De Distance is Here

Leroy Clarke De Distance is Here is a lyrical journey which begins at the strange encounter with an awareness of blessing which did not escape the notice of his fourteen year old mind.

It is a sort of autobiographical trip that presumes a gift of leadership of a group of shambles - lost in the idea that it could find substance in the bin of colonial refuse left by what I perceive to be the frustration engendered but the all to persistent garbage effects of the plantation system.

It is an ode to the Black Goddess so difficult before whom to kneel and .with whom to identify the midst of the obstructionist devices of the white world. Note the power of frustration in the line "My own shadow tightened to a dot under my feet."

De Distance is Here is a lament of the present condition of the African mind; for "definition is impossible in this sour tide" In order to emerge as an equal partner in the scheme of things and to satisfy the existence of an active society, African people must awake from their cultural destitution and find a cure for the disease called "douenophilia.