Colors
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Colors
Hereafter,when beads bedazzling, Atété manifestslet's re-occult her behind drapes shearer than light,and spread fresh grass and colors to reflect the beadsSatin, more exacting than silkdark brown, comelier than coffeegleaming yellow, purer than the sungrey, paler than rancorwhere white and black bleed into each othercrimson, redder than emberscultured lavender, purer than eternityjet black, to quench and tame the lightthe cradle of life, algae greenmellow brown, distilled from the yolk-sapphire pearl, tear drops of heavenultramarine, Gondarine folds of the Madonna's capebeige, taupe, fawn, russet, ruddyCalm this side of movement, speed beyond speed-Infinities of colors outstripping enumeration.As with ornate basketry, penetrating rushes jostlefor the Divine Feminine, the tale subsumes Truth-spring, summer, fall, winter…as if a lifetime would for a life suffice. [End Page 42]
Solomon Deressa, born in western Ethiopia, is a poet, screenwriter, and essayist. His film and television work on numerous subjects-much of it most recently from the Minneapolis company Blaze Productions-is known throughout the world. As he has traveled in North America, Africa, and Europe, he has learned to speak and write in a number of languages. He has written articles on art and culture, for example, in French, English, and Amharic. He is author of a number of poems, including "Sebet Ilfitu: Walotat." His first book of poems, L'jnnet [Youth] has been described as a turning point in modern Ethiopian poetry.
Bahrnegash Bellete was born in Asmara, Eritrea, then an Ethiopian province, and grew up in four different parts of the country. He attended Haile Selassie I University in Addis Ababa for one semester and in 1972 left for the United States to continue his education. What was initially intended to be a brief sojourn in pursuit of higher education turned out to be an extended, thirty-three-year stay abroad. He now lives in Ethiopia where he owns and operates a communications company and has been serving as the information and communication technology (ICT) development officer of Addis Ababa University.
