Grand Isle Diaries: Poem

Clouds of Time (Translation of French poem – Track V)

Moving from place to place
like clouds passing
the clouds now in my heart
seem to be crying, calling, passing

voices from my father’s father
calling from the deep shadows
this long night of sorrows echoes
in my heart – losing, lost in time

The clouds of time speak to us
telling us we are again moving, passing
The sea is rising, bringing with it
all the mysteries of the infinite
This land is losing, calling, now in sorrow.

Shadows of deep bayous will echo in the soul
of time as the clouds of time
witness all that is lost. Losing.

Memories of my mother’s mother
now fly over the sea
Sounds of longing, sounds of night
now pass in my heart like clouds
moving from place to place.

The Louisiana I know is dying,
sinking under this forest of clouds
Listen. Listen to the sounds of the night.

The whispers, the breathing,
so much suffering, wave upon wave,
will become adrift in the heart of thesea

Our souls thirst for liberation
with death upon us we will be
set free, one by one, yet together
our souls will rise once again

And by set adrift, passing
like the clouds of time.