JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Monday, June 2, 2025

Quinquagenary a poetic gift to the nation

by

20120902

In ho­n­our of T&T's 50th An­niver­sary of In­de­pen­dence, six of the coun­try's emerg­ing po­ets from the Cir­cle of Po­et T&T re­cent­ly ex­plored the com­po­si­tion of Ekphras­tic-styled com­po­si­tions ref­er­enc­ing promi­nent lo­cal per­son­al­i­ties, artis­tic sculp­tures, paint­ings and flo­ra to high­light how these have helped shape our so­cial and cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty through the last 50 years.

The po­ets were the re­cip­i­ents of in-depth and in­sight­ful tute­lage in the art and style of po­et­ry writ­ing when they at­tend­ed the Quin­qua­ge­nary – Search­ing for the Po­et­ry work­shop from Ju­ly 27 to 29, host­ed by An­son Gon­za­lez, Po­et Lau­re­ate of Port-of-Spain, at his res­i­dence, Sap­phire House, in Diego Mar­tin. The house was oc­cu­pied by Gon­za­lez and his wife, Sylvia, in 1962, mere weeks be­fore the coun­try be­came an in­de­pen­dent na­tion.

Through­out the next 50 years the house was host to dozens of Caribbean artists in­clud­ing Gor­don Rohlehr, K Julie Pearn, Ken­neth Ram­c­hand, Un­dine and Neville Giusep­pi, Je­re­my Poynt­ing, Joseph Cum­mings, Kr­ish­na A. Sama­roo, Ann Walm­s­ley, Earl Lovelace, Michael Als, Vish­nu Go­sine, Mer­le Hodge, Vic­tor D Ques­tel, Tony Kell­man, Frank Bir­bals­ingh, Jan Carew, James T Liv­ingston, Clif­ford Sealy, Fun­so Aiye­ji­na, Lloyd King, Willi Chen, Glenn Roopc­hand, As­tor John­son, Pearl Ein­tou Springer, Ma­ri­na Omowale Maxwell, Pearl D Grif­fith, Ken Par­masad, Mar­guerite Watts, Therese MIlls, Neila Todd, Christo­pher Laird, John Robert Lee and Cyril St Lewis.

Sap­phire House was al­so the home of a mod­est print­ery from which Gon­za­lez print­ed and pub­lished dozens of tomes con­tain­ing the po­ems and writ­ings of sev­er­al sons and daugh­ters of the soil and the wider Caribbean, his own re­flec­tive and rev­o­lu­tion­ary po­ems and his so­cial­ly-im­pact­ing pub­li­ca­tion, The New Voic­es.

Quin­qua­ge­nary-Search­ing for the Po­et­ry of­fers four of the re­flec­tive po­ems that were "forged from the love of lib­er­ty," as a 50th birth­day gift to the cit­i­zens of T&T.

SAP­PHIRE AT FIFTY

(Ded­i­cat­ed to Sap­phire House in Diego Mar­tin)

Con­ceived in the mind of a pi­o­neer­ing pa­tri­arch

Born in an Au­gust time of In­de­pen­dence

Nour­ished on the premise of pro­vid­ing for a na­tion

Sap­phire ar­rived in the midst of much love

Weight­ed by tests to prove her strength

Stretched far be­yond her girl­ish fig­ure

Strained with the move­ments of grow­ing life with­in her

Sap­phire has borne much for love

Host­ess to for­eign bod­ies-and souls

Nur­tur­er of a nest filled with dreams

Provider of peace to weary and bro­ken spir­its

Sap­phire has done much for love

Catch­ment for a stream of ideas and ide­olo­gies

Muse for cre­ative in­tent and pur­suits

Lis­ten­er to New Voic­es with mes­sages of hope

Sap­phire has en­cour­aged much love

Stand­ing at the gate­way to her gold­en years

Sus­pend­ed in a time of tran­si­tion

Sap­phire stands with grat­i­tude for her role in a na­tion's his­to­ry

Se­cure that her fu­ture will be full of much love.

Char­maine Dais­ley


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored