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Poetry Archive Now Wordview 2022: From “A Suite of 7 for Belizean Artistry”
by Ubaldimir Guerra
This poem pays tribute to the late musician and carrier of the Belize Kriol musical tradition known as Brukdown music. It offers a sense of the instruments and sounds involved in this genre while providing a historical and cultural context to its development as a form of resistance. The performance is accompanied by the musician Alexander Evans who recorded the background music.
Poetry Archive Now Wordview 2022: From “A Suite of 7 for Belizean Artistry”
“Yes, ih gawn, gawn foreva in a promis land”
Mr. Wilfred Peters
The voice of the king of boom
and chime, Mista Peetaz, booms
from the parched throats of his
Kriol ancestor geniuses, who sang
journey songs of booming, becoming,
blasting, rattling coming from dense
forests of logwoods
burning a painful passage of
songs played in the lining of
accordion stomach
a brukdown bubbling in
acid reflux, stirring up
melodies of mahogany cutters
sweating and breaking steel
in their creation of
dangerous
rhythms of ringing dingaling bells,
swinging windbox reeds,
knocking and scratching
donkey jawbones, mallet
booming drum, and chiming
dancing bodies in interior camps
of mahogany forests.
Poem recorded as part of Poetry Archive Now: Wordview 2022. Used by permission of author.
A special thank you to our WordView 2021 poets.
Chair of the Judging Panel, Joelle Taylor, says: "We were thrilled by the range and scope of the poetry and techniques explored throughout the wide submissions. I have said before that to write a poem is an act of resistance but to then perform it as well is a revolution. It takes a bravery to face the page, and a further one to stand by your words. While we’ve all become more used to filming ourselves over the pandemic, all of us were deeply aware of that courage.
Often when on a judging panel we find ourselves faced with impossible decisions. If you can imagine, after sifting, it’s as though a hundred people have crossed the finish line at precisely the same moment but there are only three medals. How do we come to these decisions? Through the objective unpicking of the poems, through our individual passions, through a consideration of narratives, especially those lesser heard. We come to it through uneasy negotiation and through heart, and above all through our shared love and understanding of the possibilities of poetry.
Our honest applause goes to all who submitted, and I hope you can hear it.
Congratulations to those we selected. We hope to see you all again soon."
See the collectionWatch the full Wordview 2022 playlist