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returning to return

 

every time you leave and return you have to invent another story 
the storyteller hummed in a soliloquy 
of her stories came for healing and guidance 
or simply because they had nowhere else to go and although doctors sometimes prescribed 
pills that did not quiet the chatter of the audience conversing inside their heads  
every story has an owner 
some homes require silence the silence of the house before it was ever occupied  
the storyteller belched 
the silence of a doorknob  
before someone turned it into a home  
the little girl crawled into the hammock with the storyteller that was slung under the ackee tree 
they were wrapped in the covid pandemic 
and contemplating the meaning of home  
and returning to return have they returned 
or were they still returning trying to return to what was no longer what were warped memories 
what was a longing for what really never was  
having at last returned the little girl retrieved that part of herself that she
had been missing 
for so many years  
the storyteller sequestered the little girl’s returning 
kneaded it into a dumpling 
then flung it into the sky a rainbow for all returnees’ returning  
wheel and come again  
me deh home! 

 

Opal Palmer Adisa (PhD), Writer, Gender Specialist, and Cultural Activist, is the Former University Director of The Institute for Gender and Development Studies, RCO at The University of the West Indies. Adisa believes that literature and the performance arts are the best approaches to interrogate gender inequality and formulate an approach to gender justice. A feminist/activist for four decades, Adisa has published 24 collections, including essays, novels, short stories, poetry collections and children’s books. Her areas of focus are gender-based violence and ending child sexual and physical abuse. Adisa is the initiator and organizer behind Thursday In Black, an island-wide campaign to educate and bring awareness about gendered-based violence. She has just completed the authorized children’s biography of Portia Simpson Miller, 2021 Jamaica’s first female Prime Minister, entitled Portia Dreams. Adisa is the editor of 100+ Voices For Miss Lou: Poetry, Tributes, Interviews & Essays (The UWI Press, 2021). She is also the editor-in-chief of two major journals: Interviewing the Caribbean, literary/visual; and Caribbean Conjunctures, scholarly essays and book reviews. Her new story poems, The Storyteller’s Return, was released in March 2022 by Ian Randall Publishing. Her essays, stories, poems and articles have been anthologized in over 500 publications.


From The Storyteller’s Return by Opal Palmer Adisa, Kingston: Jamaica, Ian Randall Publishing, 2022. The author grants permission.

 

 
 

Opal Palmer Adisa’s latest book is The Storyteller’s Return (Ian Randall Publishing, 2022). Visit with her and her work on demand at the Miami Book Fair 2022. Cover art by: Kokab Zohoori-Dossa.

 

 
 

Welcome to SWWIM Every Day’s preview coverage of Miami Book Fair (MBF) 2021! The poets whose work you’ll be reading every weekday from October 25 through November 12 are just a few of the many authors from around the world participating in this year’s MBF, the nation’s largest gathering of writers and readers of all ages. They all look forward to sharing their work, thoughts, and ideas both in person and online. Between November 14 and November 21, new poet conversations and readings will be launched and available for free on miamibookfaironline.com (in addition to other content). For more information, visit the website and follow MBF on Instagram and Twitter at @miamibookfair and use the hashtag #miamibookfair2021.

 
 

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