Blooming in Barcelona

Gaudi’s Park Guell is what we dreamed
in our back yard scavenging from the dust
bowl midden near the fence under a dull
green ackee tree. We searched for broken bits
of pottery to use as hopscotch taws
indigo emerald cerulean blue
and now and then the burgundy of dried
blood or salt-pork-and-beans in big tureens
flung by deserted wives their lives
splintering with the porcelain to serve
the simple pleasures of small boys
and giddy girls discerning history
in Delft or rare translucent bits
of chinaware or rude fat colours splotched

to make bright foreign fruit! And Gaudi on
a bare hillside looking out on a sea
the dust as dry the sky as blue
doing just what we did. Create
a medium pour water on the dirt
and mush it into mud then shape a wall
a house a curvy tower with a cross
and stick the shining bits and pieces in.
Raise up a town with paths and avenues
of candy coloured cobblestones as Antoni
of Catalon not long before gathered
his midden scraps to make a park
of mythic beasts what we scrawled in
our book of dirt blooming in Barcelona.

 

 

Reviews of Subversive Sonnets

Bagoo, Andre. “The Show Must Go On”. Caribbean Review of Books. http://caribbeanreviewofbooks.com/crb-archive/reviews/the-show-must-go-on/

Birbalsingh, Frank. Book Review – Mordecai’s ‘subversive sonnets’ rocks the boat. Keeping Alive the Ties that Bind – Indo-Caribbean World. 9 Jan 2013. Indo-Caribbean World. 11 Jan 2014.

Cornish, Chris. “This is my time.” York University – Yfile: York University’s Daily News. 2012. York University. 13 Jan 2014.

Morais, Yasmin. Poets of the Caribbean. Poets of the Caribbean. 24 Sept 2012. 10 Sept 2013.

Philp, Geoffery. – “Pamela Mordecai’s Subversive Sonnets.” geoffreyphilp.blogspot.ca. 12 September 2012.

“Pamela Mordecai’s Subversive Sonnets.” Poefrika. 9 Sept 2012. Poefrika. 10 Sept 2013.

Spinning a Thread: The Sunday Observer (.pdf)

Wall, Emily. “Canyons of Darkness.” Canadian Literature #217. Summer 2013. 6 March 2014.