Rosemary Palmeira
Rhythm of the Saints
(Paul Simon, Lisbon 1991)
Looking
always small and boyish
alone, even in his own crowd
his voice soft and sonorous
with intense sadness, such a voice
as brings back all our alien adolescence
with a powerful gulp.
Incongruous then, how
he has surrounded himself with rhythm
and lit his stage with electric green,
magenta, royal blue, crimson lake
the colours of hummingbirds, the beat
of mountain, jungle and savannah.
For his melancholy he has sought
out native exuberance, a strong spirit
a poignance, a pressed-out ecstasy
the rhythms of the slaves;
the rhythms of suffering;
the rhythms of the saints.
With punching trumpet and sax
with the many-tongued guitars
and a five-man delirium of drums
they turn the body liquid, amphibious
double-jointed, whipped up
into irresistable dance.
From the torn heart of Soweto
agile guitar riffs triumph
while the Amazonian rainforest
hums rich animal sounds, waves of trees
and the plaintive quena flute
spirals an amazing electric blue.
So I also, fight against
my lamenting spirit
and soul-sadness
out of thin air
evoke solicitous angels
seize on wings to fly with
Call upon powers to shatter bonds
defy slavery, storm strongholds
and gather the voices of seers and saints
to chorus a shout of joy
a catharsis, a crescendo
a resounding splash into the dark well!
Page(s) 135-136
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The