Opal Palmer Adisa: California Poets Part 11, Five Poems

Opal Palmer Adisa

October 20th, 2026

California Poets: Part XI

Opal Palmer Adisa

Five Poems

California Highlights

i arrived in san francisco ill-prepared

feeling duped—images of california sun and beaches

only to discover the penetrating cold of the fog that wraps the city tighter than a fisted glove

but then the east bay opened to me

walking the streets of oakland where huey newton

and bobby seale strode

defiant faces of the black power movement                        self-determined          

                      started the free breakfast program

to abate hunger born of poverty

berkeley campus          my first pow wow seeing indigenous people as real         not caricatures shown on television

meeting jack hirschman inviting me to read at north beach

then a sunday night     coming from a reading in south san francisco     lost and nervous making a u-turn     being pulled over by a cop i reached for my driver’s license he reached for his gun

immediately i saw the headlines

jamaican poet shot by a young white cop

he thought she reached for a gun but it was just her pen

poetry for the people at city college   with leslie simon john curl   helping me produce my first chapbook   market woman

barbara Christian    the first black woman tenured

at uc berkeley    mentor and friend created a supportive community

protesting with fellow students at berkeley to end apartheid in south africa    then later to free namibia

meeting devorah major  @ the african american historical society forming daughters of yam

joining others and bringing my students

to  protest the vile invasion of grenada                                                                 

october 1983

the oakland/ berkeley hills fire          two colleagues at berkeley losing their home

                watching   fascinated and fearful learning how the ohlone people       before they were driven from the land           practiced controlled burning                 to fertilize the earth

           and the earth itself turning

clutching my infant son so hard i almost stifled him when the loma prieta earthquake struck october 17 1989 a day i’ll always remember i had just arrived at his daycare to pick him up my five year old daughter grasping me the bay bridge collapsed later learning of my cousin lavern’s near miss

for the next few months every time the earth trembled   i jumped unable to sleep soundly

walking the golden gate bridge with my children

      ten years straight going to alcatraz          for the un-thanksgiving ceremony               in solidarity with the indigenous people                  the first people of this land

speeding on a motorbike down the windy roads to stinson beach       journeying from Oakland on bart underwater    3.6 miles/ 135 feet deep to San Francisco    coming up with my ears popping

     walking the mural path in the mission district                                       sharing office space with angela davis  @ San Francisco State U                                                                                         then teaching her classes

              long cultural/historical talks with queen mother raye richardson                                                      marcus bookstore a landmark

celebrating the day of the dead  not halloween            in the fruitvale district   honoring ancestors                   those who died/those who were killed

joining california poets in the schools

      teaching poetry to inmates as san quentin and vacaville            working as poet-docent at the oakland museum

                                           learning so much about

                                        the power of words

            their ruptures    needing to speak

                and creating selfhood

yearly attending the russian river jazz festival with family/friends      a place to relax and unwind

listening to jazz and so much music at yoshi’s while nibbling sushi strolling down jack london square      being sprayed by the bay

women of color camp             summer retreats by the napa river

marching with fellow writers  against the iran war so many war    so many protest

saturday mornings biking to farmers markets at lakeshore brilliant colors of the fruits and vegetables and flowers vendors   people   engagement   community

california you helped my wings to grow

here i became confident in my jamaican tongue celebrated the multiculturalism born in the caribbean

california will always be my second home

i learned to walk in my own shoesand helped others to walk too

california         i dreamed a lived reality

you taught me a new courage that all people can truly live and work together

our diverse wings divining space and time seeing the sky as  home

this land welcomes (from forthcoming collection, My Body in Xyamaca)

