Poetic relief

MERLE NILES, affectionately known as Tantie Merle, is well known in arts circles for her stellar work as a playwright, director, producer, actress, manager, administrator, tent manager, competition judge and the list goes on.

But although Merle’s contribution spans about five decades and she has always worn her love for the art form on her sleeve, there is an aspect of her offerings that many people may be surprised to learn about.

For umpteen years Merle has been holding close to her chest the fact that among her lengthy credentials she is also a poet.

During an interview with EASY she tried to play it off. However, a collection of more than 100 self-penned pieces tell another story.

Her alter ego is Kayuni Kafipa – an undiscovered wonder – who first put pen to paper on November 23, 1972 with the composition An Indefinite Wait For Love:

I am the tall tree in the forest

I stand alone

Untouched, not touching

Uncaring, uncared for

No one knows me

I stand above all others

My loneliness shuts them out

They call me pompous

Aloof

What can I say?

What can I do?

How can I?

Reach down

Take someone’s hands

Say be my friend

So many times I’ve tried

I have tried

But all in vain

And so I stand

Proud to the world

But in my heart

The loneliness lives on.

The question remained, however, as to why would she want to hide this talent from the world?

Explaining that she wasn’t one for the limelight, Merle contended that she wasn’t a “writer, writer”.

Merle’s life in, and fascination with the arts began when at age 15 when she became a member of the former Barbados Theatre Workshop under the tutelage of the late great Daphne Joseph-Hackett.

She was not afraid to try her hand at any exploit as she believed that to be a good artiste one had to be well rounded. So when Joseph-Hackett directed her to sweep the stage floor she did so without argument. When in to the wee hours of the morning she was responsible for creating props, it was done.

“Even now when I speak to people and they say they want to be an actor, a singer, a practitioner of the arts, I advise them they need to be well rounded [because] every single area in the arts is important.

“They should learn lighting, make-up, building props, photography. . . . I tell them to get themselves involved in every area enough so that when they become the actor they want to be they could use their own creativity into directing and producing. Even if they don’t want to [direct and produce] they would be able to talk to the producers and directors in their language, not to take over the project but so that your production can be of a certain level. That is why I am pleased with Simon Alleyne; he started as an actor, now he writes, direct and has his own company.”

Merle laughed as she recounted, that in spite of her own advice it would take that November 1972 incident, which she preferred not to go into too much detail about, to propel her into poetry.

And from that point she has never been able to put down her pen.

In times of sorrow like when her brother Eric and also close friend actor Wendell Smith died months apart in 2005, in times of uncertainty like when she was diagnosed with cancer 15 years ago, and even in times of joy, the 63-year-old used poetry as a critical outlet for her emotions.

“I saw when anything happened to me, rather than get out there and behave badly I began to put everything down in writing and that works for me a lot,” she said. “When something happens I come home or sit the same place, get a little piece of paper, any bit of paper and things keep coming to me.”

Be it on a flight back home, in the lobby of a hotel, at the Pic-O-De-Crop finals, wherever words circled, she would blank out all distractions and write them down on whatever material was available at that time.

“Poetry is my way of dealing with situations that affect me and documenting how I feel makes me work through whatever situation much better,” she said. “It is the same thing as if you have a headache, you take a pill. My poems are that relief for me. They are so personal; every poem has a story. At one point I wanted to put out a book of poetry and then I figured no one was going to understand my thoughts. But if I do publish it I hope that at least when they read it maybe they will get something out of it and [relate] to my experiences so it may bring some kind of peace with somebody.”

And that day may finally be around the corner since after much prodding from friends for many years, Merle revealed that she had begun the process of collating her work with the hope of having it published. (SDB Media)