Cramp The Style: Renhai No. 289

by Gillena Cox (gc) & John Daleiden (jd)

warning motorists
landslides on the North Coast Road—
the lady anchor       /gc

voices drift on the night air       /jd
curfew hours hems us in       /gc

border crossing—
leaving their papers behind
they seek a new life       /jd

in Renhai Studio

Archive Id: 289

Gillena Cox: Trinidad and Tobago
John Daleiden: USA
Written: October, 2011

Theme: Autumn
Season: Spring
Kigo: Landslide (Caribbean)
Verse Form: Free
Process: 2A, 2B; 3, 1

Links 1/2: Lady anchor (voice implied) / Voices. voices drift / curfew hems...in — (human / law); drift / hem (opposite conditions — juxtaposition).

Links 2/3: Voices, us (humans) / Curfew / Border (imposed constraints).

Links 3/1: Border (imposed constraints) / Warning (verbal constraint).

Notes: *Season: Rainy season (Caribbean); Autumn (Cold climates).

Human lives are variously affected by boundaries. In verse 1 the boundary is imposed directly from nature as a result of excessive rain in the Caribbean Rainy Season. Humans are warned about "landslides on the North Coast Road" and the warning is a direct statement showing a need for limited access, obviously for safety reasons. In verse 2a the "voices drift" — implying a relaxed boundary situation, but in verse 2b the boundary of "curfew hours hems" humans in so that they feel limited and the implication is that this boundary is negatively viewed. So Verse 2 offers both a positive and a negative human reaction to the existence of boundaries and is affectively juxtaposed with the concept of "need" for a boundary in verse 1. Similarly, in verse 3, humans "willingly" cross a border (boundary) but leave "their papers behind" — an implication that this is perhaps a surreptitious, secret, unauthorized or clandestine action.

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