Bertille David-Allahar's Blog

"Turn your weaknesses into strengths. Success is failure turned inside out. We need to find a deeper meaning in life. Our duty, as artists, is to tap into those notes that resonate in us all. Not to sleep walk through life, like an outpatient programme; but to strike a chord."

Author: Miles Patrick Yohnke

Black night has receded
Soft light has descended
The time has come to live my day
Will wondrous nature bliss my way?

I awake at early morn
See the shining dews of dawn
Watch the ground dove search the earth
And swallow a wriggling worm of girth
I touch hibiscus flower in bloom
Tonight she'll fold and fall to doom.

Then I hear the river flow
Feel the warm breeze on me blow
I observe a rain cloud pass
Walk on velvet grass
I see the croton colours blend
The humming bird with tail suspend.

I inhale the orange blossom fragrance
At the eve of twilight glance
Savour the taste of ripe mango
See the flickering fireflies glow
Scarlet ibis in watery nest
At dusk I watch you snuggle to rest.

Black night has descended
Soft light has receded
The time has come to search my day
Bliss is mine nature passed my way.

Bertille Allahar

HAITI

Forces of nature devour, luckless nation convulsed
Constancy of floods, four hurricanes, 7.0 earthquake
Cadavers copious, electricity dead, Aristide's sympathy
Deja vu Haiti, L'Ouverture's uprising to Baby Doc's looting

Coal colour peoples, forests denuded, hillside shanties
Eating mud-pies as basic food, necessity enduring
Mass exodus, death at sea, zealous Zeus
Chases survivors, no pity, return home

Unique art, loua service, rara music
Culture abounds, human spirit always triumphs
World responds - airport supplies, rescue efforts
Nation building ideal, time for world to guide.

Bertille Allahar

Through the story of Lucy a woman born of rape, this narrative sensitively explores racism, poverty and oppression in a tumultous cosmopolitan society which, redolent of genteel pretensions and human tragedy, searches for catharsis through annual carnival abandon.
Spanning 150 years from post slavery to post-colonial times, this shimmering yet gritty tale unfolds against the background of declining old cocoa and sugar plantations and gushing oil wells in the tropical Caribbean island of Trinidad.
A fascinating amalgam of history and heart-wrenching drama skilfully woven together by author Bertille David-Allahar, this novel captures the odyssey of Lucy and other women of colour, through an intimate portraiture of awakening, endurance and coming of age in a stratified island society still haunted by the shadows of slavery.