Today something a little different - a poem from the Caribbean.
It depicts a young man, on his horse "Jigharzi", riding into the sea in search of shark.
Read it through (aloud please!) and then refer to my note at the end.
.
HORSE UNDER WATER
jigharzi an me stand in de water
warm an friendly
for de world smell like snails
snoozing on hot charcoal
an jigharzi step wary
as tiger fish skip between his legs
an he makes like he hate de coral
forever
an I slip from his back de knife in me hand
forget de electric blue an glitter of de
rainbow
an wait for shark to come over de reef
as tide liff de water over
an soon de fin come
quiver when it see me but it come
shark he thick between the ears if he
had them I say
an jigharzi he snorting and heading for
land
cos dis fellow mean business
an he say why you wan kill him anyway
an I say is sport man as well as supper
an impress de tourists good an good
mean money
an I say trus me jigharzi
an de fin go out like a light as de brute
turn over
anjigharzi say man dis fellow bes
swimmer in de sea
an de rush of water push me sideways
an de teeth glitter in sunshine that
come through de water
hundreds of teeth iiiichin to bite me
dead
an I liff de knife but move it slow
for everything cep dis killer move slow in de water
but fear drive my hand
an I slash him in de stomach
an de monster done falter ffffalter
in de water
but he turn roun anyways
and come again kinda slow now
an I slash him in de stomach in de same place
de same place
til his womb come out an his gut
for it not a he but a lady
with babies in a bag all ready to do business
but jigharzi he long gone for shore
for de water full of blood
clouds of blood
clouds of froth clouds of gore
but not clouds of joy cos it is lady
Well, did you enjoy that?
The poem won the National Poetry Competition in 1999 and many people assumed that it was written by a Jamaican.
In fact it was by Caroline Carver, a 62-year-old white woman from the Cornish fishing village of Flushing, who had never been published before.
As a child, she was brought up on a remote Caribbean sugar plantation and one day at school a female shark was brought into the science lab for dissection.
She wrote: "When we cut her up, there was this extraordinary womb, still full of amniotic fluid swishing up and down - with three baby sharks in there."
That vivid memory stayed with her, and fifty years later, inspired her poem.
02/12/05 @ 10:51