Antiphony. (Poetry).

Antiphony

For Austin Clarke

     Those white-dusted black men who saw gypsum
Choke off roses could not, would not, have known
Teacher-chalked glories of Wordsworth or Yeats,
Or how a boy could kneel before Hopkins,
Chanting him and Herrick (heretic, cleric)
In a sorry, Baptist-beleagured field
All crows and regret, miles and decades late,
A generation or two removed, then
Trumpet an Afro-Chinese Jamaican
Love who had dragged him back to Decembral
Pastures in cursed, backwoods Nova Scotia,
To quoth cavalier love where hogs are hacked.

     How could those men've known the ruinous,
Gorgeous hurt of those epics that refused, spurned,
Their shouts, their salvos of pain and roughjoy?
So I carved to hear Milton hollared out,
Yelled with handelaps and tin spoons played on thighs,
And the brawl of white, murderous gypsum,
Bawled at last in vulgarities bursting
Ruling lines of spellers, wrecking letters,
Bashing grammar into gravel. Why not?

     Our British literature was just dust
A mob of beetles chewing tom-up books
(What it has always - most forcibly-been).
Verse was Peek Frean biscuits and Earl Grey tea.
Shakespeare came down to us as Black Horse beer,
The only good thing Empire ever made.

Dr. George Elliott Clarke (Nova Scotia) is a well known African-Canadian poet, playwright and anthologist, and current Seagram's Visiting Chair at McGill University. He has written several plays, published a number of poetry books and won numerous awards for his writing. In 1998 he received the Portia White Award, one of Nova Scotia's top honors for his contribution to the cultural life of Nova Scotia and the Canadian community; His works have been adapted for radio and stage. George Elliott Clarke is assistant professor of English and Canadian Studies at Duke University. His latest work, Beatrice Chancy (Polestar), will be released this spring.