Sunday, January 8, 2023

You Saw the Ocean (Dedicated to Derek Walcott)

 You Saw the Ocean (Dedicated to Derek Walcott)

 

By John Kaniecki

 

You saw the ocean

Blue, green, white capped waves in motion

You learned stories of the educated

Sons of the slave masters you hated

I have walked barefoot upon Caribbean hot white sands

I have talked to the people of your islands

I know their names and have heard their story

We shared our Love with all our glory

 

Also I am intimate with your time

Where you choose free verse over rhyme

An endless war raged in futility

Your own kinsmen struggled to rise from humility

Crucifying every human emotion

You saw the ocean

 

Where was your cry for justice?

Passionate pleas persuading righteousness

Instead in an alabaster tower

You gazed out the window hour after hour

Life roared crashing on the beach loud as thunder

For you not to hear the oppressed, how I wonder?

A pretty, nice, sentimental notion

You saw the ocean


POET TO THE POOR, REVOLUTIONARY POETRY


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