Saturday Mornings
We trekked one by one
Up sharp stone paths
Through devil wisp
And serpent valley
Every Saturday morning
To gather fire wood
In the St. Catherine mountains
Every boy, over seven
Climbed the mountains
With machete in hand
Making songs, some so long ago
That they became “Big Boy stories”
That kept us laughing through
Macka juk
For we couldn’t afford
Shoes then.
But that didn’t stop us
From climbing mountain peaks
And ketch Massa Gaad a sleep.
“Saturday Mornings” by Malachi
Photo: Ian Gage
About Malachi
Malachi was a James Michener Fellow at the University of Miami’s Caribbean Writer’s Institute, where he studied poetry under Lorna Goodison and playwriting under Fred D’Aguiar. An alumnus of Florida International University, Miami-Dade College and Jamaica School of Drama, Malachi was one of the founding members of Poets In Unity, a critically acclaimed ensemble that brought dub-poetry to the forefront of reggae music in the late 70s and carried it forward for a decade. Malachi has also performed as an actor, and is an accomplished writer, publishing and performing his own plays and poetry. He has also garnered critical attention for his performances in other theatrical productions and on radio, television, and live theatre.
In 2005, he headlined the International Dub-Poetry Festival in Toronto and he performed at the Love-In Festival in Miami with Richie Heavens and other greats. In 2003, Malachi was a featured performer in Baltimore at that city’s Black History Month tribute to Bob Marley, and at the Manhattan Center in New York. He has also appeared at the prestigious Broward Center of the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He has performed scheduled for the African-Can-Do Festival in Miami on July 26, and also appeared at the Jerk Festival at Markham Park on November 14, 2010. He toured St. Kitts and Nevis in the summer of 2000 to rave reviews.
Malachi has five CD collections to his credit: “Throw Two Punch,” “The Blacker the Berry,” “Middle Passage,” “Luv Dub Fever,” and his latest, “Hail to Jamaica.” He has published one volume of poetry “Black Boy Blue.” Malachi’s poetry has been published in anthologies including: Wheel and Come Again: An Anthology of Reggae Poetry, The Caribbean Writer, The Carrier-Pidgin Journal, and Write in Our Midst. Award winning plays are “Crosses” and “Until Death us do Part.”
For more on Malachi:
www.reggaeconcepts.com dub poetry
***
21 Days/21 Poems: Childhood
1 comment:
21 poems in 21 days, a good introduction to some new poets so far, I look forward to reading more!
Post a Comment