The Cimmerians
Stumble bitter cold thru darkness
into air thick & warm as cornmeal porridge
Bass line rising
thru blood
binding bone
& sinew
my glasses steam into an opaque mist
blind either way so I take ‘em off
yu haffe
feel yu way
tru dis terrain
dark excitement softly lit by splifflick flares
we chant
‘Non a Jah Jah children a cry’
man an man
hold dem corner
when Klu Klux Klan rode thru the midlands
warm bodies
ebb & flow
lava over bedrock leaving tidemarks
hands reach out
hold on to
waistlines like a drowning man clinging to a life buoy
sister beg yu a dance
so we do
sliding off rhythm’s
not even standing now I’m gliding over stone
hiplinked
synchronisation
for the new generation
feet rooted waist locked
we gravitate toward the spark dive deep into the groove
lose ourselves in the dark
belly to belly
slide in and out
of each other
cos when dis sound plays bodies lose boundaries
dark dancing
in the substratum
of this hemisphere
we loose time itself minutes unravelling until
seconds lapse into infinity
we are the Cimmerians
& we’re rising
over rock & gully
first generation blues
teachers delegating ‘funny’ accents to special schools
when Lee spits
lightening fire
& brimstone
locks flash & flare emanating like solar storms
as we answer
the call
weave a new flow
head wrapped Queens so very far from home
we established
our root
listen Marcus
found our rythmn we’re on the ascension
Yvonne Mc Calla 2009
Comments
The Cimmerians
Hey Yvonne,
As you know, I've known you about 8 years now and I'm definitely a real fan of your work! I'm just sorry I've never ever had the chance to comment on your work in detail before - until now, that is! In my honest opinion, this truly is wonderful! Looking at it in detail, lots of powerful imagery, written with such understated fire and passion, which is typical of your performance style as well. I would love to hear you perform this on stage some time. There are some quite strong Biblical references too which work well. The only thing I would say is that on the page you might (possibly) throw the reader slightly with such an array of images as it does bombard them with a lot in a short space of time and they might struggle to keep up as it is very fast-paced. However, as a performance piece, this is brilliant! Promise me you'll try this out on stage as much as you can to get maximum exposure and this may help you to pace it on the page.
To cut a long story short (cliche alert! ha ha), I love it!
Nadeem
ah sweet sweet a soundtrack
is one thing this blog doesnt supply and i so want to rock to the music of these words. now i google 'Cimmerians' but what is your definition - lost tribe?