The poem is dedicated to Cedella Marley Booker (1926-2008), the mother of Bob Marley. In her biography, ‘Bob Marley, My Son’, confessing that times were tough bringing up Bob on her own in the hills of Nine Mile, ‘Ma’ Booker mentions a green mountain-retreat where she found solace and comfort when times were harsh: the place she called ‘Honeyland’.
When clouds are low
and valleys of the city
full of mist.
When my spirits
are depressed by an absence
an absence.
When a sentimental deathwish
will not be straightened out
by detachment.
When I’m down and judgement
is razor-sharp while drive
is stone-dead.
Then go looking for old
Honeyland in the distance
Honeyland in the hills
Honeyland inside.
When heaviness radiates
from my disenchanted being
like a fog.
When thoughts grind
tortuously around some small
ancient mistake.
When possible
heavens of doctrine
are the hospitals of dementia.
When three-dimensional
fallen-angels lecture
in subconscious whispers.
Then go looking for old
Honeyland in the distance
Honeyland in the hills
Honeyland inside.
When the heart is an Antarctica
because her sunlight
has vanished.
When your dream-lover’s
gone travelling
in the Golden Triangle
When any given
romance is only
the ultimate status-symbol.
When the whole hyperactive
human panorama is
a disturbance of the peace.
When you would hurriedly-hurriedly
open up the floodgates
of the afterlife.
Tired and sick to death
of any search for Edens
in the dust.
Then go looking for old
Honeyland in the distance,
Honeyland in the hills
Honeyland inside.
The poem features on the album ‘Honeyland’, published by Ravello Records, with poems set to music reflecting early 20th century influences, through minimal impressionistic settings of poems to piano.
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