Duppy Conqueror
New and Selected Poems
By Kwame Dawes
Edited by Matthew Shenoda
It’s no surprise that the author of the best book on Bob Marley’s lyrics is also a great poet. Dawes’s verse has an expressive power and lyric resonance that can be attributed to a trans-Atlantic consciousness weaned on the spiritual sources of reggae. Over several decades, the Ghanaian-born, Jamaican-raised poet, educator, editor, novelist and playwright (who now lives in America and has strong ties to Britain) has written some 16 books of poetry. This collection, named for a Marley song, gathers Dawes’s best work and represents his most substantial publication to date in the United States.
In “Shook Foil” — a cheeky, witty response to the Gerard Manley Hopkins poem “God’s Grandeur” — a man walking along Kingston Harbor, “drunk with the slow mugginess / of a reggae bassline, finding its melody / in the mellow of the soft earth’s breath,” finds grace in the “silver innards of discarded / cigarette boxes” he stumbles across. It is emblematic of Dawes’s literary and cultural reach. Whether writing about Jamaican AIDS patients or Jim Crow segregation, he summons a strong sense of righteousness and a stark social awareness.
He also revels in the indissoluble properties of song, as in a sonnet narrated in the voice of Frederick Douglass:
I can tell the spirits rising
are old as dirt, old as my skin, and my heart
swells to know that these white folks
will see how we have come so far,
how we can call on ghosts to choke
the beasts that held us back so long.— Major Jackson, NYTimes
http://www.amazon.com/Duppy-Conqueror-New-Selected-Poems/dp/1556594232/ref=nosim/?tag=chickenajourn-20
Duppy Conqueror
Lyrics By Bob Marley
Yes me friend, me friend
We deh 'pon street again
yes me friend, me good friend
Dem SET ME free again
the bars could not hold me
force could not control me
they tried to keep me down
but Jah put I around
yes I've been accused, many times
and wrongly abused now
but through the powers of the Most-I
they've got to turn me loose
dont try to COLD ME UP on this bridge now
I' ve got to reach Mt. Zion
so if you a BULLBUCKA, let me tell you this
i'm a duppy conqueror, conqueror
yes me friend, me good frend
we deh'pon street again
yes me friend me good friend
dem say we free again
dont try to COLD ME UP on this bridge now
ive got to reach Mt. Zion
so if you a BULLBUCKA, let me tell you this
i'm a duppy conqueror, conqueror
yes me friend
dem say we free again
yes me friend
dem set deh street again
CORRECT LYRICS:
Yes me friend,
We de a street again
yes me friend, me good friend
Dem say we're free again
the bars could not hold me
force could not control me, now
they tried to keep me down
but Jah put I around
yes I've been accused, many a times
and wrongly abused now
but through the powers of the most-high
they've got to turn me loose
dont try to COLD ME UP on this bridge now
I' ve got to reach Mt. Zion, the highest region
so if you're a bull-bucker, let me tell you this
i'm a duppy conqueror, conqueror
yes me friend, me good friend
we de a street again
yes me friend me good friend
dem say we're free again
dont try to COLD ME UP on this bridge now
ive got to reach Mt. Zion - the highest region
so if you a bull-bucker, let me tell you this
i'm a duppy conqueror, conqueror
yes me friend
dem say we free again
yes me friend
dem set de a street again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnBcFZZowAI
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