By Roi Guanapo Ankhkara Kwabena
Ten fifteen, blazing sun
morning recess, we rush
Ali's aloo pies, seasoned
stuffed with curry channa an' mango.
Tastes peppery...burning nice
watering eyes...runnin' nose.
Sweaty palms clutching the brown paper
seething with tambrind sauce.
Nothing could touch a race to
Miss Carmen's tambrind balls.
Smiley an' Mohan
shoving for her paw-paw balls
big sweet green flesh
over glazed with sugar.
Her toothless grin cautioning
about peppery red mango
too much pushing...one at a time
too much dinner mints
one more cent for rainbow plum.
A tanka-bean or two
escapes the worn but sturdy wooden tray.
Cut-up green pomesette' captive
in a recycled small mouth big bottle
with salty peppered water,
where thin slices of cucumber
jostle with edges of congo pepper
ten twenty
nuff time
before bell
to play rescue
© Copyright 2005 – Roi Kwabena
Reprinted with kind permission of the author.
Source: As long as /by Roi Kwabena, 2005.
Purchase this book Latest book
Online video of a recent commission About the poet
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Recess
Sweet T&T [Song]
Uploaded by mistermayaro
Performed by Natasha Wilson
Sweet T&T, is my country
Every creed and race, have an equal place
We shall overcome one day[one day, I say]
All this misery and pain [pain and strain]
We have to unite, to stand up and fight
And we’ll get things right, one day.
Chorus:
Sweet T&T, is my country
I want you to know that I love you
Every creed and race, have an equal place
So let’s work together to make life better.
I’m a Tringonian, through and through [You know that too]
And I’m proud to say, I love you [You know that I do]
Trinidad is nice, could be a paradise
Because she was made by the Almighty.
Chorus:
Sweet T&T, is my country
I want you to know that I love you
Every creed and race, have an equal place
So let’s work together to make life sweeter.
We got to protect the children [of this nation]
From all the vultures and evil-doers [You know them ----- drug pushers]
----- it is all around
Now we got to fight to make things right to save the children.
Chorus:
Sweet T&T, is my country
I want you to know that I love you
Every creed and race, have an equal place
So let’s work together to make life stronger.
We got to stand up in this world [to make it better]
We got to fight hard to survive
Survive we must, to stay alive
Corruption is rife here in Trinidad
But we shall overcome it one day.
Chorus:
Sweet T&T, is my country
I want you to know that I love you
Every creed and race, have an equal place
So let’s work together to make life better.
Sweet T&T, is my country
Every creed and race, have an equal place
Sweet T&T….
..............................................................................................................................
"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.
Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.
Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare
Calypso Blues
Performed by Joe Bourne with Drummer Cleve Huff
Also performed by Don George and Nathaniel “Nat King” Cole
Wa-oo-oo, wa-oo-oo,
Wa-oo wa-oo wa-oo wa-ay...
Wa-oo-oo, wa-oo-oo,
Wa-oo wa-oo wa-oo wa-ay...
Sittin' by de ocean
Me heart, she feel so sad,
Sittin' by de ocean,
Me heart, she feel so sad...
Don't got de money
To take me back to Trinidad.
Fine calypso woman,
She cook me shrimp and rice,
Fine calypso woman,
She cook me shrimp and rice...
Dese yankee hot dogs
Don't treat me stomach very nice.
In Trinidad, one dollar buy
Papaya juice, banana pie,
Six coconut, one female goat,
An' plenty fish to fill de boat.
One bushel bread, one barrel wine,
An' all de town, she come to dine.
But here is bad, one dollar buy
Cup of coffee, ham on rye.
Me throat she sick from necktie,
Me feet hurt from shoes.
Me pocket full of empty,
I got Calypso blues.
Dese yankee girl give me big scare,
Is black de root, is blonde de hair.
Her eyelash false, her face is paint,
And pads are where de girl she ain't!
She jitterbug when she should waltz,
I even think her name is false.
But calypso girl is good a lot,
Is what you see, is what she got.
