The Strength of Femininity

May 31, 2020 Book Review…, News

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Book Review…

Book: Gathering the Waters
Author: Keisha-Gaye Anderson
Critic: Glenville Ashby, PhD

‘Gathering the Waters’ is a compendium of insightful writings, a hagiography, no less, to motherhood. Invariably, the past and the present are fused by ancestral bloodlines. Ille-Ife- the Motherland is invoked. It is a trove of wisdom and resilience, a reservoir of pain and conflict, and the ground zero for healing and redemption. ‘Gathering the Waters’ is the womb, the Holy Grail, its vastness and potential unimaginable – God, or ‘All that Is,’ is defined in practical terms.
Poet Keisha-Gaye Anderson is imbued with an indefatigable blueprint; she is a survivor, not unlike those before her. On personal and collective responsibility, she is unyielding. On filial piety she is ever mindful. There’s a spiritual bond that spans the length of time, but there is also separation, so essential for independence and ultimately, individuation.
Anderson’s work speaks to the fruition of self and the infinite quality of time. She delivers her art with triadic, steeped-line, and syllabic verses that lend an atmosphere of solemnity, reverence and triumph; her every inflection intoned with sentience.
Hers is an unmistakable ode to life, an enduring message on the unfailing nature of the feminine spirit. A combative spirit it is, hardened by adversity, but equally capable of immeasurable love.

In ‘Stones,’ this message is palpable:
“But don’t judge me for being rough
my children
because inside this tamarind heart
is a churning volcano
ready to erupt for you
rain black earth
into concrete
so you can take root
and grow yourself
into a new rainbow
Stand on the foundation
of my soul, my children,
and make me molten
once more
so I can explode into new worlds
paint colours your eyes can’t see.
It’s time for an avalanche of love
to put ignorance out of its misery
reveal the mystery
in the seed of life…”

In ‘From Ile-Ife,’ there is a profound sense of being that centres on the immutability and omnipresence of femininity. She writes, “But I am still here
in my mother’s skin
Swaying through these streets
to the rhythm
of my beating heart
a hymn to the one true reality
and carry always with me
the majesty and mystery
that is Great Mother
I am still here in my mother’s skin
swaying through these streets
to the rhythm
of my beating heart
a hymn to the one true reality
and carry always with me
the majesty and mystery
that is the Great Mother…”

‘I am the Caribbean‘ is steeped in existentialism. Enslavement and depersonalization cannot bend the will to meaning. In many ways, the human spirit is immortal. It adapts and refashions itself to survive victoriously like the fabled Phoenix.
She pens, “From the belly of a ship named
for supposed nobility
I came this way
I became the jigsaw puzzle
floating on the archipelago…
skipping from
bata
to tassa
to nyabinghi
weaving through me
I came to be
that diasporic medley
calling me down
to ride through life
changing shape as I see fit
and though we may forget
the names of spirit
we call them viscerally…”

‘Mask’ trumpets the resilience and strength of the feminine spirit. There is a dominion and sovereignty to sisterhood, so pristine and untapped, a resourcefulness unlimited.
“Do not remove your mask
here,
my sister
there is too much unraveling
left to do
so many becomings
hinging on your every memory
of you…”

In ‘Enough,’ Anderson, exhales, exhausted by the avarice and spite that plague the world. Of God’s existence, of his munificence and compassion, she enquires,
“We’ve been on a mission kicking stones, for signs of life but they only hurl themselves, and their misgivings
at the living to draw blood
in search of answers to that question:
What is God?
Enough waking mothers
and lull-a-bying
sleepwalkers
It’s time for time
to end and for Life to begin
This is the final chance to find the road map home.”

In like vein, institutions fashioned by greed are in the crosshairs of Anderson. Withering are her words in ‘The Academy.’ The cadence quickens, her words ever curt. She chides our fleeting, fatuous indulgences; duped we are by a culture that shreds the authentic self.
“What I have to say
won’t be filed in ivy walls
places with protocols
against spontaneous joy
This heart/speech
is saying
has said
needs repeating
still
These words roll
bounce between the lips
of the sisters who bend my locks into
sculpture
These ideas
drip down the backs of
unnamed builders, concrete churners
who work always off the book
This speech floats through the asylum
and between lion cages
called solitary confinement
This is me today
sees you
cannot not see you
know that you are dancing on my neck
I must speak
always speak
with the inherited breath
that carries me through this drudgery.
In ‘Fire Woman,’ her appeal to lineage is never more present. The womb is untainted, never inclined to destroy itself. Anderson is the product of that unblemished source, primitive, yes! but not in the way we were taught. Here, ‘primitive’ takes on a supramundane feeling. It represents the Universal Mother Principle rooted in people and culture. An incontrovertible truth. We are admonished.
“She is still here
from Clarendon to Brooklyn
call her Iris, Lilith
call her Isis, Kali
call her savvy
She’s got stamina for the marathon of creation
sucks her teeth
at your corset
for jubilation
blinders wrapper
in the backs
promises called pensions.”

‘Maps,’ ‘Memory,’ ‘Sisters,’ ‘Enough,’ and other writings follow in like vein, each cementing Anderson’s enduring message of identity and self-actualization.
The importance of ‘Gathering the Waters’ is already noted long before the curtain falls. As a piece de resistance, a grand symphony of truths that stirs the soul, Anderson’s work is unmatched.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
Feedback: [email protected] or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby
Gathering the Waters Keisha-Gaye Anderson
Copyright 2020 Keisha-Gaye Anderson
Publisher: JamiiPublishing.com, San Bernardino, CA
ISBN: 978-0-9912975-2-8
Available at Amazon
Ratings: Highly recommended

 

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