By Mel Cooke, Freelance WriterWESTERN BUREAU:
'SPOKEN' AT ICOWAL Texaco, intersection of Mountain View Avenue and Old Hope Road, moved easily from the 'o' of Sajoya to the sensuality of Dawn McGregor on Friday night.
Before the ladies hit the 'p' (as in poetry) spot, though, Roy Thomas began the guest performances with the insight of an experienced man. Snow examined the nature of the wintry substance ("deceptively pure/like well-dressed churchgoers") and how the myth of its purity is exposed when it is being cleared away. "How could something so seemingly beautiful/be mucky to the core?" Thomas asked.
"When we Jamaicans travel, one of the first things we notice is there is no noise," Thomas introduced Quiet. He went on to rhyme the missing noises, including "no crying copulating cats", concluding "know what/I might as well be dead".
He ended with his only patois piece, Jamaican Food, which covered from ganja tea to Tastee patties, concluding "an a nuff more wicked taste inna fi wi lan."
NATURAL THEME
Ganja gave encouragement to all those who today cry/but tomorrow sing song. He moved to a natural theme, asking "why are you killing my Earth?"
Nick Hem employed his frenetic performance style in expressing a dream of a "new Jamaica/where we can get a job", naming and giving peaceful advice to several violence stricken communities.
One of his favourite pieces turned out to be about people who get rich overseas, send no money home and get "dip without a grip". He ended by addressing the gay campaign against Jamaican music, torching closet homosexuals with "how can you say yu a gallis an pimp/when dem man deh have yu a walk an a limp".
Princess Love utilised her poetry in recording current events, doing Gunshot Inna Church about a killing in Papine, riding a reggae rhythm vocally as well as with her dancing, as she said Evangelis' Brown/she get gun down. Princess Love also performed Beautiful Jamaica on Marley's One Drop rhythm.
Sajoya stepped to the microphone to do two love poems. Her voice went husky and her narrowed eyes covered the room as she dropped lyrics that had especially the men steamed up. "We love/to make love/in Jamaica/when the air is fresh/atop a mountain crest," Sajoya said, one enthusiastic man shouting "Yes, we do!" to the amusement of the full house.
The poetic temperature got even higher when Sajoya did O, pointing out that o is a very important letter in the alphabet/not only is it the beginning of orgasm/but a poet without an o is just a pet.
The audience loved it, settling in for a rhythmic listing of the words that would not exist without 'o'.
After doing a poem about listening to the bad news on the radio and deciding to go back to bed, as well as seeking a date with this little Miss/Justice, Duane Francis continued the steamy trend with a lyrical ode to the woman of his dreams. "For you I would backstroke across the crocodile infested Nile," he said, in expressing the level of his desire, ending with a chuckle.
Francis fulfilled requests for a poem about selling items for roadblocks, the audience chuckling as he said yu can get name bran cyar shell/an wid de right money yu can get armoured cyar as well.
The other request was for the humorous, tongue in cheek Bicycle which, the more I pumped the more she squeaked/up the mountainside to the peak.
GASPS OF PLEASURE
There was a bemused silence, punctuated by gasps of pleasure, as Dawn McGregor read The Glimpse, her measured tones rolling out the sensuous words. My mind was a wishing well/in need of coins, she said, continuing that I needed to see you/to feel young once more. "One glimpse was all I needed/one glimpse was all I wanted," she said, ending and releasing the bewitched to applaud enthusiastically.
Flicker was done to appropriate music, Dawn McGregor tracing the progression of arousal.
It was not only the pleasurable side of romance from her, however, as Love Amputation examined the healing after separation after disappointment. I followed my rainbow/to find my pot of gold/to find someone else holding the pot/now I must seek another rainbow/another pot of gold.
An encore was demanded and Dawn McGregor gave a Taste.
