breasts flood with milk and honey
and your lips spill songs of Caabudwaaq
We cannot deny that you are bleeding/Coming to life
Rising from the earth’s core: your twin hungers and
twin rebukes.
Your white porcelain foot, just barely leaving fire…as we
set you to the Sea…the open water…har Siqqee
So that all your mothers may scream together.
We, your mothers who dreamt you into being the first time.
That you will remember the saying of African fathers burying
the dead
or giving daughters in marriage: “Return to me.”
Go now, daughter…and be alive. For us all.
(the mothers cover the daughter’s face with the Veil)
The Daughter Sings:
siqqee Gadaa (I am the bride from the women’s government)
walargee muanu lan abaarsa kavu (no curse shall stop my meetings)
muka Gadaa ofeemu ( I am the daughter of Mighty Women)
© 2004 by Kola Boof
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Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 428
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 29, 2004 - 04:59 am: |
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For those of who've read my books...you know that the DOLPHIN is my very favorite animal and I often use it to represent either me or other women.
In the poem, Kathleen is a Dolphin....who is either dying or being born, but also getting married.
Sorry. I forgot to say that in the other intro.
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Lawchic
Veteran Poster
Username: Lawchic
Post Number: 74
Registered: 10-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 29, 2004 - 08:31 am: |
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Kathleen, Kola:
You are both very talented poetesses. Brava, sisters, brava. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 1962
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 29, 2004 - 01:25 pm: |
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Kola,
Splendid. Absolutely splendid!
Evocative! Inspirational! Alluring! Current…yet Transcendent!
My sister, you are THEE Mistress of Poetesses.
Ladies,
I concur with Lawchic. Kola's and Kathleen's make me feel all squishy inside (But in a straight, NOT gay, way.).
As I suggested before, I think that you should consider writing together. Because your styles and experiences so eloquently compliment each others. Plus, the sight of you 2 luscious women together on your book tours would drive ol’ hounddogs like me and Lambd wild! |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 1745
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 29, 2004 - 03:30 pm: |
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Poets are special beings. |
Kathleen_cross
Regular Poster
Username: Kathleen_cross
Post Number: 46
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 29, 2004 - 05:50 pm: |
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APOLOGIZING IN ADVANCE FOR BEING (for lack of a better word) SAPPY. MEN...YOU MIGHT WANT TO SKIP THIS POST.
I find that there are two kinds of crying we women intimately know...
One ("the forgetting") is LONG and LOUD and it comes from somewhere deep in the abdomen and it is excruciating to cry this way but we do it when we wish to cry out whatever it is in there that is cutting us so deep (and sometimes we can cry it out) and afterwards we sleep.
The other ("the remembering") is shorter and completely silent, but there are WAY MORE TEARS with this second kind of crying. And afterwards we feel a healing in the wounded places and we are better-equipped than before for the DIVINELY ordained role we were granted as women
Kola, I AM REMEMBERING and am needing to wipe dry my face and my keyboard before I will be able to respond to your amazing poem.
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Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 432
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 29, 2004 - 06:10 pm: |
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Thanks ALL.
Kathleen....MY SON pointed out to me that I left the very last line (the most important one)...off the poem when it was transferred.
Please check the last now, I'm so sorry:
************
“Angels and Insects”
A poem for Kathleen Cross
By KOLA BOOF
Sing:
hara horeesa/ horoo-roo
hara horeesa/horoo-roo
hara horeesa/horoo-roo
(the groom is coming for her out of the sea!)
Whisper:
Gather us this last time Aloona (dolphin)
For we promise you a wedding veil made of white pooku violets;
muka laaftuu…and our prayers upon your ivory cheek like kisses
of a mother walking to the gates of rich men.
Stand even barefoot, daughter!
For now that he has dreamt you into being
and your breasts flood with milk and honey
and your lips spill songs of Caabudwaaq
We cannot deny that you are bleeding/Coming to life
Rising from the earth’s core: your twin hungers and
twin rebukes.
Your white porcelain foot, just barely leaving fire…as we
set you to the Sea…the open water…har Siqqee
So that all your mothers may scream together.
We, your mothers who dreamt you into being the first time.
That you will remember the saying of African fathers burying
the dead
or giving daughters in marriage: “Return to me.”
Go now, daughter…and be alive. For us all.
(the mothers cover the daughter’s face with the Veil)
The Daughter Sings:
siqqee Gadaa (I am the bride from the women’s government)
walargee muanu lan abaarsa kavu (no curse shall stop my meetings)
muka Gadaa ofeemu ( I am the daughter of Mighty Women)
mua-mur horeesa lan (I am ready for him)
© 2004 by Kola Boof
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Kathleen_cross
Regular Poster
Username: Kathleen_cross
Post Number: 47
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 29, 2004 - 07:12 pm: |
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I already know beginning this that I don't have sufficient words, Kola... AND I am not being dramatic when I say,
I did not get past the first three lines before my eyes begin dripping uncontrollably. I don't think intellectually I even understood why -- but when I read:
"(the groom is coming for her out of the sea!)"
I covered my face because it was too REAL for my SOUL. Before I continued reading, this thought came to me: "This is your death/birth/wedding."
So, when I read in your next post:
"In the poem, Kathleen is a Dolphin....who is either dying or being born, but also getting married."
That just completely BLEW ME AWAY.
There is so MUCH in every line of this poem...that is SO on target (and it feels as if no one but me can really understand what that means) I have tried to cut and paste and comment on pieces of this, but the effort to do so feels (trifling?) Not sure the word I want here. (insufficient?)