Sittin' by de ocean
Me heart, she feel so sad,
Sittin' by de ocean,
Me heart, she feel so sad...
Don't got de money
To take me back to Trinidad.
Wa-oo-oo, wa-oo-oo,
Wa-oo wa-oo wa-oo wa-ay...
Wa-oo-oo, wa-oo-oo,
Wa-oo wa-oo wa-oo wa-ay...
Source: Lyrics Download
The Attempt As Good As The Act [Song]
Uploaded by TheSocaMann
THE ATTEMPT AS GOOD AS THE ACT
By The Mighty Sparrow
I have a lazy partner name Ned
I don't know why the man ent go dead
I have a lazy partner name Ned
I don't know why the scamp wouldn’t dead
Like if he tie he two hands on top a shelf
He wouldn’t make an effort to help himself
If you would listen attentively
You go hear what the vagabond do to me
“Sparrow, Sparrow!” he start shouting
“Come quick!” I say, "Well, something happening."
You know the criminal stay by he WC
And bawling, “Bring a piece of gazette paper for me.”
Well, it have some others in Port of Spain
Who intend to live only by their brain
These kind of people don't work nowhere
And you could catch them in the court house everyday
This the case of a fellow they calling King
He made an attempt to steal a diamond ring
They charge him fifty dollars, telling him he slack
“The attempt is just as good as the act.”
So he made an attempt to pay the clerk
And then pull back his hand in a jerk
“If the attempt is as good as the act,” he say,
“All yuh could keep the attempt, I go keep the pay!”
Now as smart shopkeeper named Mister Farrell
Had some saltfish inside a barrel
He say when it soak with a lot of water
For two weeks, it bound to weigh heavier
But to take it out, Farrell clean forgotten
The saltfish stay there and start to rotten
The man watch the barrel and start to cry
And decide he going to put the saltfish to dry
Now an old blind man came up crawling
Stand up right where the saltfish was drying
When he smell the fish, you know he start to sneeze…
“Good evening, ladies!”
Well this is the one that make me bawl
Imagine I laugh till I nearly fall
Two big men had an argument
In the middle of town on a pavement
It happen that they argue for the whole night
In the morning early they start to fight
Police come and push them in the van
You know they still want to fight in the station
One telling the other, “You too stupid.”
The next one say, “All right, wait a minute.
If you smart, bend down and touch your toe
And as I stupid, you go know where barley grow.”
A Note From The Gull
Thank you, Mighty Sparrow!
"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.
Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.
Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare
One Family [Song]
Uploaded by cool4rocknroll
ONE FAMILY
By Lord Nelson
Family!
Mama tell me since a baby
Doh pass people just so when you in Tobago
Doh play proudy, tell dem howdy
Ah say, What’s the reason Mammy?
Is then she tell me.
She say,
All ah we is one family, all ah we is one family
All ah we is one family, all ah we is one family
Hold tight --------------------
Jam tight, rock tight, ------------------
You cyah doubt me, facts is history
Old time people will know how we come to be so
Bound together, one another
Nothing could separate we from since in slavery
They saying,
All ah we is one family, all ah we is one family
All ah we is one family, all ah we is one family
-------- jam so --------------
--------------------------------
When he building, or she planting
Everybody helping, no money ent passing
Is tradition on the island
No where else that I know is like sweet Tobago.
They saying,
All ah we is one family [Is true!], all ah we is one family [Dou dou!]
All ah we is one family, all ah we is one family
Roll and tumble -----------------------
-------------------------------------------
When we working or we loving
Is so the whole day long
Going from dusk to dawn
Rubbing shoulder all together
Poopa, gangan, tanty, macomere, pickney
Dey saying,
All ah we is one family, all ah we is one family [Eh, eh, eh, eh, family!],
All ah we is one family [Family!], all ah we is one family
………
Source: The lyrics posted on this blog are often transcribed directly from performances. Although it is my intention to faithfully transcribe I do not get all the words and I have a knack for hearing the wrong thing. Please feel free to correct me or to fill in the words that I miss by dropping me a message via e-mail. I'd be forever grateful. Thanks in advance!
