The Poem That Unites Us




If a picture is worth a thousand words, the image of plastic litter at Lumley Beach in Freetown paints the best Environment portrait. World Poetry Day is several months away. But since 1999, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has encouraged us to celebrate all poetic expression on March 21.

This month, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, helped raise the visibility of poetry in the media.  As guest editor for British VOGUE magazine, she shared a poem by Matt Haig, a best-selling British author, and mental health advocate, to help bring people together and invite them to join in the discussion about our environment.

Below is “A Note From the Beach” from Matt Haigs' book “Notes on a Nervous Planet.”






Hello.
I am the beach.
I am created by waves and currents.
I am made of eroded rocks.
I exist next to the sea.
I have been around for millions of years.
I was around at the dawn of life itself.
And I have to tell you something.

 I don't care about your body.

 I am a beach.
I literally don't give a fuck.
I am entirely indifferent to your body mass index.
I am not impressed that abdominal muscles are invisible to the naked eye.
I am oblivious.
You are one of 200,000 generations of human beings.
I have seen them all.
I will see the generations that come after you, too.
It won't be as many. I'm sorry.
(The sea hates you. The poisoners. That's what it calls you. A bit melodramatic, I know. But that's the sea for you. All drama.)
And I have to tell you something else.
Even the other people on the beach don't care about your body.
They don't.
They are staring at the sea, or they are obsessed with their own appearance.
And if they are thinking about you, why do you care?
Why do you humans worry so much about a stranger's opinion?
Why don't you what I do? Let it wash all over you.
Allow yourself just to be as you are.
Just be.
Just beach.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vitabu features the memorable sixth chapter of Bakar Mansaray's new book

Image
Bakar Mansaray, the founder of the Mandingo Scrolls blog and winner of the 2017 Writer-of-the-Year, Afro-Canadian Heroes Award, is known for his riveting short stories and tales of life in his native Sierra Leone. In his new book, My Afro-Canadian Chronicle , published by Sierra Leonean Writers Series, the author sheds a personal light on the devastating effects of underdevelopment on a country that went through one of the most atrocious civil wars in modern history. "For those who have read books of literature, history and anthropology from Sierra Leone and yet harbour the sinking feeling that there had to be a missing link between narratives, Bakar’s book provides that missing link to complete the national narrative," writes novelist and poet Oumar Farouk Sesay in the Foreword. "This autobiography is a portrait painted on a canvas of memory in vivid and sometimes dark hues, telling a story only a mind as lucid as the author’s can tell. This excerpt was used wi
Read more

Summer hangout with Pede Hollist's So the Path Does Not Die

Image
Pede Hollist, a native of Sierra Leone, is an associate professor of English at The University of Tampa, Florida. His interests cover the literature of the African imagination—literary expressions in the African continent as well as in the African Diaspora. So the Path Does not Die is his first novel.  His short story "‘Foreign Aid" was on the shortlist for the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing. Vitabu : I found So the Path Does Not Die a remarkable book. The story travels from a graphic, mystical past to the present time, through almost impossible and sometimes hidden cultural, social and economic issues. How did you come up with the idea for the Musudugu chaper? Pede Hollist: Among the Kuranko, Musudugu refers to a woman’s dwelling, but it also describes a mythical place where only women lived, happily and in sisterhood.  The story of Kumba Kargbo’s confrontation with the elders of Musudugu suggests that the conflict between old and new ways and the tension betw
Read more

Susan's Bay, Freetown, Sierra Leone

Image
An undated aerial photo of Susan's Bay, Freetown by Wallin Eleazar Riebel of Otterbein University. The postcard was digitized in March 2006 and the digital publisher is the Otterbein University Library. The original photo is stored in the repository of the Otterbein University Library Archives. Postcard captioned, "Susan's Bay, Sierra Leone." Aerial view, looking inland. ( Susan's Bay, Freetown, Sierra Leone ) On Wednesday, March 24, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr Mayor of Freetown wrote on Facebook :  "J ust left the scene of a terrible fire at Susan’s Bay. The entire community has been burnt to the ground. Thousands are affected. We won’t know the full scale of the disaster until tomorrow when we conduct an assessment with NDMA and other partners. Many children are missing, separated from their parents in the chaos. Twelve children were at the FSU at Eastern Police station. We understand that other children might have boarded boats moored on the wharf. Devastating to w
Read more