Caribbean Peace Poetry from Year of The Poet (Vol 51)

Featured in The Year of the Poet March, 2018 Volume 51.

Linguistic Conquest

Before Spanish
Caribbean mother’s sang to their babies
angry merchants shouted
lovers whispered
tribesman negotiated in so many
different now forgotten languages
obscured by the words rolling off
the tongues of
Spanish conquistadors
English sailors
French traders and Dutch merchants

Spanish now voiced by the most
on the largest
Cuba and Dominican Republic
where men and women discuss Paz

Peace in English the state language of many
Antigua, Bahamas,
Barbados, British Virgin Islands,
Cayman Islands, Dominica,
Jamaica and all the Saints,
sharing Puerto Rico with Spanish

On the compass points peace in European
languages standing strong in the Caribbean
Spanish pas to the West and Central
English peace to the North and East
French paix sharing the East and Central
Dutch vrede to the South

Mother’s chant paix to their babies in Haiti,
Martinique, Guadeloupe, and St. Martin.

Vrede in Dutch full of good intentions in
Curacao, St Maarten and tiny islands

Indigenous languages buried deep
some pushing up expanding
a few lay dying
several birthing a new
creole gumbo

Caribbean hawk soaring for peace with Kimberly Burnham, poet. Photo by Sam Bark on Unsplash

Creole

Caribbean dialects blend
European English, Spanish, French, Dutch
and African languages

Pas is peace in Papiamento,
creole of Dutch Aruba
trankilo or pasífiko is peaceful
deskanso is peacefulness
more reminiscent of Spanish than Dutch

While vrede in Negerhollands’
Dutch-based creole
once spoken in U.S. Virgin Islands
satta in Jamaican gumbo

Lapè in Haitian kreyol
pé in the Creole
vocalized in Guadeloupe and Martinique
400,000 people say French paix in merge languages
Panama, Belize, Nicaragua, Caribbean

Peace sings up through
layers of land
shifting sands of communities

Peaceable Vowels

Apunno is Ainu peace
indigenous peoples of Japan

Erray in Olkola a native
language of Australia

Iri’ni is Greek
peace on lush European islands

Olakamigenoka say the Abenaqui
speakers local to the United States

Uxolo click the Xhosa people
in South Africa and Botswana

Peaceful words spoken on all
the continents of the world

The Year of the Poet Volume 49 January 2018, Inner Child Press, Poetry Posse, Kimberly Burnham, Caribbean Peace.

Originally published in The Year of The Poet (Vol 51) at http://www.innerchildpress.com/the-year-of-the-poet.php on March 1, 2018.