Ghana Journal: More Proverbs

I am taken by the figurative language of these proverbs, but at the same time I am struck by how these metaphorical statements can be a barrier to exploring deeper metaphors. In the student poems and stories I’ve seen so far, there are has been a marked desire to reach for a summing up or a point of closure that is as aphoristic as possible. I find myself often asking questions such as exactly what child is roaming? How old is the child? Is the child in Kumasi or Cape Coast? The gesture toward large, encompasing aphorisms in their writing seems to deflect the creation of a real and authentic world within the text. The irony for me is that I find spoken language here rich and vivid, but this language is used as a strategy of politeness towards others rather than a tool for discovery. For me, this is not so much a revelation about how certain linguistic constructs that would appear to open and deepen understanding can instead occlude and distract, but one of the many reminders that I need every day so as not to forget this lesson.

Despite this, I am taken by the proverbs and find many of them sticking in my brain like the lyrics of a really good pop song.

1. A child breaks the shell of the snail but not the tortoise.
2. The slap that is yours must be received quickly.
3. As long as the head has not been cut off, you cannot stop wearing the hat.
4. It’s easy for a storm to uproot a single tree.
5. One does not use his left hand to point out his father’s house.
6. It is the water that loves you which flows into your pot.
7. Whether you like the taste of your gums or not, that is the only place you continually lick.
8. You don’t hit the side of the drum when the face is available.
9. God swats the flies from the creature that has no tail.

Selected Works

3. Poetry

Dave the Potter
A picturebook poem describing the life of the slave potter Dave. Illustrated by Bryan Collier.

Contemporary Poetry of New England
“Contemporary Poetry of New England offers a vivid portrait of a region, its colors and smells, its physical and emotional textures, and the people…. It presents a range of poets, few of whom would call themselves a “region poet,” although each has taken to heart in a private way Frost’s haunting dictum: ‘Locality gives art.’”

--from the Introduction

1. Nonfiction

DJ Kool Herc
The first picturebook biography of the founder of rap and hip hop, DJ Kool Herc!

America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60s
"Phenomenal."–Howard Zinn "Excellent."–New York Times Book Review

Harlem Stomp! A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance
“Harlem Stomp! is a wonderous new book: it celebrates a time, a place, an energy, and a people who refused to be held back and so they created a culture the entire world is still reeling from.”

--George C. Wolfe, writer, director, and producer of the Public Theater, NYC

2. Fiction

A Brush with Napoleon
A seventeen-year-old is plucked out of the Grande Armee to sit in place of Napoleon for a portrait of the Emperor by the artist David.

Casa Azul
"I felt like a kid reading every word on the page! I liked the strains of "magic realism" coming through in Frida's house! Children will relate to this very much! The story is charming and reads like a thriller." –Margarita Aguilar, Assisant Curator, El Museo del Barrio

4. Middle Grade Series

Xtreme Mysteries
These kids love extreme sports--snowboarding, skateboarding, rock climbing, wake boarding--and are ready to fight when the right to do their sport is threatened.