M'Bala - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

Ann-Margaret Lim celebrated her birthday in verse with a couple poetic friends at RedBones the Blues Cafe on Saturday night in 'Blues Child of the '70s', hosted by Donnie Miller.

Among those friends was musician and poet M'Bala, who opened the night in the former persona with an intriguing display of dexterity, playing various combinations of flute and percussion consecutively and simultaneously.

However, the majority of those at the Braemar Avenue, New Kingston, night spot did not come for structured words, as the laughter and chatter of diners continued throughout the readings, spiking whena screen was set up near the back and those watching had a merry time.

Aquatic-related poems

Earl McKenzie chose mainly aquatic-related poems in honour of Lim's love for water, opening with 'I Shall Sleep By The Sea Tonight'. In 'A Basket of Mangoes', the supplier related his fruit to those who loved them ("by their mangoes he knew them, one and all/and his basket was their memorial"), with 'Reggae and the Sea' commenting "the reggae rhythm is precise, I predict the beat with my toes".

McKenzie closed with 'The Higgler of Books', based on a woman on the UWI's Mona Campus who sold "Plato philosophy at a bargain price" there was "a rumour, I later heard it, that she was illiterate".

Lim, in the first of two turns at the lectern on the small RedBones stage, opened with 'Joshua', Michael Manley being at the head of a flock "who could shout down the walls of hunger". In a poem to Derek Walcott after reading one of his, she commented, "and sir, I cannot find a name for the looks on their faces" and 'Girls School St. Andrew', a place of "girls in cliques", was dedicated to her favourite teacher from high school, English Literature teacher Esther Thompson. 'Edna' was about the older generation of Manleys and their mountain retreat "I saw Michael's rippled chest and that handsome smugness, holding a swimmer's trophy."

She ended with 'When I Die' ("let a poem fly me home"), which named poets from Lorna Goodison to Mervyn Morris and many a songwriter, leaving "tomorrow for the young poets exploding like bombs".

The night's sole song came from Tracy Williams who delivered Stevie Wonder's Knocks Me Off My Feet without music to warm applause, her self-confessed nervousness not showing in her singing.

M'Bala added voice to his mix of instruments, the drum underlying 'The History of Dub Poetry', saying "you hardly feel the barb as the bard slips it to you through the space between your laughter". He also visited watery territory, the long trickle of a large rain stick coming before 'Water Fe Di Fia Bun', a cymbal tied to his left foot tapping to 'Dis a Me'. In his 'Autobio', M'Bala said "When you come to all those blank pages your imagination will be much more exciting" to laughter.

The night ended with poet Claude Hoilett's contribution to Lim's birthday celebration, the actual day having gone last Wednesday.