..............................................................................................................................
A Note From The Gull
Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.
Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare
Index Of A Nation [Song]
INDEX OF A NATION
Lord Shorty (1969)
Trinidad is not a very large island as anyone can see
But possesses many towns and suburban villages
That makes it a great country
For most though very small, each in its own way
Makes sufficient contribution
In produce, culture, work and entertainment
Towards the upkeep of the nation.
Chorus:
For instance Maracas and Las Cuevas
Both have beaches of class which helps attract the tourist trade
And from San Juan to Arima fast factories where products are made
We have in St Augustine the Gov't farm and our big University
While liquor and margarine, grapefruit juice
And Cookeen is processed at Laventille
Trinidad is also called the land of calypso and limbo dancing
But our defense comes first so we look to Tetron Bay
For knowledge in soldering
St Ann's have the mad house, Belmont the Orphanage
also a quantity of mangoes
While Lavantille has the pan beating skill
Of the sweet Gay Desperadoes
Chorus:
From Sangre Grande villages up to Toco
Gives Citrus, Corn and Cocoa
Livestock from Manzanilla, coconuts from up Mayaro
Although Biche produce Mano it can also be seen
they produce we largest Dasheen
And Piarco has our planes and most of our cane
Comes from Usine and Mc Bean.
In the South of Trinidad Savonetta has the Chemical Plant
And Claxton Bay has our only Cement factory
Which makes there most important Oil from Point-a-Pierre,
San Fernando Jayland Fair
And my friends presently,
For local hunting ground the best are to be found in
South East Guayaguayare
Chorus:
La Brea has the Pitch Lake
Point Fortin A tire factory and for many generations past
The largest fishes catches comes from Cedros and Icacos
Princes Town have plenty liners
Rio Claro best stick fighters and up in Moruga
You get ..... and bush liquor
And ah hear they just start to produce marijuana
Our population which is Cosmopolitan
With Chinese, Negroes, Whites and Indians
The latter of which lives at Penal
Where you get most bodi and water melon
Plenty shooting Barrackpore, Siparia folklore
While Palo Seco contains BP
And Fyzabad is such which contributed much to our political history
Chorus:
Port of Spain has our two cathedrals
And is famous for steelband and Carnival
And is the permanent headquarters of the Governor General
So you see this little island with its great contribution,
With Tobago working hand in hand with our present legislation
We bound to develop into a great progressive nation.
Source: Kaiso No 38, September 4, 2000
..............................................................................................................................
"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.
Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.
Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare
Courting New Appeals
By Roi Guanapo Ankhkara Kwabena
Lord Harris's statue
with fountain have escaped
many vicious assaults of vandalism
over recent years. This public square
in Port of Spain with stately trees
still shelter white-collar labourers on lunch break from
the sweltering sun at noon
alongside half naked vagrants
wary of clogged city streets. At night, here
becomes a sacred haven-
discreet for persecuted transvestites. While
obliquely opposite towers
the impregnable stone walls
of the Royal Goal, constructed
early in the last century
by skilled artisans whose
descendants would serve time within
at her majesty's pleasure....
This monumental institution has restrained
common offenders and civil disorder :
water rioters, trade unionists,
black power radicals, military mutineers
an' even Islamic fundamentalists...
Royal Goal remains a treasure
to behold. An imposing vestige
of a now compromised system
that ostentatious political cronies
are attempting to dismantle.
Behind these walls
faceless men, in white short trousers
with matching vests
sit precariously on Death Row
as their defense lawyers
seek to defy local verdicts
of state execution
Now in postulated affectation
of self righteous apathy
democratically elected
British trained legal advocates-once
defense lawyers to the highest bidders
now as regional Attorney Generals
assert it is time to abolish
a convicted man's right of appeal
to the Privy Council....
none of these licit opportunists
cloaked in the rainment
of tempered tradition
considered challenging
this patriarchal eighteenth century
method of castigation....
