North From Yaounde
Jim Beschta
Adastra Press 2010
ISBN: 978-0-9822495-6-7
$18.00
"…through the shrinking mimosa."
North From Yaounde is substantial in its collection of gathered poems,
by the skilled poet, Jim Beschta. His ten poems are hand sewn on 14 pages,
with small illustrations on a few of the pages, including the cover, from
Cameroon folk art. This handcrafted book is a pleasure to behold
as well as mindful. I recommend buying a few for friends,
it is the perfect gift.
The poem's experiences are considered and gentle in that their insights
give us a sense of place and people, "to the boom and chatter of drums
from Bikil…" Once we have read the poems we then travel back into
their lucid appeal and find the metaphors rolling throughout:
Night Travel
"Thieves," Issa spit
into the West African night
toward a solitary light,
some erratic bobbing
alongside the isolated road.
"Thieves," his disdain of bandits
and scorn for lean gendarmes
as strained as his grip
on the wheel,
as suspicious as Maroua
uncertain in the distance.]
Although he claims brothers
as far north as Garoua
and spoke the Fulfuldi
of markets and artisanats,
even though he waved
to stock boys herding cattle
and stopped to pray
when required,
in the pitch of night
he grumbled, "Thieves."
In this dark land
where no ambulance arrives
after an accident,
where people slide
into the night
for beer and sex,
even conversation,
Issa fled the small light
fading in the rearview,
skeptical of anything
but intimate darkness."
irene koronas
poetry editor:
Wilderness House Literary Review
www.whlreview.com
http://artamust.blogspot.com
xperimagazine@gmail.com
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