Behind the Page: #1

For the first edition of my Behind the Page series, I will discuss my poem, "Saturday Afternoon". You can read it here:

I wrote the poem "Saturday Afternoon" back in 2009. It was first published in the now-defunct online journal First Reads, based in the country of St. Vincent. It and another of my poems, "Morning Glow", appeared there together. Later in 2010, both poems were included in my mixed genre chapbook, "Beyond the Horizon: Journeys in Poetry and Prose".

"Saturday Afternoon" is a nostalgic, slice-of-life poem. It draws on the memories of my youth. Most of us can likely relate to those special moments when everything seems near perfect. In climates that experience four seasons, it's common for these moments to be associated with summer.

Wherever the location, there is a recipe at play, made of special ingredients. Free time, from work and school, a certain relaxed or even lazy vibe. The result is a happy, peaceful time of play and camaraderie. Do you have such memories in mind? I imagine most of us do. I can almost smell the grass and trees, feel the sweet stickiness of fruit on my hands, and hear the music in the air, the laughter.

"Saturday Afternoon" is an attempt to capture that universal feeling. As with many (most?) poems and stories, it appeals to the universal while being set in a particular time and place. In this case, the setting is my childhood neighborhood, a rural Jamaican community. In my mind, it takes place in a spot beside the road, near my house.

In fact, the activities and scenes are a conflation of what might be seen at different times and areas of the community. The spot by my house was a popular gathering spot on weekends. Down the road a bit, beside my primary school, was another such spot where members of the community would gather. There was usually a mish-mash of participants of different ages, but mostly children and young adults. A few of the older folks might stop by, or even join in on games such as dominoes and checkers.

Two of the popular games we played when I was a boy are marbles and spinning gigs. A gig is a top. We made ours from wood, with a nail inserted for the point. A long length of string was used to fling the gig and make it spin.

There were different games we played with marbles and with gigs. The most common with both was to draw a circle in the dirt. Then, depending on the "weapons" of choice, we tried to knock our opponents' marbles or gigs out of the circle. With marbles, we played "for keeps". Any marbles you knocked out of the circle were yours to keep if you won. Gigs were more of a commodity, so we didn't play for keeps with those.

The lines:

~~ Beres on the radio.

~~ “A fi mi chune dat!”

Beres refers to a popular Jamaican crooner, Beres Hammond. The exclamation that follows is, essentially, the Jamaican/Patois version of "that's my song!", or as they used to say, "that's my jam!" Below is one of Beres Hammond's hit tunes, if you're not familiar with him.

In the fourth stanza, the girls are skipping rope, which was a very common activity back then. Mostly the girls jumped rope, but sometimes the boys would take a go at it. The "mosquito" song is something along the lines of a nursery rhyme, or silly kids song. There were multiple rope-skipping chants. I also recall we used to play a drum rhythm with our hands along with this little song. With only the palm and fingers of one hand, we would try to outdo each other with the complexity of our beats, but for reasons I don't even know, we played this drumming game to the tune of the mosquito song, "mosquito one, mosquito two, mosquito jump on a hot callaloo". Below is a much more souped-up version of this old rhyming song. The version we used to sing was more simplified, but it's the same basic song.

The final stanza of "Saturday Afternoon" presents a young mother singing quietly to her baby, an old Jamaican folk song. The lyrics quoted in the poem are the chorus of "Long Time Gal". This is an old, well-known folk tune. I don't know when I first heard or learned it, but I do recall singing it in music class when I was a boy.

I'm including here a video of Jamaica's beloved poet, folklorist, playwright, and more; Louise Bennett Coverly. Affectionately known as Miss Lou to generations of children (and adults), she was a powerhouse of a woman who did as much, or more, than anyone in preserving and promoting Jamaica's cultural heritage. In this video, she sings "Long Time Gal".

The chorus, quoted in my poem, refers to a "peel-head John Crow". John Crow is the colloquial name for a turkey vulture. It is the most common type of carrion bird in Jamaica. "Peel head" is "bald head", referring to its bald, red head, reminiscent of a turkey. Thus, the name turkey vulture elsewhere, but in Jamaica it's most often called John Crow.

"Saturday Afternoon" is my homage to all of those times when the vibes were just right and it seemed like the day could last forever. The magical combination of everyday elements that come together to create a unique moment in time is priceless. We all surely have them in our memories and on those days when we're exceptionally lucky, they still visit us from time to time. And all over again, it's like the sun stands still and time stops for that precious, fleeting moment.

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If you want to read the introduction to this series, Beyond the Page, here is the link to that article.