Anyway I know I'm sounding overly dramatic. I am having a moment over here.
siqqee Gadaa
walargee muanu lan abaarsa kavu
muka Gadaa ofeemu !
mua-mur horeesa lan ! |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 436
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 29, 2004 - 07:30 pm: |
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Kathleen, I am so thrilled.
Please email me at kolaboof_email@yahoo.com so that I can arrange to phone you.
You know...when I was writing the poem (days ago it came over me to do it, because you so effortlessly tore into my "bitch fit" towards MOON and it was like hearing a long lost relative call me "Naima" when you did)....but anyway, there was this immediate feeling of my birth mother's spirit and these words: "twin hungers and twin rebukes" (I think I told you back then)....I felt so strongly, the presence of my mother again, from when I was a child. And I thought the poem had something to do with me...but as I continually to process the images that were flowing into me (and it was ALL in her language!!, not Arabic or English)...but anyway, as the poem kept coming to me....it was obvious to me that the poem was being sent to me...FOR YOU.
So I said, "Kathleen, I'm writing a poem about you."
I truly felt this poem "Angels and Insects". And I have known about your "lover man's" death for at least two years. But I really did not set out to write anything that included him...he just kept butting in--and in the Waaq language! So, I said--I guess he demands to preside over both her birth AND her death. So then it came to me, this is a kind of "wedding".
I don't know.
But the poem was ringing so strong in my ears and eyes and lungs for days...burning, Kathleen. It came very easily....and trust me....I HATE my mother's language. It's so hard for me to speak it, much less....SING IT, as the poem kept insisting that I sing it.
I am glad it is done, because it was so forceful like one of those hot flashes my U.S. mother tells me about. It made me feel very FULL.
My oldest son always reads back my work to me the next day...if it sounds right when he's reading it, then I begin to accept it as finished.
I'm so glad that it has meaning for you.
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Lambd
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Lambd
Post Number: 701
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 29, 2004 - 09:04 pm: |
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I wasn't going to read this because Kola gets way too dramatic and longwinded for me, (I feel like I can be honest with her in this way because when I met her she greeted me like she had known me for years and made me comfortable in this way).
I decided to read it anyway and it turned out to be great, Kola. I feel like I have a leg up on some of the other readers because I've read your books and that experience has helped me to understand the meaning of the poem. The birth/death/wedding thing happening all at once, The symbolism of the dolphin...good stuff, Kola. Good stuff. Because I've read your books, I feel like I'm cheating, though. |
Lambd
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Lambd
Post Number: 702
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 29, 2004 - 09:06 pm: |
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So that all your mothers may scream together.
We, your mothers who dreamt you into being the first time
Good stuff, Kola. |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 439
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 29, 2004 - 10:17 pm: |
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Lambd, I love you and you can say anything to me. I'm glad you liked the poem and I'm so grateful that you mentioned my work.
You won't believe how HURT I was when the people at BLACK ISSUES BOOK REVIEW told me how "shocked" they were that I can not only actually write.....but write powerfully and originally. Even with their praiseful words, it hurt---that they had been thinking all this time that I was some kind of "gimmick" or "naked money hungry hack" and not a real artist.
I still don't expect their article about me to be positive--I am so hated and lied on in this business and they have been interviewing many people ABOUT ME, but not interviewing me myself---but at least they can't claim that my work is "minor" or "routine".
And....after today, I guess everyone finally realizes that OSAMA really is still alive as I've been saying for 2 years.
I was shocked to see how terribly he's aged in such a short time.
He was much healthier and younger looking when I knew him.
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 1978
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 05:06 am: |
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Kola,
Your poems are always so sensual, seductive.
They are all like this strange but beautiful woman that a man might accidentally meet, who smiles at him, then coyly walks away.
And he'll follow her around, even though he may not know anything about her.
Not her background. Not know her language. Maybe not even her name.
Still. There's something about her strangeness that is as familiar as his mother's bosom. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 1979
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 05:10 am: |
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Kola,
I think I heard that bin Laden has kidney disease and requires dialysis treatments. That might explain the apparent deterioration of his health...and hiding out from the US-lead coalitions forces can't be of much benefit to his health either. |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 451
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 06:33 am: |
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I feel very sad for Osama.
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Lambd
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Lambd
Post Number: 706
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 03:09 pm: |
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Fuk Osama, Shorty!
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Lambd
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Lambd
Post Number: 707
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 03:10 pm: |
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Ol' Samman can kissie me assie! |
Lambd
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Lambd
Post Number: 708
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 03:11 pm: |
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Oh! They will find his murderin' ass! And when they do... |
Lambd
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Lambd
Post Number: 709
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 03:14 pm: |
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Sorry, KB! For some reason, I can only think of two people that I want to watch die:
1)Ol' Sammy B.
2) R. Kelly |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 1752
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 04:14 pm: |
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I read the translation of Osama's speech to the America People and damned if it didn't make sense if, like me, you're against Israel's occupation of Palestine. Osama's message will undoubtedly contribute to Bush's re-election because ol tough-talking "I may be wrong, but I'm strong" Bush will sway a lot of scared shitless undecided voters. It's interesting that, according to foreign policy "experts," the face of Bush unites the Arab world and has the effect of a recruiting poster for insurgents whose hate for Bush has brought about alliances. What a freakin mess. Stop the world! I wanna get off! |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 457
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 04:28 pm: |
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Lambd, I just found out that I will be in Wash. D.C. the 2nd week in December. I'm going to "SING", daddy.
So we will get to see each other.
AND...the article "about" ME that I was so worried about in Black Issues Book Review has been "cancelled", they claim. At least for now.
**Smile**
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Lambd
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Lambd
Post Number: 713
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 05:18 pm: |
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Good for you, Kola. I will be there to hear you sing. Not only will I be there, I will assist you in hitting all of your high notes...Hehehe! |
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