The first time someone wrote a poem to me was when the very famous poet, Bob Hicok, then Visiting Prof. at WMU read a poem hed just written in celebration of me as a woman survivor of war, dont know if he ever published that, but I was so surprised and honored. Since then, fellow women poets have celebrated me with poems, and how I am always honored and shocked each time. Today, for my celebration of International Womens Day, I am shamelessly posting a poem written to me by my friend, African poet, author, and scholar, Tsitsi Ella Jaji, Assistant Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, one of the new African women poets, originally from Zimbabwe, Southern Africa, whose reading with the Africa Poetry Book Project I attended at AWP. Im such a blessed woman, despite the many difficulties I have seen in my life. I want to celebrate all women, including Tsitsi, whose poetry melts my heart. I always feel I dont deserve such honor. Enjoy the poem, Praise Song for Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, a truly beautiful African poem with all its language and nuances. I wept so hard on Monday morning when I opened it, I literally had crying hiccups. __________________________________________________________ Praise Song for Patricia Jabbeh Wesley By Tsitsi Ella Jaji, Oyehe heeeeeeeh. Motherpoet! Your fatha’ taught you to be bold. If something is true, keep doing it. Ah, you, Doctor Patricia Jabbeh Wesley! You are the mother of four children. Mama Wesley, you have raised four black human beings in this thicket called America. You, Grebo woman. You have done well. You have raised four human beings in this thicket of words and wordless slights. Ah, who can say you are timid? Who can say you do not know how to throw your voice into the air? And who would have pushed that air aside, if not for you? Who has come to the door asking for Liberian womanspeak poetry? Hehnnnn, they want to know, who is listening-o? Ayi! Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, we are standing on your shadow. Forgive us, mother. We have crowed among our johnny-come-latelies: Maonika? Ndasvika panyika iyi nemakumbo angu, wega. What! We are saying what? That we have arrived? Is it? But who made a shape for us? Aiwa, tiri tese! Who made herself into a micro-tressed MamiWata And blocked the view to the T.V. with her hands splayed at her hips? Who put a pepper pot down hard, there, in the middle of the table, ready to spar joke for joke: Did you hear the one about the Ibgo, the Yoruba, the Hausa and the mango tree? Aho! But what about the Yoruba, the Hausa, and the Igbo who jumped off the roof? Hehnnn. Ah, you, Patricia. What kind of people tell jokes about those who have died very very hard? But you look death in the eye and it looks down. You look death in the eye and you weep, taking off your eye glasses and looking at us. You look death in the eye, burying your sister’s children, and your teacher’s teachers. You do the woman’s part. You refuse to wail. You make us, even we who are very very small, want to be like you. We want to have your accent. We want to make people work. We want your round husk of a voice. We want to inform people at the other tables that we are not Kriyo… Hehnnn. We want to wear a wool blazer with buttons working hard. We want to wear rectangular glasses with red frames. We want to take off those glasses to weep for joy for Our upstart young sisters. We want to hehnnn like that. We want to dent the table of conversation with the Struggle that is us. It is not easy-o. Four books of poetry, Four children and an African Husband. Hehnnn. Patricia. You are your fatha’s daughter. We thank him for teaching you to take up space, But we thank you for standing in that space. We thank you for pushing the word no so hard it fell backward. We thank you for squeezing the word man so tight it noticed it was missing two very important letters. We thank you for pushing the point. We are inviting you now. We are saying Mother Patricia, teach us. We are not ready to become big women like that. We are not ready to make sure that our uncles are buried properly. We are not ready to learn how. But watching you, We just did. If something is true, keep doing it.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 16:57:02 +0000