atabey

mother earth they called you

this land on which my feet trod

                        my soles sank

                         into this terrain

                                     claiming its stain

        you fed me

from the hands

           of its first people

gave me guayaba

skin green as lime

flesh pink as your gum

sweet and seedy

tai-no   tai-no

you smiled

and i understood

                you are good people

i smiled in return

teeth mirroring a joyful heart

i too am

tai-no   tai-no

your welcome couple

placed the fotutos to their lips

the trumpet shells

issuing music

announcing my arrival

calling a guake’te

we gathered/danced/sang

now when i dream

asleep on my hamaca

that swaddles my body

              the guava’s perfume

               wafts from

                 my pores

                     and i am bathed

in its history

                       forever and forever

water

my body is water

           there was just...  so much

the blueness of the sky meets

the cerulean of the mountains

meets the cobalt of the ocean

meets me coming indigo ancestry

            water

                      i was drowning/back floating

                        until i mastered water

                        learned to part it

                        leap over it

                        live from it

my nostrils grew gills

                  i conjured a lover

who knew all types of water

salmon-like he swam from

river to sea becoming wood

                  his wood entered me

                       and we created land

forest as dense as birth

valleys emerald green

waterfalls cascading

xaymaca

guineafowl/quail/flamingo

sorrel/hibiscus/red ginger

cassava/breadfruit/yam                        

we encountered guami’ke’ni

who regulates water and earth

he and obatala had communed

my feet touched the ground

my scales disappeared

tei-toca/stay still

you are home

tei-toca/stay…

messages on leaves

study the wisdom in the dirt

bathe in aloe

when it’s a full moon

in the morning

the fog hangs low like a curtain

i walk ten times around the mango tree

then i go to the back sit under the avocado tree

until the ants begin to feast

on my feet

it is there i remember

when i was a girl

and i hid among the tall grasses

and watched the men

kill and skin the crocodile

                        eat its heart raw

that was the time

when i was certain this land was my sister

there was a time

i knew and i knew that i knew

i felt the sweet water of river muma

gliding over my feet

some mornings

before the sun wakes

before birds find their voices

i creep outside

press my naked body

into the wet grass

and i remember

i remember i am this land

oval/glossy/seven-fingered green

bread fruit leaf to wrap around

the upper arm steadies your heart

leave your message on the banana leaf

after you’ve eaten your lunch

it reflects light and is an umbrella

we knew home/ we know the enemies

as we landed

some of us ran

we knew from the long boat ride

we were among brutes

we knew our survival

was better in the hills

we encountered others

tai-nos    good people

who were also running

to survive

they showed us where to find food

how to locate the spring

with the sweetest drinking water

how we could live in the caves

formed from the bedrock

of the limestone and go undetected

they told us the stories of how this land

rose after being submerged in the sea    

we traded stories of our lives

before the greedy pale ones

shed dried tears for mother and father

we missed and our first home 

but the future was ahead of us

we knew enough to know

we had to ride out the worse

and prepare for the better

we mixed the lime with water and

found a tasty plant to clean our teeth and gums

we used it to make a hard floor

to sit on and pound seeds to dry

we mixed in flowers and fruits

and made colors to paint our walls

everywhere the land gave us its gifts

and we lived and thrived

awaiting our time

she be dem by opal palmer adisa

     di matrilineal great/great/great 

                 great grandmoda

            di one weh neva mek it

pain heavy

            like crab in belly

  palms pounding on back

                      teeth biting toes

          fingers  spread like branches

then form fist 

                     stronga dan stone

                        harda dan chain 

listen out for her

memory in di navel

knowledge in our kyah hair

let it be

and so it is

asè

Author Bio:

Opal Palmer Adisa (PhD), a feminist/activist, has published 25 collections, that includes, essays, novels, short stories, poetry collections and children’s books.

Her four (4) recent publications are:

• 365 Days to Honor Yourself, motivational, 2023

• The Storyteller’s Return, story poems, 2022

• Portia Dreams, the authorized children’s biography of Portia Simpson Miller, Jamaica’s

first female Prime Minister, 2021

• 100+ Voices For Miss Lou: Poetry, Tributes, Interviews & Essays, a tribute to Louise

Bennett Coverley, 2021

She is the editor-in-chief of two major journals, Interviewing the Caribbean, a literary/visual magazine; and Caribbean Conjunctures, The CSA journal, scholarly essays and book reviews.

Her essays, stories, poems and articles have been anthologized in over 500 publications. Visit: opalpalmeradisaa.com