Kamau Brathwaite Quotes

9 Sourced Quotes

So the god,
mask of dreamers,
hears lightnings
stammer, hearts
rustle their secrets,
blood shiver like leaves
on his branches. Will
the tree, god
of path-
ways, still
guide us? Will
your wood lips speak
so we see?

Kamau Brathwaite
And as he worked within his
shattered Sunday shop, the wood took shape: dry shuttered
eyes, slack anciently everted lips, flat
ruined face, eaten by pox, ravaged by rat
and woodworm, dry cistern mouth, cracked
gullet crying for the desert, the heavy black
enduring jaw; lost pain, lost iron;
emerging woodwork image of his anger.

Kamau Brathwaite
How to make sense
of all this, all this pain, this drought
scramble together vowels jewels that will help
you understand will help you understand these rain.
these rain, these rain, less
words, need love, love too

Kamau Brathwaite
When the stone fall that morning out of the johncrow sky it was not dark at first. that opening on to the red sea humming but something in my mouth like feathers. blue like bubbles carrying signals & planets & the sliding curve of the world like a water pic. ture in a raindrop when the pressure, drop

Kamau Brathwaite
Where then is the nigger's
home?
In Paris Brixton Kingston
Rome?
Here?
Or in Heaven?

Kamau Brathwaite
I return,
expecting nothing;
my name burnt out.

Kamau Brathwaite
Drum skin whip
lash, master's sun's
cutting edge of
heat, taut
surfaces of things
I sing
I shout
I groan
I dream
about.

Kamau Brathwaite
My mother said I'd be alone
and when I cried (she said)
I'd be Columbus of my ships
and sail the garden round
the tears that fell into my hand.

Kamau Brathwaite
Memories are smoke
lips we can't kiss
hands we can't hold
will never be
enough for us.

Kamau Brathwaite