.....despite
the mature judgement
of the same Privy Council condemning
the barbaric tenure of incarceration
with cerebral trauma
of impending strangulation....
© Copyright 1997 – Roi Kwabena
Reprinted with kind permission of the author.
Source: A job for the hangman /by Roi Kwabena. Port of Spain;Birmingham: Raka Publications, 1997.
Purchase this book | Latest book
Online video of a recent commission | About the poet
VIEW ALL WORKS SUBMITTED BY THIS AUTHOR.
New Portrait of Trinidad [Song]
Uploaded by grjoseph
NEW PORTRAIT OF TRINIDAD
By Black Stalin (1972)
Now, people clap their hand, people felt so glad
When Sniper paint the Portrait of Trinidad
But look around today, your eyes may get sore
What Sniper said we have, it down here no more
When a man say we not what we used to be
Doh care how much it hurt, but one must agree
From 1965 to now we are no more great
Our country has vastly deteriorate.
No more are our students ranked among the best
No more are our scholars passing every test
But dropping out from school every day in this island
No money to continue their education
Our Pitch Lake is the greatest the world has seen
Yet roads here are the worst in the Caribbean
So don't bow down yuh head, brother, don't feel sad
I'm only painting a new portrait of Trinidad.
Regardless of of your colour, your class or race
Long ago down here you must find an equal place
We had our crime and our delinquent problem
But like any other country that we had then
Those days when on we people run dey mouth
Sniper ask them wey the hell dat they talking 'bout
But nowadays when they talk we can't say they lie
Our delinquent and crime problem has gone sky high
Every day you pick up your newspaper
You could read they hold some youth for marijuana
Shooting and tiefing is really disgusting
That I shame to admit that this thing happening
With revolution and race talk my country is filled
Today I live under a Sedition Bill
I'm only conscious of my place and not going mad
And painting over the portrait of Trinidad.
Foreigners who return and visit our island
Is shock at our present situation
This same man had invited his wife to come
To see Tobago and drink our local rum
Those were the days when doh care whether big or small
Whether rich or poor, we catered for one and all
But nowadays the thing change up entirely
Is you see about you and I see 'bout me
Now in Tobago them fishermen dying with grief
No more they taking tourist to Buccoo Reef
And if you ask them why, they go tell you flat
Is them big hotel owners controlling that
Even the Scarlet Ibis bird that they had around
On Buccoo Reef they start dying out one by one
I'm only conscious of my place and not going mad
And painting over the portrait of Trinidad.
Extra verse sung in another version:
By Sniper's portrait of this Country
Let your kids know how Trinbago used to be
It is their land too so you let them know
That you want here to come back just like long ago
And if you 'fraid to say, then tell them I say
In this task let no obstacle stand in their way
The struggle may be long, yes, it may be hard
But let's restore the old portrait of Trinidad.
Source: The lyrics posted on this blog are often transcribed directly from performances. Although it is my intention to faithfully transcribe I do not get all the words and I have a knack for hearing the wrong thing. Please feel free to correct me or to fill in the words that I miss by dropping me a message via e-mail. I'd be forever grateful. Thanks in advance!
..............................................................................................................................
"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.
Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.
Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare
I Still Love Trinbago
Dey ask me if I does write poems ‘bout Trinbago
An ah tell dem flat so, No!!
But when none ah dem was lookin’
Ah walk way up de beach
Ah take a stick
An' ah scrape a crooked T&T in de sand
Den a make a big strong heart rong it
Like to hol’ everyting’ together.
Ah sit dong on a piece a driffwood
Wit mih knee proppin’ mih arm proppin’ mih head an' plenty sorrow
Man, yuh doh know, yuh jus doh know...
An' is so ah stick, studyin' dat heart
until de waves start cheupsin
and rub it off de sand wit dey sweaty hands.
Is jealous, dey did jealous mih!
Yuh shoulda see it!
Now is only de cobo an’ dem will know
How much ah still love mih Trinbago.
Posted with kind permission of the author ( who does NOT write poems about Trinbago)
