Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

Left: Jamaican poet Kei Miller tickles the crowd as he recites two of his poems laced with expletives, imitating a Jamaican woman living in Britain. He was one of the featured acts on Sunday. Right: US-based poet Aracelis Girmay shares some of her poems with the audience at the Calabash International Literary Festival, held at Jakes Hotel and Cottages in Treasure Beach. - Photos by Noel Thompson

The noon sun was broiling but the poetry was way hotter as Sunday's 'Speaking in Tongues' blazed at the Calabash International Literary Festival 2008.

The tongues came from diverse places to Jakes in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth, Aracelis Girmay from the United States of America setting off to a jolly crackle of a start. Jackie Kay from Scotland was a merry bonfire, humorous comments spicing her poetry.

Kei Miller was a searing welder's torch, bringing the house down repeatedly with a combination of pointed writing and good delivery, his England sojourn key to the package, and the closing Gregory Pardlo, a quietly intense blue flame from 'up North'.

Campaign to George Bush

Girmay started out with a poem about a campaign to send a bag of rice to George Bush, saying that her enemies are not hungry ("my enemies ride jets to parties") and "they use words like casualties to speak of murder".

The long poem, in which those enemies treat others as if "you blood were any less red" and was greeted by extended applause, set the stage for the readings to come. Girmay celebrated the beginning of her menstruation with '13' and there was humour with 'Stigmatisation', which looked at the world without her glasses ("this eye turns dropped leaves into birds"). There was a poem about the body for her brother.

She held up a sign with 'LOISFFOERIBARI' and told the audience about getting it from a child named Stephanie who she taught in a workshop. Her closing poem was about deciphering that word ("I have lived four minutes with this word and don't know what it means"), going through a number of possible pronunciations until it unravelled into "love is everybody" to an applauding audience.

Cracking up the audience

Jackie Kay, who spoke the most between poems, repeatedly cracking up the audience, started out with 'My Grandmother', ("my grandmother sits by the fire and swears there will be no darkie baby in this house", proving to be a very significant line for the mixed race poet).

Her humour came through on 'The Waiting List', which she explained was about a woman cleaning her house of the slightest piece of material showing a political bent ahead of a pre-adoption. It almost works, until on her way out, the agency rep spots something about nuclear disarmament and the woman gives up and says, "I'd like this baby to live in a nuclear-free world". And the agent's eyes light up and she says, "I'm all for peace myself".

Calabash roared.