Poet as Priest: Auld Lang Syne

I had the privilege and honour of presenting Clifton Joseph and Jerome Morgan in a class I organized, February 2010, for African History at the Academy for Lifelong Learning.  Academy classes are held at Knox College, St. George Campus, University of Toronto.

The subject I chose was the West African griot tradition and how it reappeared, changed form and evolved in North America and the Caribbean, the African diaspora.  In West Africa, the griot is historian, story-teller, praise singer, poet and/or musician.

I linked it to classic rap which is what I am most familiar with, and at the beginning of the class played some on my ipod:  early Queen Latifah, Run DMC, and Quincy Jones, "The Verb to Be."

Then Jerome Morgan gave us his poem of early memories of Jamaica.  Jerome was mentored by d'bi young of the Dub Poets Collective. 

Clifton Joseph, founding member of the Dub Poets Collective, ended the set.  To my surprise, and probably everyone else there, he chose to sing the old Scottish Robbie Burns folk song written in 1788, Auld Lang Syne.  He ended his song in tears. 

"Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind

Should old acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne...

 

But we've wandered many a weary foot, since auld lang syne...

 

But seas between us broad have roared since auld lang syne.

And here's a hand, my trusty friend!  And give us a hand o'thine!

And we'll take a good-will draught, for auld lang syne."



There is a traditional dance that accompanies the singing of this song to ring in the New Year.  All persons cross arms over their chests and thus over their hearts to hold hands with their neighbour on either side and move the circle so formed inwards.

Somehow, as this dance continues, the circle participants then invert their arms to face outwards, and the circle moves in that direction.

The community forms a circle of protection, and then faces and moves outwards to welcome in the New Year, and the returning of the light.

In ancient Egypt in northern African, the blue lotus symbolized the sun and its return each morning.  It also represented the larger cycle of birth and rebirth.

The lotus is found in many major cultures.  In Buddhism, the pink lotus symbolizes the beauty of Enlightenment, purity and the cycle of creation.

At one time I had painted on my dining room ceiling the outer circle of a central Sun motif, originally painted on an American aboriginal bison robe.

So, now that the year is ending, we have seen the Winter Solstice, and we welcome back the sun and the beginning of a new year, new life and new creation, as every culture has done before us.

And mostly, we recall and often shed tears in memory of those whose shoulders we stand on.