I Can See Clearly Now

One year after Katrina and while we are going through Ernesto, I look back on this poem that I livicated to Kalamu ya Salaam. I remain optimistic about New Orleans despite the ongoing tragedy. But as the poet Joy Harjo has said, "The sun is a mentor.It has taught me that tomorrow will come, no matter what. No matter failure, no matter clouds, no matter sorrow, no matter slaughter, no matter, or happiness. And each sun is differently received in turn by us, as we carry on our celebrations of living and dying. Yet the sun remains quintessentially the same, a shining star, a dynamic power, ushering our journey from one breath to another, one drama to the next.”

It was this belief that has sustained me through the years--like the turbulent one during which I wrote the collection, hurricane center, which in times like this give me comfort.

Dancing with Katrina

For Kalamu ya Salaam

Paddling through New Orleans,
past a shotgun house up to its threshold

in brine, a dog, paws folded, waits
on the roof of his owner’s drowned

home, and stares across the river

at splintered houses in the shade

of pines, swaying in the wind

that keeled those sailboats

in the bay, leaning on each other

like partygoers after Mardi Gras,

when music filled the streets

like the laughter of those Creole

ladies, bright as Louis Armstrong’s horn

that gave birth to this city,

dredged in the blues,

that hour by hour,

rises from her despair,

and puts on her favorite torn stockings,

so when the waters go, as they will,

she will be ready to work

as she has always worked

with style, she will be ready to live

as she has always lived

with love, so she’ll be ready

to welcome all of God’s wayward

children into her arms again,

and dance with her stilettos in the mud.

September 10, 2005

Livicated to Kalamu ya Salaam, who despite the hurricane and his own losses, continues to inspire and lead.

Blessings,
Geoffrey Philp

"Overcome the devils with a thing called love.” Bob Marley

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Writing
Caribbean writers
Jamaican writers
Jamaica
Miami
hurricane
Hurricane Ernesto
Hurricane Katrina
Poetry