Martin Carter's 14th Death Anniversary

Martin Carter is the acknowledged Guyanese Poet who emerged during the 1950s and died in the 1990s.

 It seems symbolic that the period of the 1950-70's with its limited education which had standards linked to the Mother Country, churned up Guyanese writers and thinkers that remains unmatched in this current day, in spite of access to technological advances.

The De Caries family, like many of the comfortable middle-classed families now have their children with their families based in countries other than Guyana in spite of business interests in Guyana and a home located in the heart of the City - they represent the tragedy of Guyana - where its educated and worldly younger folk feel there is no future for them. They have thus decided to allow their property to be used as a venue for Cultural Events - this first being to launch Joe Singh's latest book and a reading of Martin Carter's poems to note his 14th death anniversary.

Having met my own poems man - this last poem in my 1997 copy of Martin Cater's Collected Works now makes sense to me:

The Poems Man

Look, look, she cried, the poems man,
running across the frail bridge
of her innocence. Into what house
will she go ? Into what guilt will
that bridge lead ? I
the man she called out at
and she, hardly twelve
meet in the middle, she going
her way; I coming from mine:
the middle where we meet
is not the place to stop.