Kykoveral.
A strange name for stones, a heap of stones
But a strong name to take imagination
And tied to a climax in Time
Above lost plains drowned by the later names.
The English names that are still creeping up
At the slow accumulation of years.
And the strong name is winding down the centuries
And build the fort again to capture the sentry
Standing on his picket at night
Thinking of Holland and of home,
While the full eternal winds reach,
Straight as a table and still without a flutter,
Dutch pavilion above.
Then the winds howled and gathered strength they were whistling
And ram their music through the clump of trees
Who bow and shake their torn leaves and weep
Till the young sentry shouting at his mail ——-
This country, with its clouds like freshly washed fleece
Caption gaily on the blue map of heaven,
And then so suddenly the heavens would collapse
And bowls of free hand would bog the earth.
Just three more months and then the ship comes in
Bring it home again to the low hedge
Familiar Dutch trim board. […]
6
The races fade into brown colored people
And the Spirit Guiana rises, stretching
As a young giant begins to open his eyes.
And see his country with his promise to stay
Fair and free of trap, lifting his head to heaven.
Over Guiana, clouds.
11
[…] High symbols, that behind the brown of history
Huge handkerchiefs and events shaped
From here, a bit of actuated dust
And there, the blind collisions of the stars.
Over Guiana, clouds.
AJ Seymour
Arthur James Seymour, better known as AJ Seymour, was born in January. This excerpt, “Over Guiana, Clouds” is one of the important Guyanese poems of the twentieth century due to its place in the emergence of modern Guyanese pre-independence verse. It can help demonstrate its significant role in shaping Guyanese and West Indian literature.