Skip to main content

The written word intimidates…

 The written word intimidates the hell out of me and I’ve studied post-graduate poetics. What must it be like for people who’ve dropped out of school and get put in a position where they must write for their lives. Like an appeal for release from prison. Or a protection visa application in another language, the language of the privileged. Oh Mediterranean! Oh Indo-Pacific!...

What must it be like to write for a living, no matter whether one believes in what one writes? People have to stay in the public eye and so inflate and conflate and conflagrate or else not get paid /as much. The written word is owned by the pros. Those who write with expertise in persuasion, not with heart and soul (and THEIR lives at stake).

“I don’t like English,” is what Peter Tosh, the Wailer who taught Bob Marley how to play guitar, said, “because it make my tongue all complicated,… I can feel something else trying to come out.”

At times I like English, certain words.

But the spoken word over the written word.

I prefer the oral-aural.

Not the written, the lawyer’s language.

I like the language of the bard, the travelling griot, the songman. Carriers of culture. The same language that holds one’s mother tongue and the language of love making, the cry in the night, the wise counsel, the many sided conversation and the celebration...

 

©Malachi Doyle 2022.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In a very unorthodox way

  In a very unorthodox way # (For Max Sometimes) In a very unorthodox way, I’m an Irish Catholic. Of course, in terms of Belfast politics that MEANS something. & while that maybe true – in Australia, for different reasons, as Fr Bob Maguire put it – when Mary first saw Jesus walking out of the tomb on day 3 of his death, she exclaimed “JESUS!!!” – the first time his name was used as a swear word. In that way of an irreverent joke, REVERENTIAL & ORTHODOX are not my way to the Sacred/Love*. For me – I’m not really into Theology – as Max Sometimes quoting me, quoting my mate Richard, quoting Bob Marley, quoting Rasta elders, said today “who feels it knows it.” & I believe that if I am to write my Mass/Symphony of Hope/Love, I must include at least one blasphemous hymn, else the vision depicted be simplistic, like George Handel’s Messiah. The Hope/Love represented or perhaps alluded to (if you prefer) must include genuine despair, dejection, transgression else it...
Post a Comment
Read more

Anagram Schizophrenia In a Numbing Society/Oppression

  Anagram Schizophrenia In a Numbing Society/Oppression   This has gotta come off this band aid’s gotta come off. I’m exhausted. After 52 years of struggle. “Bent out of shape by society’s pliers” to borrow from Dylan. Violence in the womb. Violence from birth. Violence in school. Going to live in the place with the highest murder rate in Europe. Living in a flophouse there. Putting out fires. Literally & figuratively. The literal one that saved everyone’s life in that house. 10 people's lives I saved. Being around generally. Being around. Getting to know people at the bottom. Getting to know people on the ‘wrong side’ of the law Getting to know people on the ‘right side’ Who all jammed together. Rival gang members at my house. Being given a black bandana. A 'hood pass'. Protecting a teenage boy being beaten up by his 6ft 6 Russian stepfather. You know… Friends getting beaten up Friends getting killed   Then what was...
Post a Comment
Read more

An Australian funeral 2024

  An Australian funeral 2024 Urn scattering Irish ashes Australian Irish son Australian Jamaican chief mourner Pelicans present The visiting witnesses: Random assortment of fishermen Seagulls both native & non Boaties hosing off their hulls Nice waving guy Frenchman who told strange story Retiring to Funk & Reggae Herb white rum & okra steamed with salt Getting deep Riffing on Tripping Still despite the fact that I’m tripping you’re tripping they’re tripping Tripping Tripping You’re tripping etc Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1742) “Man is born free Yet everywhere in chains” This IS a WELL established fact Yet still the ignorant are in power & not solely Still people pull the chains to their conditionally adjusted above maximul pull I’m tripping  Chief Mourner unable to tell story Son cackling like a hyena  Angry neighbour on hands free  Chief mourner recovers his flow “I ain’t mad at you” Delivers vocal trip drop Published & Copyright Malachi Doyle 2024....
Post a Comment
Read more