Geoffrey Philp Says Happy Birthday to Kamau Brathwaite

Jamaican Author Geoffrey Philp greets Bajan poet Edward Kamau Brathwaite on his birthday. Kamau was born in Barbados in 1930, but has lived and taught pretty well everywhere.

Happy Birthday, Kamau.

the streets’ root is in the sea
in the deep
harbours

it is a long way from Guineé

but the gods still have their places
they can walk up out of the sea
into our houses

the street directs them upwards like blind incense
they find their way thru the rusty holes of our shacks’ innocence

From Born to Slow Horses
Copyright © 2005 by Kamau Brathwaite