J'thani-Nana

[Edie Antoinette]

Nana
(Sweet song for my heart)
for tzynya and moacir


from across the sanguine ocean she calls
mother of the diaspora

her presence embraces the moonlit sky
nurturing our african spirit

cradling her children in the rapture of the ages
she was our very first love

where is nana? she is with me, she is my disposition

where is nana? she is with me, she is the melodic
whisper in the night

where is nana? she is with me, she is honey and
cinnamon

in the azure morning she sings to me
that familiar song of awakening

in the azure morning she sings to me
that song that will live forever

nana, nana,
sweet song for my heart

nana, nana,
sweet song from my heart


bill lawson(2004)

For Jorge Amado ( two years after his death)


gabriela, tereza, tieta, quincas,

i have lived with you this year,

this year of my rebirth,

this year of my many deaths.

ihave plummeted down the cold waterfall

of empiricism, and arisen in the warm

humanizing mist of a grounded romanticism.


caressed by the descriptive life of the sublime

economy of bahia,

of life in the realm of precipitate passions

and human entanglements,

my soul emerges in empathetic union.

there is a dimension where imperfection holds reign

and gives us hope,

where the saudade of the samba embraces

the yearning of the blues.


bill lawson(2003)