Sir Derek would be the first to admit (with a shy giggle) that he’s a weeper. Lord alone knows how many times he may have shed tears during excruciating interviews by some soi-disant Frost—Robert, not David—or by amateur scribblers of calypso rhyme convinced of their ability to produce their own Omeros or What the Twilight Says if only they could tear themselves away from carnival. Last week the 1992 Nobel Laureate for Literature featured on our front page, his face twisted with emotion as the governor general, with gentle shoulder taps of her ceremonial sword, declared him Sir Derek KCSL.
In a related article published last Saturday I implied that in his particular circumstances that included Vaughan Lewis and Ms Lawrence Laurent, the newly knighted most revered son of the soil may well have been weeping for the land that gave him birth. (Of course, chances are he was simply bored to tears!)
But trust Facebook’s “100 percent Saint Lucian” literati to offer their own speculations about why the universally renowned poet wept. Following, a small sampling:
Winston Mondesir: I can only imagine what is going on in his mind. From Matthew Harris: So why was this captioned to the suggestion that he was crying for the Nation . . . in the STAR? (Another typical reader of headlines only, never the accompanying article!)
Jessica St. Rose: Ohhh, wow! This is sooo touching.
Pretty Poison/Howell: This photo looks like she’s about to take his head, at first glance.
And then there was the recently reconfigured Jadia JnPierre-Emmanuel: It’s the STAR, what do you expect? Rick will stoop to the lowest of lows!
Remarkably, that’s exactly what is written about Vaughan Lewis in The Rainbow’s Edge by Da Jade’s favorite author, before he and Lewis together bathed naked in the restorative water under the bridge of the Castries river. Besides, who better than Kenny Anthony’s favorite mouth to pronounce on the virtues of low, low, stooping low-low-low?
